Tuesday 28th March
Read John 12:12-19
“The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Blessed is the king of Israel!’” (NIVUK)
How distressed must the religious leaders have been when they heard Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. In many ways they have sought to thwart him, with violence, with arguments, with curses and accusations, and yet here he comes, on the eve of Passover. The great crowd has heard of his coming and gone out to meet him. How great a crowd? Josephus writes of 2.7 million pilgrims attending Passover only four decades later. Even if it that is overstated, we are speaking of an immense crowd!
They welcome Jesus with words drawn from Psalm 118. It is the final and climactic Hallel psalm. Sung at the great Jewish festivals in the temple as people approach Yahweh to worship. They shout out the great prayer, ‘Hosanna!’ (‘Save us, we pray’) and announce the blessing that they would hear sung by the temple choir as they themselves approach Yahweh. But rather than the usual temple context, the psalm itself is coming to life on the road to Jerusalem! For they are not simply receiving a blessing from Yahweh, they are pronouncing a blessing on the one who comes in the Lord’s name. The psalm, over time, had picked up messianic overtones and the crowd sings that out now and identifies its recipient as Jesus – the king of Israel.
Imagine the distress of the leaders. It would seem like all Israel, in fact the whole world given the mass of pilgrims arriving from everywhere, had acclaimed Jesus their king! This is worship as a defiant declaration of allegiance. But not to them or, in their minds, to Yahweh – but to Jesus. It would be truly horrifying.
In one sense we know how fickle this declaration was. It took less than a week for the crowds to turn on Jesus. This outrageous public declaration confirmed the crisis for the religious leaders and precipitated decisive action. But this crowd still, on this day, defiantly declared allegiance to Jesus. We should sing and shout and acclaim our allegiance just as publicly and fervently – both from within the crowd and alone.
