Palm Sunday Bible story for kids

Jesus and his friends were walking up a long, steep road.

Up from Jericho, the warm town of palm trees, low in its valley. Up, and up, and up. Because they were going to Jerusalem, the great city high in the hills.

It was nearly time for the Passover feast, when God's people remembered how He brought them safely out of Egypt. And the Bible says a great crowd of people had come to the city for it.

And some of the people walking with Jesus had been there when he called his friend Lazarus out of the tomb, alive again. They kept telling everybody about it.

At last Jesus came near a hill called the Mount of Olives. And he called two of his friends. The Bible doesn't tell us which two.

Then he told them exactly what they would find.

"Go into the village that is opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them, and bring them to me."

A colt is a young donkey. A little one. And this colt was special. Nobody had ever sat on it. Not once. Not ever.

And Jesus said one more thing. "If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and immediately he will send them."

So off the two friends went. And the Bible says they "found things just as he had told them."

There it was! A little colt, tied at a door, right out in the open street. And its mother, too.

On the road to Bethlehem, before Jesus was born, the Bible never says if there was a donkey at all. But this time, it tells us for sure. There really was a donkey. Two of them!

Imagine them, little one. Fiddling with the knot. Tugging the rope loose.

And just as Jesus had said, the owners asked, "Why are you untying the colt?"

And the two friends said just what Jesus had told them to say.

And the owners let them go.

The friends brought the donkey and her colt to Jesus. They took off their own cloaks and spread them over the colt's back, like a soft, lumpy saddle. And Jesus sat on the colt.

Its very first rider.

Maybe its little ears twitched. Maybe its hooves stepped very carefully. The Bible doesn't say. But off they went, clip, clop, down the hill toward the city. And maybe the mother donkey walked along beside her little one.

Then the people began to do something wonderful.

They took off their cloaks too, and spread them on the road. Swish! Flump! Like a carpet for the little colt.

Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And John's Gospel says people took palm branches and went out of the city to meet him. Maybe they held them up high. Rustle, rustle, up in the air. And on the road, crunch, crunch, went the branches, under small hooves.

And then came the shouting.

People in front. People behind. All of them calling out together.

"Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

Hosanna is a very old word. It means "Save us!" And by now, people shouted it as a big, happy cry of praise. "Son of David" meant the special King God had promised, from great King David's family.

"Hosanna! Hosanna!"

The Bible says they praised God with a loud voice, for all the mighty works they had seen. Maybe they were thinking of Lazarus, walking out of the tomb. Or a little girl in a quiet room who got up and walked.

Oh, it was loud!

But some Pharisees in the crowd spoke to Jesus. Pharisees were people who were very, very careful about keeping God's law. And they said, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"

Rebuke means to tell them, very firmly, to stop.

And Jesus answered them. "I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out."

The stones! Just imagine it, little one. If everybody went quiet, the pebbles on the road would start shouting instead. Hosanna! Hosanna! That's how much this King was worth shouting about.

And long, long ago, a prophet named Zechariah had written down God's promise. "Behold, your King comes to you!"

And Matthew's Gospel says this King would come "humble, and riding on a donkey."

Not on a great war horse. No golden crown. A gentle King, on a little borrowed donkey, riding over a road of coats.

And Jesus rode right into Jerusalem.

The whole city was stirred up! Maybe heads turned, and people leaned out to look. And all over the city they were asking, "Who is this?"

The crowds answered, "This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."

And he was even more than a prophet. Once, long before, some wise men had come to this same city, asking about a newborn King. And now that King had come riding in.

Then Jesus went into the temple, God's great house. And the Bible says he looked around at everything.

And because it was now evening, he went out to Bethany with his twelve friends. That was the little village where Lazarus lived, with his sisters, Martha and Mary.

The shouting was over. Maybe the little colt was home again, by its door in the street.

A sad week was coming, little one. But after it would come the happiest morning there has ever been.

And God was with him. God was with her. God is with you, too.

Shh, the crowd's gone home, little one. May the same God who came riding in so gently, on a little colt that nobody had ever ridden... keep glad praise bubbling up in you, long after the whole house is quiet.