Palm Sunday is one of those moments in the church year that feels familiar, with branches, celebration, and “Hosanna.” Even for us at Lincoln Park-Lynnwood United Methodist Church, where we haven’t always observed it formally, the story carries a certain weight.
But as we heard this week, John tells it a little differently. Quieter. More reflective.
Right in the middle of the celebration, John gives us a line that changes how we hear the whole story: “His disciples didn’t understand these things at first…”
That shifts everything.
The crowd wasn’t wrong to welcome Jesus. Their praise wasn’t insincere. They were responding out of real hope—hope for restoration, for strength, for things to be made right again. As the sermon put it, “Their expectation shaped their praise.”
But there was something they didn’t yet see. We sometimes call it The Triumphal Entry, but maybe it is more accurate to call it The Misunderstood Entry.
“They celebrated, but they didn’t yet understand.”
Jesus was indeed coming as king, but not the kind of king they expected. Not one who would seize power or secure outcomes in the way people often hope. He was entering Jerusalem on the way to the cross.
It’s possible to welcome Jesus, to praise him, and still misunderstand him. To shape him around what we want rather than receive him as he is.
So the question isn’t simply whether we will praise him. The question is whether we will follow him, especially when the path doesn’t look like the kind of victory we would have chosen.
That’s the invitation of Holy Week. To keep walking, not because we understand everything, but because we trust who he is.
We’d love to see you in person at Lincoln Park-Lynnwood United Methodist Church, 3120 Pershing Street, Knoxville, TN. Come as you are. We’re not in the judging business. We’re in the welcoming business.
