Palm Sunday and Moving Into Holy Week

I would suppose that most people don't know that there was another triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, other than Jesus on what became Palm Sunday. It was a contingent of the Imperial Roman army who had marched from Ceasarea on the Mediterranean. A bit of a hike, you could say. They would be patrolling Jerusalem during the days leading up to Passover. The Romans did not want those Jews getting too unruly. There were enormous numbers of Jews in the city to celebrate Passover. It is one of the most important holy days in Judaism, that of liberation from slavery  under the Pharaoh in Egypt. The celebration reminded the Jewish people that they were again under a foreign powers' authority. For the Romans it all made them very nervous. The priests serving in the Temple were nervous, too. They didn't want to have any trouble from their own people. It would upset the delicate balance of power they had with the Roman occupiers . So when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding a donkey, as was told by the Prophet Zachariah, and the people were waving palms and singing, "Hosanna", the priests knew they were most likely going to have to do something. When Jesus went up to the Temple in the heart of Jerusalem to teach, early in the week, the priests were surreptitiously listening to him. There were key words that they dreaded to hear, "kingdom" or "realm" being one of them. There was only one "king" or ruler: Cesaer. And there was only one kingdom or realm: Rome. Any deviation from that, would mean that the priests would have to explain to Rome what Jesus was talking about. They didn't want to have to do that. There was only one way to deal with this problem, but it had to be done carefully. They would have to wait for the right moment. Meanwhile, they were cultivating their inside contacts to see when they could take care of this "problem".