Lamb Selection Day

In this writing I will suggest that instead of “Palm Sunday,” the time-honored term for the Sunday before Resurrection Sunday, a better, more biblical title might be “Lamb Selection Day.”

^NAS John 12:12-19 On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and began to cry out, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. And so the multitude who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, were bearing Him witness. For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. The Pharisees therefore said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”

Nelson’s New Christian Dictionary, an ecumenical source, includes this entry on “Palm Sunday: ‘Palm Sunday,’ also called ‘Passion Sunday,’ is the Sunday beginning Holy Week (‘Palm Sunday’ to Easter), commemorating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and marking the beginning of Holy Week. The distinctive ceremony of Palm Sunday services is the blessing of palms and a procession reenacting the biblical events on this day.”

Obviously this ecumenical dictionary is taking a Catholic slant. Most Baptists do not officially make this big of a deal about Palm Sunday. That is, by having a “blessing of the palms” and a “procession reenacting the biblical events on this day” in a manner comparable to Catholics, Lutherans, some Methodists, and some Presbyterians.

It is not my purpose in this blog to discuss the merits of Palm Sunday. I personally do not have a problem with Palm Sunday celebrations. It’s in the Bible, as the passage from John above shows. There was a day in which Jesus entered Jerusalem and people celebrated using Palm branches. Surely I am not going to win this argument, but I want to suggest in this installment is that there may be a more biblically accurate name for this day: “Lamb Selection Day.”

Over my years of Bible study, I have come to see the inherent significance of the Jewish feasts to “Easter.” I put quotation marks around the word because the more I study and think about the subject, the less I embrace the word. The word “Easter” is a topic for another blog, but for now let me just say that its highly questionable etymology notwithstanding, we probably wouldn’t be using the word today if it were not for the King James Bible’s mistranslation of Acts 12:4, where “Easter” should have been translated “Passover.” the Greek word is πάσχα (pah-skah); it means Passover.

As so many New Testament doctrines, “Palm Sunday” has its roots in the Old Testament.

^NAS Exodus 12:1-6 Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ² “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. ³ “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. ⁴ ‘Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. ⁵ ‘Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ ‘And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.

This, of course, is the biblical preparation for the great Jewish feast of Passover. The Passover event is the historical reference to God’s deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. “Passover” is the English word for the Hebrew word, פֶּסַח (pey-sahk) which literally means “to spring,” “jump,” or “pass over.”

^NAS Exodus 12:13 ‘And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over (פֶּסַח) you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

The first part of Exodus 12 chronicles “Lamb Selection Day.”

To the Jew, “twilight” most probably meant precisely 3 PM. At 3 PM (most probably), the shofar (ram’s horn) was sounded and the main daily sacrifice was offered. This assured religious Jews, wherever they may be, that God, according to His promise to Abraham, would provide a sacrifice for sin (because man couldn’t)…

^NAS Genesis 15:7-10, 17 And He said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” ⁸ And he said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I shall possess it?” ⁹ So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. ¹⁷ And it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.

This is what some Bible teachers term the “blood trail.” Normally, in the cutting (the appropriate term commonly used) of an ancient covenant, both parties walked barefooted through the blood together. This was to signify that should one break the covenant, the other could lawfully do him what they had done to the animals and birds. By walking the “blood trail” alone, God, in effect, was saying, “I’ll pay the price when you break the covenant, an awesome picture of the divinely initiated relationship of God and the believer.

Notice the text in Exodus 12:4 says a lamb “without blemish.” The lamb selected was to be as close to perfect as possible. This pointed to the incomparable day when a perfect sacrifice would be offered for the sins of the world:

^NAS John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

^NAS Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Jesus was the sinless sacrifice, the Lamb of God without blemish who took away the sin of the world, so that anyone who believes receives salvation.

Note also the words in Exodus 12:6: “’And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month….” Scholars (see NET Notes from the New English Translation) believe the reason for this command was so that the lamb could be carefully examined for blemishes. This probable fact points to the sinlessness of the Lamb of God.

Luke 19 gives us a picture of the ultimate “Lamb Selection Day,” the day the Lamb of God presented Himself for selection in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the city of God:

^NLT Luke 19:28-40 After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. ²⁹ As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. ³⁰ “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.'” ³² So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. ³³ And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?” ³⁴ And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.” ³⁵ So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on. ³⁶ As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. ³⁷ When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen. ³⁸ “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven! ³⁹ But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!” ⁴⁰ He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”

Just like in Exodus 1200 years before, these Jewish disciples and the entire Jewish nation were concerned with selecting a lamb for the Passover. The disciples along with Jesus were coming to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Jewish feast of Passover. Messiah was at the forefront of their minds as they made their way through the Judean wilderness (the same wilderness in which Jesus had three years before been tempted by Satan [Matthew 4:1-11]). There was concern for fear of the Roman soldiers who were on extra alert during Passover. For on this particular day, Lamb Selection Day, imposters regularly presented themselves as Messiah, enticing the crowds to riot. That concern, however, did not curtail the people’s joy. We should not miss the fact there was great drama in the scene:

^NAS Luke 19:37 And as He was now approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen,

Two distinct sights of Jerusalem are caught on this route of descent into Jerusalem, an inequality of ground hiding it for a time after one has first seen it. Verse 37 marks the first sight, verse 41 the second and nearer view.

^NAS Luke 19:41 And when He approached, He saw the city and wept over it,

What made Jesus cry out in loud lament (the Greek word κλαίω [klai-o] tells us that) upon seeing the Jerusalem was the fact He knew the people were cheering because they expected Him to free them from Roman tyranny, not from their sins.

“At this point (v. 37) the first view is caught of the southeastern corner of the city. The temple and the more northern portions are hid by the slope of Olivet on the right: what is seen is only Mount Zion, now, for the most part, a rough field, crowned with the mosque of David, and the angle of the western walls, but then covered with houses to its base, and surmounted by the castle of Herod, on the supposed site of the palace of David…. It was at this point that the shout of triumph burst forth from the multitude” (Stanley, “Sinai and Palestine”). – Vincent

The Mount of Olives is located east of Jerusalem, in a modest mountain range that runs north and south for two and a half miles. The actual Mount of Olives, the middle of three peaks that dominate the range, stands 2,660 feet above sea level. It is directly across from the temple. The Mount of Olives was the place where Jesus was crucified (probably on the slope rather than the top [tradition often misleads us] cf. Matt 26:30). The Mount of Olives was also the place from which Jesus ascended back to heaven (Acts 1:9-12); and the same Mount of Olives will be place where Jesus returns to earth in His Second Coming (Acts 1:11).

Again, we must appreciate the great theater being played out in the pages of Scripture. In this dramatic scene, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the universe, God Almighty Himself, came to present Himself formally as Messiah. And He did so dressed in a common robe, humble, riding on a donkey. Contrast this to man’s unending propensity for pomposity.

^NAS Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

It is doubtless sobering to many to learn that the hallowed palm branches of “Palm Sunday” had a political and not a religious meaning. The celebratory “Hosanna,” too, was a political, not a religious, cry. While Luke does not use the term (scholars believe this is because He was writing to mainly a Greek audience?), each of the other Gospel writers does. John, for example:

^NAS John 12:13 took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and began to cry out, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”

Keeping in mind the political expectations of the crowd toward Messiah, it is not difficult to the political, even militaristic edge to “Hosanna!” “Hosanna” meant “Save us now!” Palm branches had been a symbol of freedom from tyranny and defiance to unjust rule ever since Simon Maccabeus, a leader of the Maccabean rebellion against the occupying Roman army had entered Jerusalem with that heavy symbolism. I encourage you to study this on your own and see what you think about what is often the wide disparity between historical fact and Christian tradition. Tradition can be accurate and wonderful, but it is wise to use caution in our acceptance of it.

On the Sunday before Passover Saturday (Sabbath), Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. The crowd welcomed Him, but they were welcoming Him not as the Savior from sin, but as a political-militaristic savior. The crowd’s blindness made Him weep sorrowfully. He was presenting Himself as the Lamb of God. He was in affect saying, “Here I am; choose Me.” The Sunday we now call “Palm Sunday” was really “Lamb Selection Day.” He was rejected. It should not be hard for us to understand that nothing makes the Lord Jesus more sorrowful than when He is rejected as the Savior that He came to be. He is still presenting Himself and He is still being rejected.

Further connecting Jesus as the Passover Lamb was the fact that the time of His death on the cross corresponded to the time the Passover lamb was sacrificed in the Temple. At 3:00 PM, the Passover lamb had its throat slit by the priest in the Temple, and at 3:00 PM Jesus was crucified:

^NAS Matthew 27:45-46 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

The “ninth hour,” according to Jewish time,” was 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Most probably at this precise time, our Savior willingly offered Himself for sacrifice as the sacrificial Lamb of God, a stunning image that parallels the horrific future Day of the Lord: Joel 2:10; Amos 8:9; Zephaniah 1:15. (I say “probably” out of respect for those who would disagree with my calculations of the time. Although I recognize the real difficulties in attempting to be sure of ancient dates and times, I am confident that when all factors are seriously considered from a Jewish as well as prophetic perspective, the scenario I am presented is likely the best, the most consistently supportable):

^NAS John 10:18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

^NAS 1 John 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

“Behold, the Lamb of God” on “Lamb Selection Day”! The question that hangs in the air: “Is He your Lamb? Have you selected Him?”

– Professor Thomas A. Rohm