Calvary Road Baptist Church
“TODAY YOU SAY ‘HOSANNA’”
Matthew 21.9
The
last city the Lord Jesus passed through on His final journey to Jerusalem was
the city of Jericho, whose prominent citizens were for the most part either of
the priestly caste or the publicans, those tax collectors who collaborated with
the Roman occupiers to squeeze oppressive taxes from the downtrodden
population. In
We
have already seen, in Luke 19.11-27, that the Lord Jesus Christ disabused His
followers that any such thing was immediately about to happen. However, you
know how people are. When they want something badly enough, they sometimes
believe that wanting something to be is sufficient to make it come to pass. Little
did our Lord’s followers and admirers realize that a conspiracy was already
being hatched against Him for having earlier raised Lazarus from the dead.[4] It seems
that Jesus and His apostles arrived in the vicinity of
How did the people respond to Him? Matthew 21.8-9 is our text for today. When you find those two verses, please stand and read along silently as I read aloud:
8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.
9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
Consider how they responded to the Savior, both initially and eventually, in a message from God’s Word that I have titled, “Today You Say “Hosanna.’”
Three considerations:
First, WE CONSIDER
THEIR CELEBRATION OF JESUS CHRIST
In
“Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” Those were the chantings of the multitudes in the procession. Can you imagine spending your whole life hearing about the greatness of your people in the days of David and Solomon, a thousand years earlier, but having to face the oppression and humiliation of occupiers every day of your life, and now being excited at the prospect that the long-awaited Messiah had finally arrived to overthrow Rome and restore Israel’s greatness?
What did those words mean? You may remember that I recently told you that blind Bartimaeus, back in Jericho, was the first person in the gospels to publicly proclaim our Lord to be the Messiah, when he hollered, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me,” in Luke 18.38. Now, just a few days later, and perhaps instigated by the words of that once blind beggar, they were crying “Hosanna,” “proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah and He let them do it. ‘Hosanna’ means ‘Save, we pray thee.’”[6]
Imagine the Lord Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem through the East Gate, riding on the colt of a donkey, people spreading their garments on the ground before Him, laying down palm branches for the colt to walk on, and crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” My friends, they were celebrating my Lord Jesus Christ.
Next, WE CONSIDER
THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST
How does such a thing as the crucifixion happen less than a week after His triumphal entry? One day people are crying out Hosanna, and a few days later they are angrily shouting “Crucify Him. Crucify Him.” How are we to explain that from a human perspective? There are a number of factors that go into it, considering the whole thing from our perspective:
First,
of course, He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot. Sold for thirty pieces of silver.
We know the man was a thief before he betrayed the Master, so it is likely that
his motive was purely one of greed.[7] However,
we also know that when Judas departed the upper room, Satan entered into him
and spurred him on.[8] We know
that thieves shall not inherit the
Next,
of course, His disciples abandoned Him. You understand that the evening before
His crucifixion the Lord Jesus Christ took eleven of His apostles to the
Third, you will remember that Simon Peter denied Him. This was sometime later, at the home of the high priest, Caiaphas.[12] Peter had followed the soldiers and Jesus there after they took Him into custody. Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ predicted Peter’s denials despite Peter’s pronouncement that he would never deny the Lord.[13] You have to wonder what might have happened had Peter stirred things up instead of cowering as he did. What if he had gone from door to door, waking people up and announcing the shenanigans those Jewish rulers were up to? It is likely he could have gathered crowds who would have demanded the Lord’s release, or would have at least temporarily squelched any conspiracy of have Him quickly crucified.
Fourth, the mass of people simply ignored Him. To be sure, a whole bunch of people shouted and praised Him the day of His triumphal entry. However, days had passed and He had become old news. People returned to their high holy days routines, being totally religious while completely ignoring God, God’s plan, and God’s Son.
Fifth, the rulers of the Jews conspired against Him. They had been doing their dirty work of planning Jesus’ death in secret, sneaking around and whispering behind closed doors for a long time now. Therefore, when they made their move, they knew they had to arrange for His arrest in the dark of night, and for His trials to take place in the dim hours of the morning. The plotters also knew they had to move quickly, so there would be no chance to mount a defense against their charges, and so none of the Sanhedrin who were sympathetic to Jesus would be able to put a stop to them, men such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea.
So you see, everything had to fall perfectly into place for Jesus to be crucified. None of the conspirators had a change of heart. No one leaked the plan. One of the Lord’s own had to betray Him, while the others had to abandon Him for fear. The majority of the people had to be asleep, and relatively unconcerned about this One who had been big news only a couple of days ago.
Finally, CONSIDER
THE SUPERFICIAL NATURE OF THEIR SPIRITUALITY
We know what happened. However, we should ask ourselves how it could have happened. To be sure, the passion and crucifixion of the Son of God was the result of a divine plan that was executed in accordance with God’s grand purpose. Peter described it as “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” during his Pentecostal sermon.[14] However, on a human level, how could it all have happened? Sure, you say Hosanna today, but what will you do in a couple of days?
First, His disciples had to abandon Him. But how could they do that? First John 4.18 sheds some light: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” They ran, they scattered for their lives, they were spooked with fear because they did not love Jesus. Had they loved Him, they would have stood up for Him. Had they stood up for Him, it is unlikely that even if He was arrested He would then have been crucified.
As well, for Him to be crucified, Judas Iscariot had to betray Him. How could he do that? Let me refresh your memory of our Lord’s explanation of the parable of the sower, in Matthew 13.19: “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.” They all thought Judas was one of them. They had no idea who the betrayer Jesus talked about in the upper room would be. However, the wicked one did come to enter in to him, did he not? Judas Iscariot simply did not grasp the reality that you cannot have it all. His love for money instead of love for Jesus opened him up to the worst fate of all, to end his life by suicide and to forever be known as the son of perdition. But for Judas to show them who was Jesus, in that day before photographs and with no pictures, it would have been all but impossible for soldiers to identify Him, and His arrest that night could not have been otherwise accomplished.
Third,
for Jesus to be crucified Simon Peter had to deny Him. Imagine the big fisherman
so scared that he denied the Savior rather than owning up to knowing Him when
asked by the young girl. All he had to say was, “Yes, I was with Him.” Instead,
he denied, and denied, and denied again.[15]
Simon Peter is a classic example of some big guy who has a boat load of
physical courage (after all, he did cut off the ear of Malchus in the
Fourth, for the crucifixion to take place, the multitudes had to ignore Him. Turn to Matthew 13.20-22, where we see an illuminating explanation of their behavior:
20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
The people were quite
willing to shout “Hosanna” a few days ago. They were very excited about Jesus
when He first rode into town. Their enthusiasm endured for a while. Then other
things occupied their attention. With some it was the mundane affairs of
everyday life. With others it might have been concern about the consequences of
being at odds with the religious rulers, or even the Romans. With most it was a
simple matter of sleep. You have a right to your sleep, don’t you? After all,
even the apostles went to sleep after the Lord told them to by all means stay
awake. However, if even a few people in
Finally,
for the crucifixion to take place the rulers of the Jews had to conspire
against Him. What an evil conspiracy it was. Imagine the seared consciences and
the hardened hearts that were required amongst those zealous students of the
Hebrew scriptures to so egregiously violate the Laws they were so devoted to
that they could methodically and systematically contravene every principle they
had ever publicly espoused. Additionally, they conspired against a man they
knew worked great miracles, a man they knew taught profound truths, and a man
they knew had committed no known sins that could be used to charge Him with
wrongdoing. His crimes? He threatened to upset the apple cart. There were two
dynamics operating in delicate balance that Jesus threatened to overturn. On
one hand, there was the delicate balance of those who vied for the allegiance
of the common man, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians. Jesus was
so popular among the people that those three groups who had battled over the
years for people’s affections felt threatened by Him. Therefore, He had to go. There
was also a delicate balance to be preserved between the occupied and the
occupiers, between the Jewish people and the
As we ponder the crucifixion of Jesus Christ for our sins, let us consider that the odds were so long against His crucifixion taking place that it could never have happened in the regular course of events. Jesus was crucified because God planned it, because God wanted it, and because God executed His plan in accordance with His determination to save some sinners from their sins.
On
a strictly human level, Christ’s crucifixion could not possibly have happened
unless, at every turn, every person committed sin. Judas sinned. The disciples
in the
To
be sure, Pontius Pilate sinned. The Roman soldiers sinned. The
Even the Apostle John, that youngest of the apostolic band who knew the high priest and actually saw the unjust and illegal nighttime trial of Jesus, was not without complicity in this whole affair.[16] Though Peter denied the Lord three times outside, John stood there in Caiaphas’ house and said nothing to stop it!
Is there no one in all of this who does right? Was there no one connected with our Lord’s crucifixion who was innocent? No one, my friends, beside our Lord. None of them were without sin, just as none of us is without sin. We are all guilty, and every one of us needs the forgiveness than only Jesus provides.
[1] 1 Corinthians 15.17
[2] Luke 18.35-43
[3] Luke 19.1-10
[4] John 11.45-53
[5] Isaiah 62.11; Zechariah 9.9
[6] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures In The New Testament, Vol I, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1930), page 167.
[7] John 12.6
[8] John 13.27
[9] 1 Corinthians 6.9-10
[10] 1 Timothy 6.10
[11] Matthew 27.5
[12] A. T. Robertson, A Harmony of the Gospels, (New York: Harper & Row, 1950), pages 212-215.
[13] Matthew 26.34-35
[14] Acts 2.23
[15] Matthew 26.69-75
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