Palm Sunday Service
Join us for Palm Sunday to celebrate Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Learn about the deeper meaning of this story and how it relates to Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.
Join us to receive your personal palm leaf to cherish for the year and engage with like-minded friends in fellowship after service.
Listen & Watch
Sermon Notes
Main Scripture
Mary Anoints Jesus (John 12:1–8)
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them[a] with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Supporting Scripture
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
Hosanna
Hosanna means “save, rescue, savior” (Latin osanna, Greek ὡσαννά, hōsanná) derives from Hebrew (הושיעה־נא, הושיעה נא hôšîʿâ-nā), also related to Aramaic (ܐܘܿܫܲܥܢܵܐ ʾōshaʿnā).
Interestingly, while in Christian Scriptures, the word “hosanna” is used as a form of shout of jubilation, in the Hebrew Scriptures, it is only used to ask for help or to be saved in prayer (see Psalm 118:25).
Metaphysical Interpretations
*Revealing Word
**Metaphysical Bible Dictionary
Bethphage**—A place in consciousness where grace is realized. It is a place of unripe fruit (house of figs, or house of unripe figs).
Bethany**—wailing, lamentation, affliction; and signifies the demonstration over these conditions. Whenever we make a mental demonstration we get a certain result in mind and body. In Bethany Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and thus overcame the sorrow, lamentation, and affliction of Mary and Martha.
Mount of Olives**—The exalting of divine wisdom and love in consciousness (Mount of Olives, height yielding illuminating oil, high luminous principle).
Mary**—The feminine, the soul, the affectional and emotional phase of man's being, both when seemingly bound and limited by sensate thought, and in its freed, exalted state.
Martha**—Martha represents the outer activity of the soul that is receiving the higher self; Mary represents the inner or soul receptivity. Martha desires to show her love by service; Mary shows hers by learning at Jesus' feet.
Lazarus**— Lazarus (whom God helps, without succor) refers to the part of the consciousness that is helped by the good, though apparently utterly neglected by the man himself. "Lazarus . . . sat at meat" (John 12:2) means that this resurrected inner idea of life and youth abides as the vitalizing substance of the subconsciousness in the regeneration.
Judas**—Judas Iscariot--the custodian of life. This Judas represents the unredeemed life forces. He also typifies that in humanity which, though it has caught the higher vision of life, still resorts to underhanded methods in order to meet its obligations. Judas carried the money bag, and he betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.
Jesus**—The I in man, the self, the directive power, raised to divine understanding and power--the I AM identity.
oil, anointing*—The thought of love, which is poured over anything, making it holy or a perfect whole. "Love . . . is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10).
ass*—In Oriental countries in Bible times kings and rulers rode the ass, and it was the accepted bearer of royalty. The animal part of the human consciousness is typified by the ass, and the purpose of Jesus' riding an ass into Jerusalem was to portray the mastery by the I AM of the animal nature and its manifestation (colt). Jerusalem is the city of peace or spiritual consciousness. The characteristics of the ass are stubbornness, persistency, and endurance. To ride these is to make them obedient to one's will.
clothes*—confinement to the limitations of the physical nature of this first emanation of divine life.
palm trees*—realizations in the physical of unlimited resource of strength.
