How Jesus was a disappointment

Growing up, my church always celebrated Palm Sunday by giving the kids palm branches and having them do a parade through the service singing "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the king of kings." For many small children, eight-year-old me included, almost everything is an imaginary substitute for a weapon, including a palm branch. While waiting for this parade through the service to start, my friend and I were pretending we were pirates having an epic sword battle to the death. Apparently, palm branches were not for that purpose, so they were promptly taken away from us, and we were given ribbons instead. While almost everything might be a substitute pretend sword, ribbons were much harder to battle with. That Palm Sunday, I definitely didn't feel like walking in that parade and celebrating Jesus.

While I was studying in seminary, I learned of the significance of these palm branches. When Jewish warriors returned to the city from war, the people would welcome them, waving palm branches to show their support and celebrate the military victory. Now, here comes Jesus riding into the city on a donkey with people waving palm branches to show their support. The support they thought they were getting was a conquering warrior king who was going to end the Roman occupation; the people thought Jesus would lead the uprising and rebellion from their oppressors. To put it simply, they wanted Jesus to save them.

I always wondered why the crowds turned on Jesus so quickly over the short span of this story. I have heard speculations that the Pharisees bribed people to whip up the crowd into a frenzied mob mentality, or the people shouting Hosanna were not the same people yelling to crucify Jesus. One or both of those might very well be true. Perhaps a contributing factor was Jesus was vastly different than what they were expecting. They wanted a warrior king and got a peaceful Messiah. They turned their disappointment into disgust and rage.

The people wanted to be saved, but Jesus was about to enact His victory very differently than they expected. The people wanted war; Jesus came to bring peace. The people wanted a triumphant warrior king; Jesus came to be a humble servant. The people wanted immediate liberation from their earthly oppressors; Jesus wanted to address a more significant need. Jesus was the Messiah they deserved, but not the one they wanted right now.

The symbolism of the palm branches and the people missing the point was not lost on Jesus. When Jesus saw the city, He wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes" (Luke 19:41-42). How could it not break His heart: The people were not receiving Jesus as their spiritual Messiah; they proclaimed Him as their political, militant king. How heavy this must have felt for Jesus. Not only was this a complete rejection of His mission and teaching, but a sign of how far the people are from God's heart.

It appears eight-year-old me was unknowingly far ahead of his time in symbolism and irony. I was imagining that those branches were swords I could vanquish my enemies with. The people welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem imagined those branches were embracing a rebellion they could overthrow their enemies with. May we be better. This year, most of our churches are not waving branches, mainly due to us not being in person for services. However, let us not miss the opportunity to reflect on the false expectations we so often place on Jesus, on the ways we use Him to push our own ends, and where we use Him as a weapon in our battles. Jesus had bigger and better plans that shattered the false expectations placed on His mission; let's not reconstruct any image of Jesus other than who He is.