Hosanna Answered

This is our final Sunday in Lent, Palm Sunday, sometimes also called Passion Sunday. You may have noticed that since the end of Epiphany, we’ve been saying that in Lent we are walking with Jesus toward the Cross. And today we walked with him in some of his final steps, into the city of Jerusalem, where we shout Hosanna with the crowd. And this word Hosanna is Aramaic and it means “O Save Us!” The crowd in Jerusalem were probably thinking “Hosanna, O Save Us from the Romans who have put us under their heel.” But in the same way that the man they were welcoming into the city was infinitely more important than they could know in that moment, the salvation he would offer them was infinitely more profound.

God had heard the cry of his people for salvation throughout all of human history. And he had answered with acts of salvation that pointed to a great salvation that would be much more than political in its scope. The salvation he could offer them and indeed offers to you right now, is a salvation that is perfect, complete, and final. From the promise that the offspring of Adam would strike the serpent, to the rainbow promising the end of judgment through a global flood, to promises made and believed by Abraham of a good land and countless descendents blessing the nations, to the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, to the rule of King David, the man after God’s own heart, and the promise that one of his offspring would rule forever, even the promise “I will be your God and you will be my people.” The man, riding on a donkey, would answer their cry of Hosanna, O save us, not by overthrowing the Romans, but by fulfilling the Old Testament’s good promises of salvation, delivering them from the enemy of their souls, delivering them from eternal death, from having no eternal home, from spiritual slavery, and, after all of these things, by giving them the King that all good rulers have pointed to.

But part of what makes good rulers good is that they did what he did, not thinking of himself, but suffering, denying himself for the good of his people, taking on the form of Isaiah’s suffering servant who by his wounds would heal his people. As Jesus revealed his glory on top of the Mount of Transfiguration, he would reach Jerusalem and walk his final steps up to another hill, the place of the skull, Golgotha, Calvary, and this time reveal his glory not with bright light and majesty, but with excruciating, sacrificial love, by shedding his blood for you and for me and all humanity, in the apocalyptic, holy moment of the death of the messiah, offering his life in place of ours, to the God of the Old Testament and all creation, to change it forever.

The cry of “Let him be crucified” and the cry of “Hosanna, O save us” were answered in that same holy moment at the death of Jesus Christ. The needs of our conflicted hearts were answered in his suffering and death. All our sin and alienation from God, our bitterness and rage, and our self-righteous demand for our finite understanding of justice, our polluted souls with all their idolatry, all of it was poured out on him. And that was not all. With our sin poured out on Jesus, God set the world aright, pouring out his holy wrath, not by destroying us, but by placing his righteous wrath for our sins on him. In Jesus, God gave his answer not only to “Crucify Him!,” but also to our cries of “Hosanna, O Save Us.” And in the perfect sacrificial death of Jesus, God’s answer was forever “Yes.” “Here is your forgiveness. Here is your cleansing. Here is your relationship with me restored and made new. Here is true justice accomplished. Here is grace. Here is a reset that you can have again and again and again for as long as you draw breath.”

“Here is the Way to God, Here is the Truth that he loves you, and Here is the beginning point for the eternal life that he gives to all who believe it.” There on the Cross, his answer was as gruesome as your sin and as beautiful as God’s love mournfully sung over him and over you. And the question that remains now, is will you receive it? For those who do, even more of the promises of the Old Testament and this New Covenant in Jesus’ blood will find their answer on Easter Sunday. As we move together toward that moment, let us keep in our hearts him who answered “yes,” by giving up his life for us when we cried out “Hosanna, O save us!”