The palm branches signaled the crowd’s high expectations, a symbol largely lost on those of us who are separated from the culture and chronology of the story. Jewish history told of a man named Judas Maccabaeus, a freedom fighter who entered Jerusalem two hundred years prior to Jesus. As he approached, people waved palm branches and sang hymns. When Judas finally arrived, he defeated the Syrian king, recaptured the temple, expelled the pagans, and reigned for a century before the Romans recaptured the city.
