The disciples brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” – Matthew 21:6-11
The word “Hosanna,” heard in many churches on Palm Sunday, has a meaning along the lines of, “Save us.” Something within many of us yearns to be saved. When I have stressors like a cancer diagnosis, financial strain, a conflict with someone else, hear of another threat of war, listen to politicians inflame hatred, see dropping Colorado River levels, I yearn for someone to swoop in and save us, someone to make everything alright.
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In such yearning, we likely experience something similar to many Israelites in the time of Jesus. They wanted someone to come and make it alright, to get rid of the Roman oppressors, to bring a revolution, to make Israel great again. This hope was contained in the word messiah, which means “anointed one” and connects with how kings in Israel were anointed with oil as a sign of God’s presence and authority. People yearned for God to anoint someone who would make everything alright. Some of these people were excited by what Jesus was bringing onto the scene and what God can do, but then got tripped up by political expectations and traditional understandings of power.
I appreciate the imagining of Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” who give voice to this perspective in a song from that musical. Jesus is before the crowds who sing, “Christ you know I love you/Did you see I waved? I believe in you and God/So tell me that I’m saved.” To which Simon the Zealot (a disciple of Jesus) responds by singing these words to Jesus, “There must be over fifty thousand, screaming love and more for you/But every one of fifty thousand would do whatever you asked him to/Keep them yelling their devotion, but add a touch of hate at Rome/You will rise to a greater power/We will win ourselves a home/You will get the power and the glory/For ever and ever and ever.”
Do we know these voices? We want a changed world; we want justice, love and life, yet often we want someone to fix it for us — a leader, a movement, a revolution.
But some early followers of Jesus saw the failed “usual” ways of politics, violence and control — strategies that simply shift power from one finite source to another. They told stories like the one excerpted above from Matthew’s community to call us to a better way, that would not seek an outsider to save us from others, but transforming us from the inside-out to be part of the change we long to see in the world.
As we move into what Christians traditionally call, “Holy Week,” we are called to shift our attention and energy to the Divine, to walk a different path, like Jesus, that seeks not a law or army or leader to fix it for us, but that invites the breath, wisdom and power of the Spirit that transforms us, and that raises us up to live lives and work for ways that bring healing and transformation into the world. I pray it be so for us, trusting, that as we embody this path, this is truly good news for us and for the world.
Such traditions as the Procession of the Cross up "A" Mountain and Easter services are important to many Tucsonans. The youngest of us, however, are more interested in hunting Easter eggs.
Michael T. Bush
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