April 2, 2023 - Palm Sunday - Save Us Now!

Holy Week began this Sunday. During worship the traditional Palm Sunday processional Creator takes from the narthex to the sanctuary. For the sermon Pastor Steve led the congregation in a reading of a passion narrative from Matthew. The story we know so well and moves our hearts, The reading followed the story from the betrayal of Jesus to the tomb. Two stories that are embedded in our collective hearts.

Until this year I was puzzled by the fickleness of the Jerusalem crowd. They called Jesus Messiah on his entry into Jerusalem. Yet they were calling for his crucifixion days later. Why? I have heard stories that it was a different crowd, or that they were selected to be biased against Jesus, to call for Barabbas to be freed rather than Jesus.

Now I wonder if the word hosanna, which I always understood to be an acclamation, provides the key to new understanding the turning of the crowd against Jesus. 

Hosanna is a word used in songs of praise, particularly on Palm Sunday. The word is of Hebrew origin and was part of the shout of the multitudes as Jesus entered Jerusalem: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Matthew 21:9).

I thought Hosanna was a declaration of praise, similar to hallelujah, but hosanna is actually a plea for salvation. The Hebrew root words are found in Psalm 118:25, which says, “Save us, we pray, O LORD!” (ESV). The Hebrew words yasha (“deliver, save”) and anna (“beg, beseech”) combine to form the word that, in English, is “hosanna.” Literally, hosanna means “I beg you to save!” or “please deliver us!”

So, as Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem, the crowds were perfectly right to shout “Hosanna!” They were acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah they needed, as shown in their address “Son of David.” Theirs was a cry for salvation and a recognition that Jesus is able to save.

As the passion narrative progresses, his ability to save them is put to the test. They want him to save himself and, when he does not, they doubt his ability to save anyone. This is not the powerful Messiah they expected. He is neither triumphant or victorious. They want to be saved from their immediate life situation and suddenly Jesus seems to be able to deliver that worldly salvation.

All of us have been taught that any offer of a "pie in the sky when we die" solution is a con. We are told not be placated by a future we cannot be guaranteed will come.  Yet the crowd is misunderstanding here what Jesus promises through his life, his death and his resurrection.

John 12 finally tells us that when his followers refused to believe what he’d taught, he prayed with urgency and feeling, He cried out in pain: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me.” I am touched when I think how human the crowd's heartfelt two responses are,  

What Jesus cried out is one, true Easter promise to sustain our faith and cannot, in the end, disappoint.

Creator moves closer to our Easter celebration.