“Hosanna!”
Text: Matthew 21:1-17
4-2-2023
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. It seems that you can't turn on the TV news anymore without seeing a protest march somewhere in America. Some of them are for a worthy cause like the March for Life that takes place every January. But the great majority of them are, in my opinion, adult temper tantrums and quite useless. The most irritating aspect of these marches, though, is the mindless chanting of their protest slogan which invariably begins with, "Hey, hey, ho, ho…" You might find it interesting to learn that in the Bible there were several protests, and it seems that people 2,000 years ago acted much like they do in modern times. In Acts chapter 19 a riot breaks out in Ephesus because of St. Paul's preaching of the Gospel. The protesters start a loud chant about how great their local goddess is which draws a large crowd. Most of the people who gathered had no idea what they were protesting. (v.32) However, they joined in the loud chant that lasted for 2 hours!
So, is that what's going on in our Gospel reading? I mean, you've got a large crowd that gathered as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. And I dare say many of those people weren't quite sure why they were there. In verse 10 some folks were unsure who this Jesus guy was. The crowds that day were also chanting a popular phrase. On the one hand, we might be tempted to say they were not protesting. This was more like a parade to welcome a national hero. But on the other hand, if we understand the meaning behind their chant, you'll see that there was indeed an underlying element of protest.
The crowds chanted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” This was an adaptation of the words found in Psalm 118:25-26 and every Jew there knew that it had reference to their hope of God sending them a Messiah. The key Messianic word in that phrase was "Hosanna." In Hebrew it carries the meaning of "save us, now!" So, the Messiah was seen as a savior who would deliver them from their enemies much like the men that God raised up in Israel's past during time of the Judges. So in a sense, the crowds on Palm Sunday were protesting against their current enemies that were oppressing them, with the hopes that Jesus would be their mighty deliverer.
But who were those enemies? Well, as you'll see, their ideas on this differed from the actual reason for why Jesus came to save them. The popular belief at that time was that the Messiah would come as a warrior king with divine power and support. He would lead the Israelites in victory over the evil Romans who occupied their land and they'd drive out these pagan foreigners. And He would protect the Jews from any others who might try to bother them. It would be a return to the golden era of when King David led Israel. Jesus displayed divine power in His miracles and divine wisdom in His words so they figured He had all the right stuff to be the Messiah they had conceived. But the problem was that God had never promised any of that. Yes, He promised a Savior, a Messiah. However, not in terms of an earthly land or kingdom. Jesus repeatedly denied this was His purpose. He made it abundantly clear when He told Pontius Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world. And so, we see Him come riding into Jerusalem, humbly on a donkey.
Jesus heard their chants of "Hosanna" and whether they realized it or not the first thing He did upon entering Jerusalem was to save them from one of their enemies. He drove out the moneychangers and those who sold animals there. In doing so, He was attacking the corrupt religious system that was in place. All those sacrificial animals were meant to point to the coming Savior who would be sacrificed for their sins. Unfortunately, it was a concept that wasn't even being taught any longer. Instead, it became a money-making scheme for the religious elites. The good news is that the everyday people still felt the need to address the problem of their sins. The bad news is that the current system stood as a barrier to their deep spiritual need. It had actually become their enemy, but where else could they turn? They needed a Savior who would deliver them from it. Jesus answered their cry of Hosanna by cleaning house at the Temple. In just 5 days, He would go to the cross as the final sacrifice, eliminating the need to participate in that corrupt system because He was THE Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
But this also saved them from something else: themselves. How so? Well, this corrupt sacrificial system along with the teaching of strict obedience to the Law had infected them with a theology of works-righteousness. In other words, the prevailing belief being taught was that they could save themselves from their sins simply by trying to be good enough in their words and deeds. But it never addressed the issue of the original sin that they were born with. The good news/bad news here is that the average guy on the street looked at his life and figured out that he was failing miserably. And those who actually thought they were reaching this impossible goal were merely fooling themselves. That's why the people flocked to Jesus. He was teaching them something different that they were desperate to hear. He taught that there was only one way to be saved from their enemy of sin and its condemnation, which was through believing in Him as their Savior. And He was very clear that His suffering and death would be the very sacrifice that God required in order defeat Satan and pay the penalty for their sins.
This wasn't a hidden secret. Even before Christ was born, the angel told Joseph that the baby Mary would give birth to was to be named Jesus, because "he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) It was no coincidence that His name in Hebrew is Yeshua (Joshua), which means "Yahweh saves." That was Jesus' whole purpose in coming. Not to save people from their human enemies like the Romans, but to save them from their sins. So in chanting Hosanna to Jesus, they were pleading for the very thing that God was giving them in His Son.
That chant of Hosanna is still just as necessary for God's people today. Sinful mankind has taken the pure and simple method of salvation through faith in Jesus and corrupted it. If you look around at the various denominations within Christendom, you'll find that works-righteousness is alive and well. It's what Martin Luther fought against in the Reformation and the battle continues in our day. Yes, and it creeps even into Lutheranism. Every teaching that says there's something you can do to contribute to your salvation is part of the deadly lie that Jesus came to do away with. For example, we don't sacrifice animals nowadays, but if you think that your attendance at worship or doing good deeds will save you, you've fallen for that lie. Christians do these things because they're already saved, not in order to be saved. Look at it this way: A driver is pinned in a burning car from a terrible accident. But he foolishly thinks he can save himself, so he waves off the fireman who has the Jaws of Life ready to rescue him. He'll die by his own doing if he refuses this outside help. Well, thinking you can save yourself from your sins is no different. Realizing that, causes us to cry out, "Hosanna."
And who are the enemies we need to be saved form? It's the unholy trinity of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. The devil is the easy one to identify. We’re praying against him in the Lord's Prayer when we say, "deliver us from evil." Jesus defeated the devil by destroying his power over us when He paid for the guilt of our sins on the cross. We pray that God would shield us from him. The sinful world is a little trickier because Satan uses other people as his tools to tempt and persecute us. They lure us into all kinds of sin and vice. The problem is that they look and function like the rest of us. And the temptations appear in things that are part of our day-to-day lives. Here too we pray that the Lord would save us from this evil. The most difficult one, though, is our old sinful nature. It is the "enemy within" that we pray for Jesus to save us from. All we need do is examine the cesspool of deep, dark, secret sins in our hearts to see this enemy that resides there. So, in reality we're asking Jesus to save us from ourselves!
Jesus hears our "Hosanna" and comes to save us from our enemies. He does so through His Means of Grace. We recognize that every soul is trapped in sin from the moment of conception and we can't save ourselves, nor can we save our children. So, we bring them to be Baptized because God has promised in 1 Peter 3:21 that "Baptism… now saves you." As we gather together in worship, we make confession that we've fallen back into sin. And Christ saves us by removing that damning guilt with His word of forgiveness. As we read the Scriptures day after day and hear it preached He saves us by filling our hearts and minds with His sanctifying Word of love and salvation through faith in Jesus. And in the Sacrament of the Altar, we receive forgiveness and strengthening of our faith as we eat His body and drink His blood that was sacrificed to save us. That's why we sing "Hosanna" as part of the Communion liturgy. We're pleading with the Lord to save us from our enemies and to continue saving us. Which He gladly does.
And so, with the crowds on that Palm Sunday, we too joyfully chant "Hosanna" to the One whose name means "Yahweh saves." As we prepare for Holy Week and remember the innocent suffering and death of Jesus, we do so knowing that He endured it so that we could be saved from all our damning enemies. Therefore, we gladly sing "Hosanna to the Son of David", to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!