Hosanna!

Sermon Companion to “Hosanna!” preached on March 29, 2026

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29   |   Matthew 21:1-11

I’ve always felt that Palm Sunday has had this mysterious feel to it.  How could the same people who shouted “Hosanna,” waving palm branches and laying down their cloaks over the dirt for a royal and grand entrance into Jerusalem be the same people who would shout “Crucify him” just a few days later?  The days that exist between Palm Sunday and Good Friday are either not talked about enough or it’s as if we’re talking about two different groups of people.  I’ve stayed above the fray for too long and this year I decided to take a deep dive to learn how someone could shout “Hosanna” and “Crucify him” within a matter of days.  And in the process, I’ve learned so much.

For instance, I knew about Passover in a broad sense, but not necessarily culturally.  There’s elements of liberation, protection, and of course deliverance.  It’s certainly not a coincidence that the Passion of Jesus occurred on Passover.  But, what I did not know was the pilgrimage of Passover.  This wasn’t a ‘worship where you were’ type of situation.  Instead, the population of Jerusalem swelled from 50,000 to over 200,000 during this time, coming from all over that region.

Jerusalem was the central hub where people came because the Temple had been restored after the Maccabean Revolt.  Passover brought in not only the public to Jerusalem, but also Roman officials.  Imagine the contrast between Pontius Pilate riding on a horse through the streets with chariots beside him compared to Jesus riding a donkey, with a colt following nearby.  Power is contrasted with restraint; force is contrasted alongside peace.

This was certainly a change the people yearned for as they believed Jesus would be the one who would finally be the one who would stand up to the Roman authorities just as Judas Maccabeus did a few centuries earlier during the Maccabean Revolt.  At that time, Greeks ruled over Jewish life and the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek (known as the Septuagint). The Greeks did not respect the Temple at all.  Judas Maccabeus was the one who stood up to the Greek authorities and restored the temple.  One of the great festivals of Jewish life is known as Hanukkah, or the Festival of Dedication, which came from the temple being dedicated once again.  I find it interesting that the Maccabean Revolt is the backdrop behind much of the mindset of Palm Sunday that Protestants tend to miss as it is told in the Apocrypha.

This of course took me down an even larger deep dive into the Apocrypha as it was nothing I had fully understood.  Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions recognize the Apocrypha as sacred writings.  However, because the Apocrypha was written in Greek and not Hebrew, it was not included in the Hebrew Bible.  During the Reformation, Protestants adopted the Hebrew Bible to represent what we would consider to be our Old Testament canon, rather than the Septuagint translation, and so for the majority of Protestants, the Apocrypha was omitted.  Despite the context of Hanukkah and despite the stories of the temple being restored to the Jewish people and overcoming Greek authorities, it just did not make the cut for what Protestants at the time would consider important sacred works to be included in the biblical canon.

The people who lined the streets on Palm Sunday, waving palm branches and laying down their cloaks (both strong references to Old Testament texts with Jehu and Feast of Tabernacles), they believed Jesus would be the one to overcome the Roman authorities just as Judas Maccabeus did a few centuries earlier.  There was such excitement and so much anticipation.  This was the man who was healing people on the Sabbath, who was not afraid to go toe to toe with the Pharisees and Sadducees, did not seem to be intimidated.  Jesus makes his way into Jerusalem and the expectations are higher than ever, and then they see him not on a horse or riding a chariot, but riding a donkey.  And those expectations were simply not met; their hopes were diminished.

This wasn’t necessarily something that shouldn’t be surprising.  Jesus was consistent with his actions and teaching.  When they shouted, “Hosanna!” Jesus heard their cries of “Save us now!” but his way of saving them was not what they had in mind.  And so doubt rose among them, questions began to circulate, and the crowd simply fell in line once again with the Roman authorities.  And shouts of “Hosanna” gradually changed to shouts of “Crucify him!”  Their excitement and anticipation shifted to anger and resentment.  They simply did not understand what would occur.  Thank God their story did not end there, but that grace was poured out for all.