Hosanna!
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Psalm 118:22-27.
22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
23 This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
Praise Yahweh, for he has saved us by his grace! Hallelujah!
Matthew 21:1-5.
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
Jesus asks his disciples to do a peculiar thing. They are to retrieve a donkey and her foal from a stranger. They are to tell the owner, “The Lord needs them.”
Jesus is asking his disciples to do something uncomfortable and to trust him in the journey.
We are often called to do uncomfortable things for the Lord. Though none of us are going to have to go into town and retrieve donkeys for Jesus, yet all of us are called to bear witness to the Lord’s work in our circles of influence, and this we can find to be awkward and uncomfortable.
The challenge, then, is to embrace, with the disciples, the awkward and uncomfortable calling of Jesus to bear witness to him, thus trusting him in the journey.
Will you trust him in the journey?
The gospel authors are referencing Zechariah 9:9.
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
In this OT passage, the prophet Zechariah sees the first and second coming of Jesus, the Messiah, as one event. In the NT. the gospel writers draw a distinction between the two comings of Jesus, the Christ.
In his first coming, he comes as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. He is humble, mounted on a donkey, coming to bring peace between the Trinity and humanity. This peace is not brought through war, but through sacrifice, as Jesus said in Mark 10:45.
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Paul also reminds us of this, and our role in it, in 2 Corinthians 5:11-21.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Let us then embrace the awkwardness, and be ambassadors of peace for the King of kings.
In the second coming, Jesus comes to bring peace through war, as seen in Revelation 19:11-21. He comes, not riding a donkey, but on a white horse, and in righteousness he will judge and make war on all those who have rejected his offering of peace. He will then fulfill the rest of Zechariah 9:10-17, bringing peace through war and ushering in his thousand-year reign here on earth.
For he is the King of kings and Lord of lords and he will reign forever and ever.
We all look forward to the justice of his second coming, and yet we still have a longing for the world to be reconciled to the Trinity.
Mark 11:4-6.
4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it.
5 And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.
When we obey what he has told us to do, even when it is awkward and uncomfortable, the Holy Spirit goes before us, preparing the way. The Spirit of God had prepared the owner of the donkeys to offer them freely.
I would dare to say that the same Spirit has prepared the way for each of us to be ambassadors in our circles of influence, proclaiming Yahweh has saved us.
Luke 19:35-38.
35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.
36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road.
37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen,
38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
John 12:13-15.
13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
Hosanna! Jesus our King has come to save us. Worship him, the King of kings, for he has brought us peace with the Trinity.
It is important to know what we are saying when we say, “Hosanna.” Hosanna is a transliteration of the two Hebrew words “hosia” (meaning save us), and “anna” (meaning please). These words are taken from Psalm 118:25. So when we say “hosanna” we are crying out to Yahweh for salvation.
May we cry “hosanna” in one voice with the saints of the past for the salvation of the Lord to please come.
May it come to our planet. May it come to our country. May it come to our state. May it come to our county. May it come to our village. May it come to our neighborhoods. May it come to our families. May it come into our hearts. Oh! May the salvation of Yahweh please come to us today!
Behold, the salvation of Yahweh has come, and his name is Jesus, the King of kings.
There is salvation in no other name under heaven by which we are saved.
Therefore, believe and rest in his salvation, for he has saved us.
Luke 19:39-40.
39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”
40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
May we shout out his praise, for he has saved us.
Let us not listen to those who would silence the praise which is due Yahweh, for he is worthy of all praise - so much so that if we are silent, the very stones of earth will cry out his majesty and glory. Oh, may we praise the Lord together and shout out his praise. Praise the Lord!
John 12:16-19.
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness.
18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.
19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
Hosanna, O Yahweh!
Thank you for saving us. Thank you for the privilege to shout out your praise. Thank you for making us ministers of your salvation. May we, as the crowd did, go after you, proclaiming what you have done.
Jesus, our King, you have saved us and we worship and proclaim you!