Hosanna for What? (Palm Sunday)

As Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, the people spread their cloaks on the road, wave palm branches and cry out, “Hosanna!” The word is not a shout of praise but a plea: “Save us, please.” Yet only five days later those same people have become a crowd shouting for him to be crucified.

The salvation they longed for was worldly power to free them from Roman oppression, but the salvation Jesus meant to give was the restoration of a broken relationship with God. From the moment humanity was driven out of Eden for its disobedience, it stood under God’s judgment with no way of escape, and Jesus gave himself as a ransom to close that gap. The crowd that turned away as soon as Jesus’ path parted from their expectations is also a picture of ourselves, for whenever God’s work runs contrary to what we expect, we too can all too easily end up standing against him.

This is the time to ask whether we are holding on to success and prosperity in this world more tightly than to salvation. Each day we must lift our gaze from ourselves back to God, so that our thanksgiving and our lives do not go separate ways, and so that we do not quietly slip our own merit in alongside the merit of Christ. The salvation already received comes not from our devotion but wholly from grace, and within that grace all that remains is to live out with joy the Kingdom of God, which will be brought to completion with Jesus at his return.