Originally published Sun, 28 Apr 2024, via Deep Dive Bible Adventures.

Today (Sun, 28 Apr 2024) is an unusual day. And, that makes it a good day to take a deep dive into the Holy Bible. But first, a little “dive prep” is necessary.

Today, on the Eastern Orthodox Christian calendar, is Palm Sunday. This year, the Christian East and the Christian West are seven weeks apart in their celebrations of the Resurrection of Jesus. Why? And, why does it matter? Ah… there is a lot to consider. Sadly, here in modern America, most people neither know nor care about the “little details” that are not so little after all.

In the modern American church of the Protestant flavor, there is sometimes an undercurrent of nearly obsessive force to prove that we are “not Catholic”. And yet, when it comes to the most important date on the Christian calendar (the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection), we blindly follow the pattern set by the Roman Catholic Church many centuries ago. Why does the date matter? (And, why does the name matter?) This year is a perfect example of why it matters.

This year, the Eastern and Western calendars are seven weeks apart regarding the celebration of Holy Week — which starts with the “Feast of the Triumphal Entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem” (known as “Palm Sunday” for short). The reason has to do with the Jewish calendar. This year is a “leap year” on the Jewish calendar. (Instead of a “leap day” once every four years, the Jewish calendar uses a “leap month” seven times in a 19-year cycle. That is because the Western Christian calendar (also called the Gregorian calendar, after Pope Gregory that instituted it) is a solar calendar of 365 days, but the Jewish calendar is a combination solar and lunar calendar of 360 days. Modern Americans tend to think of the calendar as a straight line, while most Eastern cultures think of the calendar as a wheel — with 360 degrees. Hmmmmm….

On the modern Gregorian calendar, the Western Christian (i.e.: Catholic and Protestant) formula for setting the date of the Feast of the Resurrection (wrongly named “Easter“) is: the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the Spring Equinox. That gives us an approximate time each year. It is approximate because there is no way to reconcile the dates between the Jewish and Christian calendars. But, the Pope-based formula ignores a key fact: Jesus is the Jewish Messiah! The Western formula totally ignores the Hebrew roots of Christianity. (And, by so doing, in my opinion, disrespects God.)

By contrast, the Orthodox Christian calendar adds one element to the formula. (It is actually more correct to say that the Western Church took away this element by Papal decree, because it was always there in the Orthodox East.) So, the Orthodox formula for the annual Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ (known as Pascha, for short) includes this key element: “after the Passover”. Jesus celebrated the Last Supper on the evening of Holy Thursday, as preparation for the Passover. Therefore, on the Orthodox calendar, Holy Thursday never comes before the Passover each year. And that is why, this year, the Orthodox celebration of Holy Week begins seven weeks later than on the Western calendar.

And now, with that preparation, we can begin our “deep dive”.

“Divers in the water…!”

The people of Jerusalem greeted the entry of Jesus by waving palm fronds and then placing them on the road before Him. The symbolism is that they were heralding the way for a conquering King. But, it turns out that was only part of the symbolism! And, the priests knew it. That is why they asked Jesus to tell the crowds to be quiet. Jesus replied, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:40) As profound as it was that the people recognized that their Messiah was entering the city, there also was something much more profound happening.

The events of that original Palm Sunday were putting the seal on Jesus as not only a powerful Teacher, and not only as a future King, but also as the eternal and co-equal Son of God. And, what was the sign of that? The palm fronds!

To fully grasp that, one must go back to the design of the original Temple. In the third chapter of 2nd Chronicles, the decorations of Solomon’s Temple are described. After the walls of the inner sanctuary (the Holy Place) were built, Solomon had his craftsmen cover the wooden walls with thin sheets of hammered gold. Then, they worked in palm trees and chains. So, when a person went into the Temple, not only were they surrounded with gold, but also they were surrounded with wroughtwork palm trees. Starting with the Israelites’ captivity in Egypt, they were surrounded with symbolism. The palm tree was a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was the embodiment of all of those things.

“But, wait…. There’s more!”

The Temple decorations also included a total of 400 wrought gold pomegranates. There were also decorative pomegranates around the hem of the high priest’s robe. Why 400 pomegranates? The Israelites were held in Egypt for 400 years. Pomegranates were a symbol of righteousness in the Jewish tradition. Hold that thought for a minute.

Jesus entered on a donkey through the Eastern Gate into the city of Jerusalem. That is also known as the King’s Gate, because the ancient prophets had specified that the Messiah-King will enter via that gate. The gate looks out on the Kidron Valley. During their dark days of turning their backs upon Yehowah (God the Father), the people of Israel had built an idol to the demon “god” Molech there in the Kidron Valley. Because the city is on a hill, and the valley is east of the city, the hill cast a shadow upon the valley before the rest of the city got dark. The idol is where people offered their children — burned alive — to Molech. As a result of the combination of these factors, the area became known as “the valley of the shadow of death”. Thus, when Jesus crossed through it, he fulfilled David’s prophecy in the 23rd Psalm. Jesus was already conquering before he entered the city, because he trampled upon Molech’s territory! He was conducting spiritual warfare.

Words mean things.

While Jesus entered the city, they people shouted, “Hosannah!” Here in modern America, where most people don’t study other languages, the “average Christian” seems to confuse the word “hosannah” with the word “hallelujah”. But, the meanings are much different. (The meaning of the word “hallelujah” will be the topic of a separate column in the near future.) The word “hosannah” is a plea, “Save us!” When the people added “in the highest”, it was an emphatic. In modern English, we would use volume and inflection to shout, “Save us!!” It is a cry to God — who alone can save our souls. The priests were indignant, because the people were finally “getting it” — that Jesus really was the Son of God. And, when the people realized that the priests had been shunning the Son of God for the past three years, then the priests feared that they might be slaughtered — just as the Israelites turned and slaughtered the prophets of Baal at the command of Elijah. (1st Kings 18:40)

The order of things….

The very next thing that Jesus did after he entered via the King’s Gate was go to the Temple and cleanse it. Why does the order matter? First, Jesus established proof of His authority as the Messiah-King by fulfilling multiple prophecies at one time. Then, he exercised His authority by cleansing the Temple of unrighteousness. And then, the priests accepted His authority by not openly challenging Jesus after the very public confrontation when He kicked over the tables of the moneychangers. In both the spiritual and legal senses, Jesus was now firmly established as who He claimed to be. Thus, Jesus entered the city and then promptly set things “in order”. Thus, when the priests began to plot Jesus’ death, they sealed their own fate that there would be no escaping the judgement for killing the righteous Messiah. (This applies to only the priests that were involved in the plot, and not to the entire Jewish people — and some try to claim. More about that in an upcoming column about the Cricifixion.)

We do not know all the details of the structure and decor of the Second Temple — the one that Jesus entered. (Solomon’s Temple had been destroyed when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem five centuries earlier.) But, it is reasonable to presume that King Herod I tried to copy the pattern of Solomon’s construction. And, the pomegranates — the symbols of righteousness — were a well-known feature of the First Temple. Thus, it is reasonable to presume that Jesus was in the presence of those symbolic pomegranates when He cleansed the Second Temple of unrighteous moneychanging.

It is also reasonable to presume that the garments worn by the priests (especially the high priest) during Jesus’ time were also patterned after the garments worn in Moses’ time — including the bells and pomegranates around the hem. Thus, while the priests were gathered together to plot the murder of Jesus, at least some of them were wearing the visual and audible reminders of the God’s laws of righteousness. So, again, they would have no way of escape from God’s judgement for enlisting Judas in a murder-for-hire plot against God’s Son.

Who knew that there was so much meaning behind the palms and pomegranates surrounding Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem??

And, now that we know the meanings, shouldn’t we pay more respect to the Hebrew roots of our Christian faith by honoring these details about the King of the Jews — including the dates when we celebrate the events of Holy Week?