Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Can you hear the rustling of the palm branches waving above you? Can you hear their voices giving praise to the King who is come? Can you feel the multitude pressing in around you, their spirited song resounding with, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"? At least, I think they were singing as this declaration comes from Psalm 118. This Psalm of praise to God was (and is) sung or said every Passover. After all, that is why Jesus and his disciples were heading into Jerusalem that day... they were coming for the Passover Feast, the festival of giving praise and thanks to God for his deliverance of his people. Did the multitude know they were welcoming God's Deliverance on that very first Palm Sunday?

Hosanna! means Save us, Lord! And, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! is praise to God who comes to save us, praise for the one who comes as King to deliver God's people. In Psalm 118 Israel remembers God's faithfulness, his loyal love to them ... to save them and deliver them from oppression, from troubles that surround them, from their own waywardness. With these same words, we remember God's faithfulness, his loyal love for us ... that saves us. We say these words every time we celebrate the Eucharist - our Passover Feast of thanksgiving and praise to God for Him who delivered us from sin and death ... for Jesus. Pull out your Bible. Read Psalm 118 out loud. Let your voice join the throngs of the ages who have welcomed Jesus as their King and Deliverer. Yes, out loud!

Why out loud? Well, it gets back to the questions posed yesterday:  How are we going to walk in this journey of Holy Week? Who are we going to be each day as we walk through it with Jesus our Lord? By saying these words out loud we remind ourselves of God's faithfulness and loyal love to us ... His people. We remind ourselves to give thanks and praise to him for saving and delivering us from all that oppresses us, from the troubles that surround us, from our own waywardness. We also remind ourselves that we have the same temptation of the throng from that first Palm Sunday ... the temptation to cry out with them at the end of this week, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"

How will we walk this journey of Holy Week? Who are we going to be each day as we walk with Jesus our Lord?

This is the Golden Gate where Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem. Zechariah 9:9 says,  "Rejoice greatly, O [people] of Zion! Shout aloud, O [people] of Zion! 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."

*Riding on a donkey was a sign of peace and prosperity.