Last Wednesday, I went to my girlfriend's church for midweek service, and her pastor's sermon was looking forward to the upcoming Palm Sunday, the feast of booths, the temple, and the symbolism of palm branches. On Saturday, I read this article about the feast of booths and I knew I just HAD to talk about the triumphal entry, so here we are.
I thought about talking about the symbols of donkeys again, but I thought that my other post on the topic was good enough, so I'll just stick to palms.
With all that out of the way, I'll get into the topic itself. One of the things that the article I linked above pointed out was that the "booths" referenced are likely a directed towards Succoth (it's the same word), the place where the Israelites first camped after fleeing Egypt. In this way, the booths symbolized the shade of the Angel of the Lord in the pillar of cloud that gave the Hebrews respite from the sun. However, these booths were made of something very specific: palm branches. When the Lod gives the command, He says, "And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days" (Leviticus 23:40), and when the people return from exile, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written” (Nehemiah 8:15). I would argue that this is what the apostle John is referencing when he writes that the crowd from Bethany had "come to the feast" (12:12). In context, it's referring to the Passover, but with the waving of palm branches, I think it's possible to make a connection, as these Israelites took "branches of palm trees" to "rejoice before the Lord your God seven days," ie, during Holy Week.
I also think it's significant that palm trees were iconographically used in the temple (1 Kings 6:32, Ezekiel 41), which was meant to be a picture of the garden of God (Eden) in which He walked. In the cases of both the cloud and the temple, both were meant to mask the presence of God so that man would not die of holiness. Thus, the feast of booths was a kind of return to Eden which called back to the provision of God in the cloud of His presence as well as to the old and new gardens in which we will dwell with God for all eternity. The article above said that the idea of Christ's donkey riding over palms symbolized Him being above all things, even the clouds. However, I have a different interpretation. Instead, it is because Christ brings the Edenic paradise with Him wherever He goes, since the cross He bears with Him is our tree of life. The Levitical priesthood dressed up as trees with their faux pomegranates in the image of the garden, but we in the new priesthood are branches of the true Vine (John 15:5) and are already spiritually dwelling in paradise (Ephesians 2:6) until the resurrection. Thus the crowd was taking part in a foretaste of the churchly priesthood, giving themselves, the branches, as a "living sacrifice" (Rom. 12:1) to their God, so that they may receive it back from Him with something greater than a double portion, eternity.
Just as the people are the Petrine priesthood, so they are the "living stones" (1 Peter 2:5), cut from the Rock of Ages. When confronted about the people praising Him as God, our Lord responds that "if these were silent, the very stones would cry out" (Luke 19:40). Speaking to the same sect much earlier, St. John the Baptist says that "the Lord is able from these stones to make children for Abraham" (3:9). If we string these passages together, we can see that we, just like these children, are the "living stones" which the Lord made to be "children of Abraham," since we share the faith of Abraham (Gal. 3:9), and thus we cannot keep silent, for we are the shouting stones who shout "Hosanna" to our God.
The final point, however, is that not all present saw this cloud the same way. Though the people saw the "great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually" (Ezekiel 1:4), our Lord saw "darkness and the shadow of death" (Ps. 107:14) as looming above Jerusalem. For Christ, to "Ride on, ride on in majesty" is the same as to "in lowly pomp ride on to die." And yet, He happily, because in His death, He, the great seed, bursts forth from the heart of the earth and bears fruit for all mankind. As we finish out this Holy Week, it is helpful to keep in mind that it was our sin which stripped Christ, the tree of life, just as the people stripped the trees of their leaves. And yet, it is those coverings by which our Father in heaven counts us as blessed sons worthy to receive the inheritance of the sons of light.
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