Read Matthew 21 online here.
“Hosanna!” They cried out as they followed the Messiah into Jerusalem.
— Gustave Dore
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
At long last, four hundred years since the prophets of old had proclaimed His coming… at long last…
The Messiah…
“Save us we pray, Son of David!”
“Save us we pray to the highest heaven!”
“Blessed is He who come in the name of the Lord… save us, we pray!”
Imagine the multitude that followed the man riding on the robes of His disciples flung over the back of the colt. So many that the whole city of Jerusalem was shaken by their cries…
“Hosanna!” The cried out “Save us we pray!”
Witness the throng following Jesus into Jerusalem! See the tears as they remembered the Lord’s promises that they had heard from their youth from the great Hallel:
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the garbage pile in order to seat them with nobles… (Psalm 113:7-8a HCSB**)
He gives the childless woman a household, the joyful mother of children…(Psalm 113:9)
I was helpless, and He saved me… (Psalm 116:6b)
I will take the cup of salvation and worship the Lord…(Psalm 116:13)
I called to the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me…)Psalm 118:5)
With the Lord for me as my helper, I will look in triumph on those who hate me…(Psalm 118:7)
Lord save us! (Psalm 118:25a)
How many times had those in the crowd called out those words as they were crushed beneath the heel of conquerors, and oppressed by the wealthy or powerful? Seven times? Seventy-seven times?
“Save us we pray!”
“The Messiah has come! We are saved! We are saved!”
How many times have we read this account and pictured a cheering crowd lifting palm fronds and throwing cloaks beneath the colt which bore the Messiah as though it were a choreographed wave of fans at football game lifting foam hands with the forefinger raised?
“We’re number one! We’re number one!”
But no…the people in the crowd following Jesus, that literally shook the city, were not crying out “VICTORY!”.
They were crying out… “HE IS HERE! Save us, we pray!”
“Hosanna!”
At long last, the Messiah had arrived in triumph! He entered the gates of Jerusalem, and rode through the streets of the shaking city to His destination…
As He approached the Temple, those that followed Him quieted… they watched as the joy and triumph drained from His face, replaced by surprise… and then sorrow…and then rage. He slid purposefully from the back of the colt and looked back at the sullen faces of the crowd that only moments before had been crying out, “Save us we pray!”
He turned again to the Temple complex, His shoulders shaking with fury, and began his approach to the tables and merchant stands which littered, and obscured, the very Temple of the one, true God.
The passage reminds me that each and every day I need to evaluate “Where am I?” in my relationship with the Messiah?
Am I following Him daily, tearfully crying out for deliverance? Am I shaking a city with my cry, “Save me Lord, I pray! Save me!”? Am I straining to stretch out my hand, as I crawl through the dust, to just touch the hem of His robe?
Or am I awaiting His return as I ply my trade and enrich my life; knowing that when He returns again, He will furiously overturn all the worldly things that I hold dear, as He clears the way to my heart?
“Hosanna!” They cried out as they followed the Messiah into Jerusalem.
“Save us we pray!”
**All quotes from the Holman Christian Standard Bible
Today's article written by Aaron Morrow.
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