“HOSANNA”: Plea or Praise?

Today is Palm Sunday. Hopefully, at church, you will hear a lot of Hosannas. Look up “hosanna” in a dictionary, and you are likely to find the definition “a cry of adoration, praise, or joy” --or a close variant. That’s unfortunate. Why? It doesn’t convey the whole story. Hosanna was not first a praise but a plea. Many do not know or easily forget that etymologically “hosanna” originally didn’t mean “a cry of praise” but “a cry for help, salvation, rescue.” Wait! On the day of the Triumphal Entry, Palm Sunday, did not the people shout “Hosanna” as a cry of praise and joy? Yes. But, two things: First, Hosanna was a word of their language. For them it did not need translating. What those that day heard in their minds, when they cried or heard others cry “Hosanna,” was the same thing we English speakers hear when we cry, “Save us.” The meaning of “Hosanna” was “Help!” not “Hallelujah.” Second, prior to that day, these Jews had been crying “Hosanna” as a prayer and a plea. In the OT Scriptures “Hosanna” is used as a plea for salvation, help, rescue. For generations this people had groaned under the tyranny of conquerors with only brief respites. For generations they had cried “Hosanna,” praying desperately for deliverance. On that first Palm Sunday, when suddenly it seemed apparent to the people observing His miracles--including raising Lazarus from the dead--that Jesus was that Deliverer, that Savior, they did not discard Hosanna, a plea word, for some other word, a word of praise. No. They only changed their tone. The word was the same, but the emotion and reality behind it had changed. They had pled for salvation, and the Savior had come! The plea for salvation had become the praise for the Savior. “Save us” was no longer a plea for the Messiah to someday come, but, praise that the Messiah had come and would do just that “Save us.” The emotion behind the word “Hosanna,” not its meaning, had changed. But, the plea word had become the praise word. That is as it should be, and it is all well and fine, as long as we don’t forget that Hosanna IS a plea word and has only become a praise word because the Lord has answered the plea. Today, I would love to hear the church resounding with shouts of Hosanna in praise of the Savior who has come. But, knowing the needs and lost-ness of so many folk, I would love to hear the church also filled with the cries of Hosanna as a plea for saving, rescue, help. One’s Hosanna as praise is empty, ritualistic, dead, if it is not a response to the awareness that only Christ can and does meet one’s deepest needs. The people that first Palm Sunday had turned Hosanna from a plea to praise. After the fact that the Savior has historically come to save us, it may be impossible for us now to say the original word “Hosanna” as a plea and anything but praise. But, we can still plead with God. We can use the English, “God, save us.” Knowing the shape of our country, our churches, our families, I sense our need to turn Hosanna from an empty praise to a heart-felt plea. If Hosanna were truly our plea, it would soon become our praise. Our Jesus responds to our Hosanna as a plea in such a way we cannot but soon change our Hosanna into a praise. Hosanna!!!

“HOSANNA”: Plea or Praise?

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