Make Some Noise
Because of our herald and proclamation, no one should ever be confused about exactly who Jesus is.
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Sermonic Claim
A Very Great Multitude
what they were saying: See Matthew 21:9
What they meant by what they said
Noise: An Attention Grabber
A Response from the Noisy Crowd
This is the prophet Jesus’ ” (v. 11). Yes, Jesus is a prophet like Moses, but he is more than a prophet or even the prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15). He is, as the crowd shouts, echoing the blind men in 20:30 and the children in 21:15, “the Son of David!” (v. 9). He is the prophet. He is the long-awaited King.
But is he not more than prophet and king? Is he not, as Bruner beautifully puts it, “the lowly Lord, the human God.… Emmanuel … the true God-with-us in a truly human way, at our level: God on a donkey”? Is he not, as I’ll put it, the Son of God on the child of a donkey, the one who came to save us (1:21)? Hosanna. Save us, Lord. And is he not also the one we still long for, to come in power at the true triumphal entry? He is! And thus we still cry out (echoing and expanding upon Psalm 118:25, 26), “Hosanna”—“save us!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!” Hosanna in the highest! Prophet, King, Savior, come again. The earth still shakes, and we still shout, “Come and save us.”