We need a savior!
Gospel of John
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!” John 12:12-19
In our Christian minds, this is a grand event. The entire city of Jerusalem rallies around Jesus as the new king. We mimic this event in our churches on Palm Sunday morning. Children march up the aisles waving palm branches, shouting “Hosanna!”
If this had been a grand event on the scale of all of Jerusalem shouting about a new king, the Roman soldiers would have swooped in and stopped this from happening. “There is no king but Ceasar,” after all.2
Many pilgrims did line the streets and shout these greetings to Jesus and to the world. The soldiers were primarily occupied with keeping order around the temple. The pilgrims who gathered around Jesus were there because he had raised Lazarus from the dead.2
There are many words of significance here. John uses each word purposefully. “The One who comes” is Messianic in its title. This is the first time Jesus presents himself as a king. The whole entering on a donkey, the shouts of hosanna, and the waving palm branches are reminiscent of Judas Maccabeus entry into the city of Jerusalem several hundred years prior to this event.2
The palm branches indicate a military victory or a royal welcome. Palm branches were brought from Jericho, maybe for creating shelters for the pilgrims.
“Hosanna” is the equivalent of shouting “Save! Save!” or “Salvation!” It was a word that usually addressed kings or someone who is a national deliverer.
The Old Testament told us about this whole situation:
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9
I spent no time in yesterday’s post on Judas or the chief priests. Judas – being Judas – was all about the money he wanted to get his hands upon. The chief priests, and now the Pharisees realize they must kill Lazarus too. They recognize they have been totally ineffective is stopping Jesus.3
John wants us to hear something else: Jesus has come into the world because God so loved the world; he has other sheep to find and rescue along with the lost sheep of Israel; his death will deliver the nation but also the children of God throughout the world.3
Why give us the account of the triumphal entry? Is it so children get to wave palm branches and shout “hosanna?” Is it so those same children can actively participate in the service at the beginning of Holy Week? Is it so we can burn the palm branches and next year use the ashes for Ash Wednesday, as tradition states? Why do we care that Palm Sunday starts Holy Week? What is the significance?
These questions, I asked in my Sunday School class, and instead of the rousing discussion we usually have when I ask questions, one participant quietly said, “Maybe it is a reminder that we need a savior too.”
That pierces my heart.
We need a savior.
Amen