+ Palm Sunday – April 13th, 2025 +
Series C: John 12:12-19; Deuteronomy 32:36-39; Philippians 2:5-11; John 12:20-43
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There are certain words we use that when we say them we know exactly what day it is. Words which mark a momentous occasion. Baseball fans wait all winter to hear those famous words on opening day: play ball! Children go to bed with anticipation and restless energy on Christmas Eve waiting for those magical words the next morning: Merry Christmas!
Palm Sunday is no different. Palm Sunday has a word that marks this momentous and joyous and holy day. It is a prophetic, yet personal word. A word filled with God’s presence and promise. It is a word packed full of salvation, which Jesus comes to bring as he enters Jerusalem. What is the Palm Sunday word? Listen to the crowds.
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 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!”
Hosanna is the Palm Sunday word. On Palm Sunday and every day after, whenever you hear that word – Hosanna – you’re brought back to this day. To the crowds. The cloaks on the road. The palm branches waving. The voices crying out. The Lord, Messiah, King, and Savior Jesus riding on a donkey. The Son of David come to rescue and save the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. On Palm Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem amidst the crowds shouting Hosanna, even as he is the Lord of Hosanna. He is God the Father’s Great Hosanna come to save us.
For that is what his name and this word means. Jesus’ name is YHWH saves. Hosanna is another great Hebrew word: save us! Save us now! O Lord, save indeed! It’s a word of prayer and word of praise all at once. A crying out to the Lord to save and a shout of praise to the Lord who saves. It is a divine exclamation mark on everything Jesus has done and is about to do.
Hosanna is also an old, ancient word. The Palm Sunday crowds didn’t just make this up on the spot. No. Hosanna is the word of prayer and praise found in Psalm 118. The very psalm sung by the crowds as Jesus enters Jerusalem. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
Hosanna is a messianic word. Back in Psalm 118 – the whole psalm is about the coming Messiah. The Coming One. Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Save us, Lord. Hosanna.
Psalm 118 was also the psalm sung by pilgrims as they went up to Jerusalem for the feast of booths/tabernacles. During that feast, for seven days they would march around the altar once a day. And guess what word was sung? Hosanna. Lord, save us. And on the 8th day of the feast they marched around the altar 7 times and 7 times they said the holy word of prayer and praise…Hosanna. Lord, save us. This was known as the “Great Hosanna”.
No wonder the crowds greeted Jesus with these words: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
Here he is at last. The Messiah foretold by the psalms and prophets. The Name of the Lord in human frame. The Lord of all and yet the God-man. David’s Son and David’s Lord. The King of Israel and our Royal Redeemer. Jesus is the Greatest Hosanna for he is the one who enters Jerusalem to do what this word cries out to God to do. Hosanna. Lord, save us.
For the crowds are not the only ones who cry out: Hosanna. Lord, save us. So do we. As we sit in doctors’ offices awaiting uncertain test results, we cry out, Hosanna. As we look at our own families with broken relationships, broken marriages, broken lives…we cry out, Hosanna. Standing by the graveside of a loved one or a close friend, through our tears…we cry out, Hosanna. Weighed down by our guilt and haunted by our shame and finding no help when we look to ourselves…we cry out, Hosanna. Does our Lord hear us, we wonder? Does he care? Will he rescue? Will he save? Will he Hosanna?
Jesus answers the crowds’ cries for rescue and our own Hosannas with another word of prophecy and promise and his peace.
“Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's colt!”
Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem is God’s promise that all our Hosannas do not fall on deaf ears, but rather fall on the ears of him who hears your cries for mercy and rescue and who is himself the answer and deliverance we so desperately need. Fear not. Your King is here. Today on a donkey. And soon, on the cross. Today shouts of Hosanna. Soon, shouts of crucify. Today the palm branches. Soon, the wood of the tree and the hyssop branch and the crown of thorns. Today Hosanna. Soon, the Greatest Hosanna of them all.
For there on the cross God answers all our cries for Hosanna, Lord save us, with his own cry of “it is finished.”
Today we join the Palm Sunday crowds in that word of prayer and praise: Hosanna. Lord, save us. Knowing he has. He does. He will.
Today we join the festive crowds of Psalm 118 as we come around his altar to receive the Great Hosanna – the Lord save us – in his body and blood. Blessed are you who come in the name of the Lord.
Today our Lord gives us a word that he keeps and answers without fail. Hosanna. Lord, save us.
A blessed Palm Sunday to each of you…
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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