Hosanna in the Highest!
What did the crowd expect on that first Palm Sunday? They were living in an occupied land. They were longing for a Messiah who would lead them to freedom. Jesus had a tremendous following - and now, the crowd must have been wondering, ‘Has our day of liberation finally arrived?’
The events of Holy Week didn’t work out as they had hoped. There was no rebellion against the Romans. What went wrong? Nothing. We talk of the victory of the cross, but it was a victory that was lost on Jesus’ contemporaries. The crowd felt cheated. Like thousands of popular heroes, Jesus was rapidly discarded. In five days, the cries of ‘hosanna’ turned instead into ‘crucify’.
Yet, what a victory it was! On the cross, Jesus demonstrated that love triumphs over evil. Satan was defeated. God died to save His people. Still today, he continues to save all who trust in him. His mission was to reverse the story of the Fall, to reconcile, re-unite God and humanity; to draw us into God’s eternal designs. This was the victory of the cross - to bring humanity into a right relationship with God; to make real the offer of eternal life.
So much for the facts, what are the implications? We are left with a choice: which crowd do I belong to - the ‘Hosanna - Save us Lord’, crowd of Palm Sunday, or the ‘Crucify him’ crowd of Good Friday?
Of course, we all want to think that we are part of the crowd that cries ‘Hosanna’, because we know that we need God’s salvation. But it is one thing to know the facts; it is quite another thing to allow those facts to influence us - our thoughts, our actions, our behaviour. We know that we need God to save us, and that must be our cry.
The other crowd cried ‘Crucify’. They reject Jesus. Either we realise our need for God, and cry ‘Hosanna’, or else, by default, we reject God from our lives. There can be no sitting on the fence. For those who cry out to God, ‘Save me, Lord’, there’s good news to come! At the cross we are granted the gift of eternal life – not because of anything we’ve done, but simply because Jesus has paid our penalty. He has died so that we may live. All we have to do is respond and say ‘Yes, Lord Jesus. I believe that it was for me that you hung and suffered there.’
In the words of the famous hymn:
He died, that we might be forgiven.
He died, to make us good.
That we might go at last to heaven.
Saved, by his precious blood.
Lord Jesus Christ, it was for me that you came to earth and hung and suffered on the cross. As you have given yourself for me, so now, I give my life to you, and seek to live as your disciple. Come, and be Lord of my life, right now. Amen.
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