A Palm Sunday Story
© The School of Truth
Source p. 60, Feb / Mar 2008 - The Path of Truth
Benjamin was very excited! The streets in Jerusalem were milling with strangers. It was Passover time and his cousins were coming to Jerusalem to visit him. Passover is a feast time, when Jewish friends and families get together to celebrate something that happened a long time ago. Stories were told and the Torah read and all the boys were questioned about The Law. The story of the first Passover was told again and again and every child knew by heart that the Jewish people had been slaves in Egypt and that the Pharaoh would not set them free to find their own land. Plagues had fallen on the Egyptians but did not touch the Jewish people as they held on firmly to their belief that they would one day be free. And so it came to be. The pharaoh got sick of all his bad luck and let the people go. So every year at the same time the people would remember this by having a special celebration.
"Benjamin!" said Mom, "Go and wait outside for the family to arrive! You are in my way in here and I have to finish making the meal."
So Ben went outside and stood at the edge of their garden. "Don't go too far down the street or near the city gate, Ben," yelled mom, "There are a lot of people coming to our city and you may get lost in the crowd."
Ben was busy dreaming up all the games he and his cousins would play as he shielded his eyes from the sun and gazed down the road. Goodness mom was right! There were loads of people and Ben wondered whether he would ever find his cousins in this big crowd. He decided to sit on the side of the road and wait but suddenly he heard a funny sound of running feet. Then Ben saw what was causing the disturbance. A huge crowd of people were coming down towards the city gate, running and jumping and yelling. As they got closer, Ben could see that they had palm leaves in their hands which they were waving wildly. He tried to run but they were too fast for him and he was soon right in the middle of the crowd, trying to stay on his feet.
"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" they shouted, which meant Praise God, Praise God! Oops! Ben was thrown to the floor. Huge bodies rushed by him and feet, dusty from the road, trod and tripped over him. Ben was so scared that he shouted to God to help him. Suddenly the crowd parted. A strange silence fell over the crowd. Ben heard clip, clop, clip, clop. A little donkey was approaching him and stopped next to him. On the donkey sat a beautiful man. His face was kind and gentle and his smile made Ben think of a rainbow. The man climbed slowly from the donkey and knelt beside Ben. Gently hands lifted him to his feet and warm eyes looked into his.
"There now, you'll be okay. I'll always be around when you need me!"
Ben felt warm and loved and the little pains from the fall were gone in that brief minute that the man had spent with him. He ran home to tell Mom all about it, but the cousins were at him and he forgot all about it. Every now and then the strange words in that soft gentle voice came back to him and he began to wonder whether it had all been a dream. He wandered in a sort of daze back towards the City Gate and waited until he saw his relatives who greeted him with gusto. Soon, the incident with the man and the donkey was indeed put to the back of his mind.
Then, a day or two later, he heard the adults talking about a man who was causing trouble by talking about new ways to believe. He told crowds of people at a time to be peaceful and kind, not to be filled with revenge and to always love one another. The adults were afraid that this man would cause all the laws, which they had followed for so many years to be changed and it made them afraid. The people were now being ruled by the Romans and they had hoped to find a leader who would free them so that they could rule themselves.
"We must get rid of him!" Ben heard his father say. All the uncles nodded in agreement. Ben was not really interested in the big people's talk but what this man said did not sound bad to him and, strangely, the voice of the man on the donkey kept coming back to him. The Passover feast was to be held that evening and Ben and the cousins went to the kitchen to watch the women preparing all the glorious food. Wonderful smells wafted through the air. Little fingers crept towards the sweet things but were smacked gently by his rainbow smile. Even though it was not a happy moment, Ben knew in his heart that everything would be okay, not only today but forever. Even when he was an old man, Ben tried to do what that wise man on a donkey had said.
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