Palm Sunday, and Why the ‘Date’ Is So Significant

Here is an important observation by Karen Engle, author of the blog by the same title posted on Logos Bible Software Blog. [1]   There is a distinct possibly that we miss the full significance of Palm Sunday when we celebrate as the crowd did. 

“Passover has been Judaism’s transformative event ever since. It’s celebrated every year on Nisan 15—falling in March or April on our Gregorian calendars. It was on this date Israel left Egypt and passed through the Red Sea—the date God redeemed the Israelites out of slavery. 

On “the tenth day of this month” (Nisan 10, the first month of the Israelite calendar),  each family was to choose a one-year-old lamb “without blemish” (no defect), bring it into their home, and care for it for five days. On Nisan 14, they were to slaughter it just before sundown and put its blood on the lintel and doorposts of their home. 

 

Six days before Passover puts Jesus in Bethany on Nisan 9 (Nisan 15 minus 6 days). “The next day” would have been Nisan 10—the same “date” the Israelites were to bring “lambs without blemish” into their homes. Almost 1,500 years after the first Passover in Egypt, Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, on Nisan 10.

 

The people missed the full significance of the circumstances. What they didn’t see was God’s selection of Jesus Christ as the final Passover lamb to be slaughtered.”

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1. https://www.logos.com/grow/palm-sunday-and-why-the-date-is-so-significant/