Palm Sunday
MT 21:1-11; IS 50:4-7; PS 22; PHIL 2:6-11; MT 26:14-27:66
If you ever pay a visit to the Scottish National Gallery on Edinburgh’s Princes Street, you’ll quickly happen upon Raphael’s painting The Holy Family with a Palm Tree. It’s an idyllic depiction, with St Joseph making a floral offering to the Virgin Mary holding her rather cheery, rather chubby, newborn son.
And yet, there behind them stands the palm tree, casting a metaphorical shadow over the scene. It is a prophetic indication of what this babe was born for: the triumphal entry he would have into Jerusalem. The Passion and Cross would then follow.
