Reflections from “Hosanna!” November 27th, 2011

Let’s face it, God frequently fails to meet our expectations of Him. Thank Him for that! More than one person has complained and tried to justify their lack of faith and skepticism by describing their great efforts to reach out to God, making very specific requests of Him. How often do we hear, “But He let me down!” “He didn’t help me!” “He didn’t answer my prayer!” But is any of this somehow a reflection of God’s inadequacy or is it at the end of the day a commentary on our requests and expectations of God that have little to do with faith? The truth is that our sinful nature positions us to come up with all kinds of false expectations of God. In the end, our so-called “religion” has very little to do with trusting the Lord in view of His sacred revelation to us in His Word, but has everything to do with believing that God is there for us to tell Him what to do. We are the entitled ones, and even God should get with the program and do what we “need” Him to do! I was reminded of this sinful tendency when I came to the text in Mark 11:1-10. The people shouted “Hosanna!” and my question is, “What did they mean?” The answer is probably a conglomerate. There were probably some who meant it in the sense of what true faith does: meeting Christ on His terms and not our own terms, but there were probably others who had fashioned expectations that had very little to do with the true and actual kingdom of God. The word “Hosanna!” itself is militeristic, it comes out of a war context. Psalm 118 has imagery about being surrounded by the enemy. There is a war going on! At verse 25, the inspired author writes, “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!” This is the cry of “Hosanna!” It should not surprise us to learn that there were many fully aware of the militeristic meaning of the cry and they wanted Jesus to be that military conquerer showing the power and might that is impressive to the world. For these people who cried out “Hosanna!” in this sense, Jesus must have been a bitter disappointment.  How and why do you cry out “Hosanna!”? Hopefully, it is in accord with the spirit of the Word for the disciple of Christ. We pray that He would save us from sin, death and the power of the devil. These are our real enemies and for the one who cries to Jesus for this, then the Gospel is proclaimed to say, “mission accomplished!” And for all who trust in this Gospel, they do not merely wait for the kingdom, but are already in the kingdom of God in their midst (Luke 17) which is — as Jesus says — is not of this world (John 18). Let us cry out “Hosanna!” and continue to experience His salvation through Word and Sacrament keeping our lives in His. In Christ, Dr. Espinosa

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