Was Palm Sunday Actually Palm Monday? - Ask the Pastor

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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Alright, well today's question, "If Jesus was crucified in the year 33 A.D.," and then in parenthesis, "(figured from Luke 3, the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar would've been A.D. 29 or 30)," end of parenthesis. "Nissan 14, A.D. 33 would have been on Friday and lamb selection day, Nissan 10," Nissan, by the way, was the name of the month in that calendar, "would have been Monday. Does this mean that what we refer to as Palm Sunday was actually Palm Monday?" And then again, in parenthesis, the questioner writes, "John 12:1 says Jesus was in Bethany six days before the Passover. John 12:12 says it was the next day that He road into Jerusalem," end of parentheses. So the question is, "what we've always called Palm Sunday, was it perhaps Palm Monday?" So first of all, what I really appreciate about this question is that it's from somebody who obviously cares, loves God's word, loves digging into the minutiae of scripture, and wants to, you know, know that we get it right. And I appreciate that, because sometimes the things that we have traditionally ascribed to, 'this' or 'that,' aren't always right. I think I've, in a previous episode, perhaps referenced the fact that there's some question about exactly where Mount Sinai is. Is it where we've always placed it? Or is it maybe in Saudi Arabia? Which in biblical times was Midian, which is actually where the Bible places it. But that's a different question, maybe the question for next week, I'm not sure. But what day did Jesus ride into Jerusalem? What day was the triumphal entry? Why is it that we call it Palm Sunday? Was it Palm Sunday? Was it Palm Monday? Well, I have to admit, this is kind of one of those "back when I was in school," kind of reminds me of those math story problems. And those things would always make my head spin, and I really struggled with those. And truly, while I appreciate the listener's desire to get to the bottom of it, this is kind of a question that I really wish Ben was here for, cause it makes my head hurt. And I did what I think a lot of us would do, I just kind of jumped on the internet and as I kind of looked here and there, I got even more confused. And then I did what we should all do, I went back to the Bible. So listeners, when you're facing a question, whatever it is, absolutely great to reach out to us here on ask the pastor, great to reach out to your own pastor, great to see what you can find on the internet, but please, please, please begin with the Bible. You know, the reformers had it right when they determined that the best commentary on scripture, is scripture. And I really feel that the answer is right here in the Bible. First, I checked the four gospels. What can we learn about the day of triumphal entry? Matthew does not give any day indicators to what day that was, Mark does not indicate the specific day. Luke does not specify the day of the triumphal entry, but as our listener pointed out, we do get some clues from the gospel of John. John 12:1-2 says, "Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for Him." And in verses 12 and 13 we read, "The next day," that is, the next day after this meal, which occurred six days before the Passover. "The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast, heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of Palm trees and went out to meet him crying, 'Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel." And so why is it called Palm Sunday? It's because they waved Palm branches as they heralded him as king, as he road into Jerusalem. So that's what the scripture says. Now, study notes and study Bibles are also helpful. And by the way, those same reformers who told us "the best commentary on scripture is scripture," were also the first to come up with a study Bible. The Geneva Bible was the first study Bible. It had notes in the margins, those notes are not scripture.

Gary Schick
They are not infallible, but they can be helpful. And I took a look at the study note from my ESV Study Bible on John 12:1, and it explains, "Six days before the Passover, most likely refers to Saturday, since the Passover began Friday evening at sundown." So John 12:1 tells us six days before the Passover, 'Jesus arrives at Bethany.' The study note reminds us, that's most likely Saturday, because it's six days before Passover, beginning on Friday evening at sundown. And so, verse 12 notes, "Jesus enters into Jerusalem on a donkey the next day, the day after Saturday." And so we come to Sunday, called Palm Sunday, once again because of the Palm branches. So this actually would've been a great question for coming up on Easter week, but it's still a good question for us. And what's the takeaway for us, again, looking to the Bible? I think our listener was also trying to kind of pin down what year it was and that's where we get into something that gets a little murkier. In terms of the years that we are in, we are now in A.D. 2022, theoretically, 2,022 years after the year of Jesus' birth. Back at the time that Jesus was born, they weren't dating the calendar based on when he was born, actually that doesn't come for hundreds of years later. First of all, there was a monk named Dionysius Exiguus, a monk in 525 A.D., his intent on working out when exactly Easter would occur in the coming years. Tried to figure back and dated year one as the year of Jesus birth. Later on, they dated 1 B.C. as the year before Christ's birth, and so you'll notice, there is no year zero in our calendar. It's either 1 A.D. or 1 B.C., and BC literally means "Before Christ." A.D. literally means, it's Latin, it means Anno Domini, and that means, "The year of His reign." Dionysius did a fairly good job, but going through the historical records, sifting through, you know, when Herod was king, when Caesar entered his throne, actually, we now know that Jesus was born somewhere between, what we are calling, between 4 & 6 B.C. Luke tells us that Jesus was about 30 years old when he began His ministry. And so, I appreciate our listener trying to figure out, you know, the exact time, day, year and even the month of Nissan, but it's a little murky exactly what year in our current calendar, all of this falls out in. So that's where it's not so helpful to try and figure some of those things out. What is helpful is to base our figuring on what the scripture does tell us. And it tells us, six days before the Passover, Passover beginning Friday evening, brings us to Saturday for the dinner and then the next day riding into Jerusalem on Sunday. Sometimes I think, friends, we tend to, in our desire for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even go on and just make questions harder than they need to be. I love the simplicity of scripture, the clarity of scripture, and by the way, where scripture isn't absolutely clear. It's okay for us not to be absolutely clear, because the things that need to be absolutely clear have been manifestly made clear in scripture. I love, since we're in the gospel of John, those verses toward the end of the gospel. Where it says, you know, many other things Jesus said and did and miracles He performed. In fact, so much so that if all of it were written down, the world couldn't contain the books. But these have been written that you may know that Jesus is the Son of God, and that by believing in His name we are saved. That's the key, the whole of scripture brings us to Jesus and salvation through faith in His name. I'm so glad we can trust the scripture, it's accurate, it is testified too on the outside. We know from outside sources that, "Yep, there was a man in Galilee named Jesus performing miracles and teaching and doing great things. Yep, He was crucified under Pontius Pilot." These are historical figures, they're not just myths made up. We can pinpoint the times that Jesus lived in, and He was definitely a man of His times and yet so much beyond them, because He was, and is, God in the flesh. And so, hope that's helpful to our listener. Hope it also gives some insight to all of you as listeners, in terms of sifting through the questions that you come up with. And then by all means, please do continue to reach out to us, and we will do our best, looking at the same Bible that you're looking at, to try and come to as much clarity as we can find in the scriptures. But just always know, where it gets fuzzy on the edges, that's okay. The Bible was written to bring us to Jesus, to faith in His name, and to grow us and to be more like Him in the process of our life. So keep your focus there, on your discipleship, your walk with the Lord as you first come to Him and then grow in Him. And let's make that our prayer today.