Holy Week - Palm Sunday

The people shouted,

Hosanna!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!

Hosanna in the highest heaven (Mark 11.9,10)!

Hosanna literally means "save now" and is cry out to God deeply rooted in feelings of brokenness. But, only those who cry Hosanna are ones who feel a need for saving. The crowds following Jesus inside Jerusalem were ready to be saved, and they believed Jesus was going to save them as he symbolically claimed himself as King riding into Jerusalem.

One problem: Jesus was ready to save them as well, but was not the kind of saviour his followers were expecting. The Kingdom of Jesus was very different from David's, but this was the Kingdom he was inviting all to be a part of.

The power of Jesus' Kingdom is made perfect through weakness. Its presence is only found through sacrifice. It's retaliation is nothing but love. Its security is its vulnerability. Its people's lives are broken but hopeful. Their hearts are filled with love to be poured out on others. Their lives smell of the humility that others find too disgusting to even take a whiff of.

And there are adversaries to this Kingdom. These enemies, however, can't be seen. Their goal: to keep you from singing Hosanna! at the top of your lungs each day.

The Disciple sings when the enemy surrounds:

Psalm 56 (NRSV)

¹Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me;
all day long foes oppress me;
²my enemies trample on me all day long,
for many fight against me.
O Most High, ³when I am afraid,

^{I put my trust in you.}

⁸You have kept count of my tossings (wanderings);
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your record?
⁹Then my enemies will retreat
on the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
¹⁰In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise,

HOSANNA!

So where are you? Are you yelling desperately Hosanna this week? If not, why is your heart blind? If yes, are you expecting the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of (you). Are you ready to lay down all that Christ asks you to relinquish in order to be part of His Kingdom? Are you ready to lay your crown before at His feet?

To become holy we need humility and prayer. Jesus taught us how to pray, and He also told us to learn from Him to be meek and humble of heart. Both humility and prayer grow from an ear, mind, and tongue that have lived in silence with God, for in the silence of the heart God speaks. ~Mother Theresa, In the Heart of the World, 1997, pp 97-98)

Your saviour is coming...

Hosanna