Hosanna! Save Us!
“Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10″Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest!” Mark 11: 9-10
Jesus’ mind-warping triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a little borrowed donkey must have taken the masses by surprise. They knew he was on his way into the city and also that He had been openly announcing the coming of a new kingdom. They waited for this moment with baited breath, the conquering King would come and make things right, bring down the corrupt powers that be and release the Jewish nation from the Roman occupation.
But, in God’s upside-down Kingdom, the King doesn’t conquer with a sword on a white steed. Rather, by design, He chose another Way. Ignoring the powers that be and the systems of the world, He introduced the Way of love, in which God’s strength bursts forth in weakness and less means more. In spite of the symbolic message he was sending the crowds by his less than impressive entrance on a lowly donkey, the crowds maintained their focus on the false expectation for liberation from the all encompassing system of the empire that had them all enslaved. “Hosanna! SAVE US NOW!” was their cry. And it was a cry that came from a longing much deeper than the usual liturgical exclamations we make in our churches during Palm Sunday.
My question is, “shouldn’t our present day context compel us to shout from the depths of our souls the very same cry?” Shouldn’t we be exclaiming, “HOSANNA, SAVE US!” more often? Don’t we have the need for the same liberating King to come free us from our slavery to the empire and systems of this world?
The truth is that we know the King has indeed come. We understand that His triumph did not come as we all expected it to. We confess our enslavement to our old patterns, our old selves, and our old destructive “ways”. And in our hearts we accept Jesus. We confess our desire to become new creatures in a new system that our King established–the new “kingdom” he willingly gave His life for. But how easy it is for us to become entangled. How easy it is for us to mock His death, His power…His triumph by our adherence to the kingdom of this world.
The RdC network churches we serve and support as DCC are increasingly aware of the blatant influence and control the world and her logic holds over us. This world and its ways are normal to us. As the Church, “the called out ones,” we are commissioned to reveal the new Kingdom way of Jesus to the world bringing hope and transformation. We are called, in fear and trembling, to jump off that which the world claims is stable and safe, and to let go of the rope we so desperately cling to, in order to fall into the grace of the Kingdom of God.
A kingdom where less is more, the humble are exalted, the weak are strong, and the smallest, most silent and imperceptible bit of yeast of truth permeates until it reveals an integrated “wholeness” in the most blatant and beautiful way.
HOSANNA! Rescue us! Shake us free from our conformity and slumber! Wake us up to your reality and make us useful instruments in your hands!