Lord, please save us!

Matthew 21:1–11 CEB

1 When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gave two disciples a task. 2 He said to them, “Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter, you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that their master needs them.” He sent them off right away. 4 Now this happened to fulfill what the prophet said, 5 Say to Daughter Zion, “Look, your king is coming to you, humble and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the donkey’s offspring.” 6 The disciples went and did just as Jesus had ordered them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them. Then he sat on them. 8 Now a large crowd spread their clothes on the road. Others cut palm branches off the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds in front of him and behind him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up. “Who is this?” they asked. 11 The crowds answered, “It’s the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Lord, please save us!

Palm Sunday often feels like a long-awaited day of celebration in the season of Lent. We haven't reached Easter yet, but getting to wave palm branches and shout "Hosanna!" still feels like a reprieve from the somber tones of fasting and repentance that have consumed the rest of the season. Yet we forget while we shout "hosanna" that the word is actually a cry of desperation that means, "Lord, please save us!" It is a plea for rescue.

The word used here is the same word that is used in Psalm 118:25-26 “25 Lord, please save us! Lord, please let us succeed! 26 The one who enters in the Lord’s name is blessed; we bless all of you from the Lord’s house.”

The people in the crowds that day weren't singing songs of joy and worship in the ways that we typically think of those things; they were singing songs of liberation. They were an oppressed people who needed a savior-and not in a metaphorical sense but in a very real sense-because they were suffering, and they longed to be saved.

Sometimes we ridicule the crowd from that day as though they missed the point of Jesus's coming. We treat their expectation for a political revolutionary to come in and overthrow the current government as ludicrous. Yet wouldn't anyone in their circumstances long for the same?

The truth is that, even though Jesus came in unexpected ways, peaceful instead of violent, humble instead of flashy, he did come to liberate them. His liberation was going to look very different from what they thought, but it was never meant to be about a spirituality that was separated from the physical suffering of the oppressed; it was meant to encompass all of it.

One of the hymns in our hymnbook sings about the freedom that is ours in Jesus.

Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters, Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain; But I received a glorious freedom, When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.

Refrain: Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom, No more in chains of sin I repine! Jesus the glorious Emancipator, Now and forever He shall be mine.

If we aren't careful, we can gloss over all of that reality when we try to rush to the praise and celebration of Palm Sunday.

If we aren't careful, we can gloss over our own realities, our own suffering and pain, our own need for a Savior in the entirety of our spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical lives. We can gloss over the deep-hearted cries of "Hosanna!"-a humble, desperate cry for a Savior that we very much still need to be crying out in our world today.

The Unusual King

There was a pattern and tradition to triumphal entries in Rome. The Roman triumph was the highest honor granted to emperors and generals in the Roman Empire.

It was a procession into the city of Rome, led by government officials, followed by sacrificial animals for the temples of the Roman gods, followed by the champion in a chariot, usually wearing purple regalia, followed by the champion's captives of war.

This processional was given to honor those who were victorious in war. It included festivals, dancing, singing, and flower petals strewn upon the ground.

The path for the processional was often intentionally cleaned and prepared in advance to usher in the triumphant victor of war.

Jesus's triumphal entry was different.

He didn't enter into the city of Rome, the heart of the empire. He went into Jerusalem, the location of the temple and the heart of the Jewish faith.

He did not entering as a victor of war. Instead, he marched toward his own death- which was a victorious act of a different kind. Jesus's triumphal entry is an example of the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God, where victory comes through humility rather than the violent means of conquering a foe.

Finally, instead of a horse and chariot, Jesus rode in on a donkey, another illustration of humility. Donkeys were pack animals, not war animals, and they were also a symbol of peace, as opposed to horses, which symbolized war and victory.

Jesus's departure from the norm wasn't just in his triumphal entry; it was in the way he was born and lived his life.

The triumphal entry obviously illustrates the ways that Jesus is using Roman symbols in a different way, but his entire life was dedicated to a different way. He was born in a stable, not a palace, and welcomed by shepherds rather than nobility. His ministry confounded Jewish leaders as he healed on the Sabbath, ministered to gentiles, humanized women, and pushed back against other religious norms that marked him as different.

The Holistic Liberator

At my job I talk to my clients about taking a holistic approach to their treatment. What I mean is addressing their entire life. I do that because that is how Jesus ministered.

Jesus freed people physically.

He performed miracles of healing that restored sight, mobility, health, and even life from death.

He also performed miracles that met basic needs, like hunger and thirst (feeding the multitudes, turning water into wine, helping the disciples catch fish).

Ron Lavin wrote:

It is hard to heal those who are sick, especially if they don't believe that they are sick. It is hard to heal when you yourself are sick. It is so hard that no one can accomplish the task of healing -- at least not by human power alone. Healing and cleansing are the work of God. Some of the difficulty with this predicament comes from the multitude of misunderstandings about healing. One misunderstanding comes from how you define healing. The Bible defines healing in terms of salvation. To be saved does not just mean going to heaven. Salvation means wholeness. Wholeness includes the body. The Bible defines healing in holistic terms.

Jesus sent his followers out to heal. Some people see healing as limited to the body. They are aware of physical pain and suffering, and see doctors, nurses, and hospitals as the only means of dealing with their maladies. Some people are not aware of the mental and spiritual sides of healing, and some are not aware of the fact that faith can play a major role in healing.

Disease literally means "not at ease." Disease is disharmony, disturbance, dysfunction, derangement, or disunity in the parts of the whole person. Healing means restoration of the unity of the body, the mind, and the spirit. The disease which seems bodily may be mental at root; the disease which seems mental may be spiritual; the disease which seems individual may be social at the same time. The human spirit must be reunited with the God's divine Spirit for wholeness to be restored. That's why repentance is mentioned with healing in this text.

"Heal the sick" means to help people regain their lives as a whole. For example, standing in front of a starving man while preaching the gospel, but neglecting to feed him, adds to his sickness rather than restores his health. For a medical doctor to take out a stomach ulcer, but to neglect the condition which gave rise to the ulcer -- whether it is spiritual, psychological, or sociological -- is far less than the healing Jesus calls for. Healers are called to do more.

Jesus's resurrection is the ultimate testament to God's liberation of the physical body because in Jesus's resurrection we get a glimpse of the type of bodily resurrection that awaits us all.

Jesus freed people in social ways too.

He freed people from bondage to destructive systems, calling people to live according to a different way. He called tax collectors to stop cheating people; he called the wealthy to lives of scandalous generosity. He called laborers to rest from their toils. He pronounced blessings upon the poor. He overturned tables in the temple to illustrate his intolerance of injustice and exploitation.

Jesus called people out of legalism, breaking religious rules by being willing to physically touch and talk to women who weren't part of his immediate family; by healing on the Sabbath; and by touching the diseased, who were considered unclean.

Jesus called people out of their own systems of prejudice by recasting a hated ethnic group (Samaritans) as heroic and/or worthy of his personal attention; by honoring and prioritizing women; and by socializing with outcasts and sinners.

Jesus freed people from spiritual destruction.

He cast out demons, pointed people toward God, called his followers to righteousness, and urged the people to repent of their sins.

In every way imaginable, Jesus sought to save people from sin, destruction, and brokenness.

The People's Savior

The road that led through Jerusalem was the same road that led to the cross. The work of Christ had already begun. He had already begun saving people, but the work came to a point of atonement through the cross.

The death of Christ is the ultimate act of liberation from sin, the work continues in the resurrection as the liberation from death, and it will come to completion when Christ finally returns to make all things right.

The Savior was present in the people's midst in Jerusalem. They just didn't understand that the way to be freed wasn't through power and control but through love and humility. They longed to claim the kingdom of the world, but Jesus longed to give them the kingdom of heaven.

We are reminded here that Jesus taught his disciples to pray that the kingdom of God would come on earth as it is in heaven. He taught that the true liberation would be not an escape of souls to heaven but the joining of the earth with heaven in restored fullness.

Despite their lack of understanding, the cries of "Hosanna!" were being answered in the very midst of those shouting it. The already/not-yet kingdom of God was firmly established around them through the presence of Christ-the Messiah.

Hosanna

We often miss the kingdom of God in our midst today in much the same way the crowd did that day in Jerusalem. We look for a political hero, or we look for fulfillment in idols of our own making.

We get bogged down in despair when the problems of the world feel too big for us, so we stop looking for solutions. We stop up our ears to the cries for liberation around us when the task feels insurmountable.

We ignore our own deep need for liberation because surrender to transformation is uncomfortable. We fear what we are being called to. We struggle with what it means to be vulnerable. We allow shame to narrate our lives.

Jesus longs for our true and holistic liberation-physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. He longs to liberate us from our systems of sin and social oppression-racism, sexism, greed, our lust for power and control. He longs to liberate oppressors and oppressed from our systems of sin.

Jesus came to save us-to respond to the deepest cries of "Hosanna!" We must be open and surrender ourselves to that work by reflecting on the ways we've fallen short, repenting and turning toward Christ and away from sin, surrendering to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and joining the work and mission of God in the world to share the good news.

Hosanna-Lord, please save us! We cry out from the deepest and most broken places of our lives. When we stop and listen, we can hear that cry all around us as well. We can see the consequences of sin and brokenness in so many places, and feel the deep need for a Savior.

We cry out, and others cry out, yet we know that while we cry God is already answering our cries. God already answered those cries when coming to earth to take on humanity. To show us another way. To reveal to us a better way to live. To heal, to restore, to say the hard words that needed to be said that would free us from bondage. We know that Jesus hears our "Hosanna" cries, is with us, and answers us.

The journey that day in Jerusalem was a parade to the cross, not a throne. Yet the greatest kingdom of all was being declared. The kingdom of God is present here, and we are invited to participate in it now, but still we pray that that kingdom would come in its fullness. We pray that the Savior would come again to make all things right, and we trust that he will.

We are still in Lent. We declare our humanity and our need for a Savior.

Where do you need a Savior today?

Where is Jesus seeking to free you?

What systems is Jesus seeking to tear down?

Where are you being called to join in the work of the kingdom of God?

Whose cries for salvation are you being urged to listen to more deeply?

May we surrender fully to the saving power of Jesus. May we confidently cry out, "Lord, please save us!" with the knowledge that our cries are already heard. May we stop trying to find our salvation in anything but Christ alone, that we may truly see the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.