This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the day we remember Jesus’ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey while the people waved palm branches and shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (John 12:13)
Where else in scripture do we see people waving palm branches and shouting something? The answer is Revelation 7:9-10 where we find this interesting scene:
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.” (NIV)
This is the verse, by the way, that motivated the missionaries to Ecuador back in the 1950’s to reach out with the gospel to a tribe of unreached people according to Steve Saint, son of Nate Saint, one of the missionaries. Many years ago, when the movie, “The End of the Spear” came out I happened to attend a chapel at Christian Academy of Louisville, a Christian high school in my city, where Steve Saint was the guest speaker and heard him tell the audience that Revelation 7:9-10 were the verses that motivated his parents and the other missionaries.
He said his parents and the other missionaries spoke of these verses and saying if the scripture said “all tribes, and people, and languages” how could this be fulfilled if this tribe and others like it who had never heard the gospel didn’t have missionaries brave enough to share the gospel with them? Five brave missionaries, Nate Saint (Steve Saint’s father), Jim Elliot, Pete Flemming, Ed McCully, and Roger Youderian attempted to do just that, but were killed by the very people with whom they tried to share the gospel. By God’s grace they later were receptive to the gospel and are no longer an unreached people group. They too will be among those clothed in white robes, standing before the Lamb with palm branches. Their story was shared with the world by Elizabeth Elliott’s bestselling book, “Through Gates of Splendor” published in 1957.
Harriet is a multi-published author and freelance writer from Louisville, KY. Reared in Africa, as the daughter of missionaries, she has been married for over 40 yrs has 4 grown children and 5 grandchildren.