The Wrong Kind of Hosanna

I think I spend a huge portion of my life singing the wrong kind of Hosanna.  The other morning at church we sang, “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.”  Hosanna means “Save us!”  As Palm Sunday approaches we think of that first century day when the multitudes waved their palm branches and lay their clothes on the road crying out those very words, “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:6-11).   I think how interesting it is that as we sing the very words from the first century, so we make the same mistakes they did as well.  See, the disciples and the multitudes were expecting Jesus to establish an earthly reign.  They wanted an earthly Kingdom. They wanted freedom from the oppression of the Romans. They wanted Jesus to forcefully seize control of the political realm and establish an earthly reign in Jerusalem.  And this kick-off event of the Passion Week reveals their anticipation that Jesus would indeed be their new king.  They wave the branches and lay down their clothes, getting ready for Jesus to take over and reign.

But then He goes and dies instead. 

See it’s easy for us to think how foolish they were. All along Jesus kept emphasizing that His Kingdom was not an earthly one. He kept upsetting their expectations.  Kept turning everything upside down. The least is the greatest. Humble yourself to be exalted.  When asked by Pilate if He is king of the Jews, Jesus responds plainly: “My Kingdom is not of this world.”  But no one seemed to understand all this until He rose.  Then as He meets once again with the disciples, after His resurrection, He opens their eyes, and “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). They finally get it. 

Do we?

His purpose all along was to reach down to earth that He might bring deliverance to His people and populate The Kingdom of Heaven.  We know all this right? I mean we know that Jesus isn’t running for President of the United States of America.  We’re going to heaven, and this isn’t it.

But how mixed up I become! How often I seek the wrong kind of salvation. How often I forget that Jesus didn’t save me in order to set up a glorious happy Kingdom here in this life, on this earth.  This earth and everything in it is passing away–merely a breath.  I spend probably 90% of my life and time and energy praying and thinking and asking for blessings here on earth. And don’t get me wrong, I want to receive them! But how much better to pray, as one godly professor of mine put it, “Thy Kingdom come, my kingdom go.”  Yes, God loves to do miracles such as provide houses, lower interest rates, give jobs, heal sickness, and answer the multitudes of prayers that we offer up to Him.  But I need to be reminded that I’m not on this earth to be special, I’m here to be useful (thanks Beth Moore for reminding me).  It’s fun to be God’s chosen princess, to believe in Him and be the recipient of amazing blessings. But I”m not here on this earth to experience earthly deliverance from hardship, I’m not here to sit with my hands open and just receive His treasures and sit around and look at them and celebrate how fun they are. I’m here to work! I cry, “Hosanna–Lord save me!”  and if I were really to spell out what they means in my heart it’s probably, “Hosanna–Lord save me by providing a house for me and by giving me more sleep and by making my husband really happy all the time and by giving us a wonderful marriage and by making my children behave and not embarrass me and by making it so we don’t have financial stress and by helping me lose those last ten pregnancy pounds and by making me not so stressed and emotional.  Yes, Lord! Save me!”  Ugh. See my point?  Anybody else feel so consumed by triviality that the Kingdom of God becomes the last thing on your to-do list?  Just like the multitudes two-thousand years ago, I think perhaps I sing the wrong kind of Hosanna.