The Crowd’s “Hosanna” & the Humble Christ | Monday Invocation
Those in front of [Jesus] and those following were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Mark 11:9 CEB
Yesterday, we began anew the season of Holy Week in the Church calendar by observing Palm Sunday. If you participated in a service, you might have seen (or even been given) palm fronds to wave and lay down in the aisle. Some churches even recite the crowds shouts of “hosanna,” going through the motions of the story as told by the gospels.
Palm Sunday, which anchors the start of Holy Week, serves as a “beginning of the end” in the accounts of Jesus’s life. It frames a swift descent from Messiah to criminal, from adoration to scorn.
It’s difficult to fathom how quickly this could happen. On Sunday, Jesus was a king to the crowds that welcomed him into Jerusalem. He was worshiped and celebrated as a liberator, the Anointed One the scriptures foretold would bring an end to the people’s occupation and suffering.
Yet, through each point in Jesus’s journey to his death, despite the fickleness of the crowds and the assertion of power by their oppressors, the praises offered that preceding Sunday remained true:
Hosanna. Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
The humble Christ, kneeling before his closest friends, bathing their dusty feet in an act of love and intimacy, was infinitely worthy of the crowd’s chant:
Hosanna. Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Afraid and alone, having sweated blood as he prayed in anguish for the Creator’s will to be done, Jesus was arrested by one of his disciples. Ushered away by his captors for 30 pieces of silver, the call reverberated:
Hosanna. Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Flogged, mocked, and crowned with thorns, he was nailed to a wooden stake and hung in a public space to drive fear into those who would challenge imperial supremacy. In the resistance to oppression, in solidarity with the abused and suffering, we join the crowd’s hopeful cry:
Hosanna. Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Near death and struggling to breathe, he asked that his murderers be forgiven, and having commended his spirit to the Creator, breathed his last. Humiliated and utterly broken, we see the sharpest contrast between the experiences of his followers and the crowd’s welcome from just five days earlier:
Hosanna. Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
And three days later, early in the morning, the crowd’s “hosanna” met its greatest fulfillment as the Christ, humbled to the point of death, conquered the very violences used against him. Assumed to be a gardener by the woman grieving at the tomb, he brings to bear the good news of resurrection, saying only, “Mary.” Nothing would ever be the same.
Hosanna. Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
So as we look to the coming days and our observance of this Good News, may we be grounded in the steadfastness and solidarity of Christ. From hospitality to violence, from life to death to life again, God-in-flesh offers us a message of resounding hope.
May we put our hope in the donkey-riding, frond-stomping, humble Son of God.
