“Hosanna in the highest!”
As April 1 came and passed, I found myself considering the pranks people like to play. In fact, yesterday was a day I was pranked, and truly, it was a believable trick. You see, my office door on the campus where I teach contains a window, and as I placed my key into the door lock, I could see strange objects there on the floor. ‘That’s odd,’ I thought. Then I stepped into my office, put down my things, and reached for the white sheet of paper resting on top of the odd-looking stack of items in front of me. The note was addressed to me and spoke of a change, of a person who was coming today to move into the office with me. Immediately I felt my heart begin to race because I knew the office space was already tight and this paper spoke the truth.
Or let me say, I thought I was reading the Truth, but as I carried that note down the hall to share with my colleague, she began to laugh as she read the note because she knew the WHOLE TRUTH.
I had been the chosen one this April Fools’ Day to be pranked, and the signature at the bottom of the note proved it so.
F. Lirpa—A shortened version of ‘APRIL FOOLS’ spelled backward.
She informed me how another colleague was up to his annual antics, searching for “the one” he could trick, and this year, I was “the chosen one.” The turning of the calendar from March to April 1 provides many antics to be played out, to be enjoyed, and to prove for lots of fun and laughter.
Today, on the day AFTER April Fools’ Day and as we step into the month where Easter Sunday is found this year, I find myself studying about the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem—the week leading up to His Crucifixion. You might know stories about Jesus and you might not. You may think the whole religious scene is just foolishness and something only the ‘religious’ people believe. Maybe you’re just not one of THOSE kind of people—the believing kind. It could be true that you do attend church each Easter because it’s just the thing people do.
BUT WHAT IF EVERYTHING—
ALL THE BIBLE STORIES, ALL OF THE EASTER SUNDAY CELEBRATIONS & ALL OF THE WORDS SPOKEN & WRITTEN ABOUT THE MAN NAMED JESUS—
REALLY IS THE TRUTH?
Hosanna is a term defined as adoration or praise or great joy. In the Bible, it is the word the people spoke when Jesus entered Jerusalem at the beginning of the Crucifixion week. Until that time, the Jewish religious leaders had denied the Truth about Jesus.
- They were religious but not searching for Truth.
- They were leaders but not willing to follow the Messiah.
They, the Jewish religious leaders (the Pharisees, Sadducees, & Scribes) had studied the Old Testament; they knew it well. Even still, these leaders rejected Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophesy they had studied and knew so well. They could just not bring themselves to believe—
JESUS WAS THE MESSIAH!
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
(The Book of Zechariah 9:9 NAS)
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
He is just and endowed with salvation,
Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Still today, over 2,000 years after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, people across the globe still chose to reject—
JESUS IS THE MESSIAH!
The religious leaders’ rejection of Truth:
- Jesus is the Messiah!
was not the doubting of God’s work but blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
Still today, when a person rejects the Truth of the person Jesus, they commit the unpardonable sin.
The real reason people reject the Truth:
- Jesus is the Messiah!
- Jesus is the Christ! &
- Jesus is the Son of God!
is not because they have no evidence of proof.
NO, they choose to reject Jesus (just as the Jewish religious leaders) because THEY DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE, because THEY WANT TO LEAVE THINGS JUST AS THEY ARE.
Doubt is a matter of the mind.
- Unbelief is a matter of the person’s will.
- Unbelief is a choice someone makes.
To the person who is listening to the Truth of God, it is up to that person to Believe JESUS.
Within that space—between BELIEF & UNBELIEF.
Within that space—between FAITH & FOOLISH UNBELIEF.
JESUS—“Hosanna in the highest!”
During his ministry, Jesus proved to the watching world He was the Lord of the Sabbath on the day he healed the man with the withered hand. As soon as the Jewish leaders saw Jesus’ miracle of healing, rage rose in their hearts (the religious leaders).
“But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him,
(The Gospel According to Matthew 12: 14-15 NAS)
as to how they might destroy Him.
But Jesus,
aware of this,
withdrew from there.
Many followed Him,
and He healed them all,”
A person might ask us today: How do you know Jesus is the Messiah & the King & the Lord? The believer needs to be prepared for this question because when asked, the one asking the question is within that space—between BELIEF & UNBELIEF.
- A king who comes riding on a donkey comes in peace.
- A king who comes riding on horseback comes to conquer the world.
The Bible clearly records how Jesus came to bring peace & who entered Jerusalem as a fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy.
“As they approached Jerusalem,
(The Gospel According to Mark 11: 1-10 NAS)
at Bethphage and Bethany,
near the Mount of Olives,
He sent two of His disciples,
And said to them,
“Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately as you enter it,
you will find a colt tied there,
on which no one yet has ever sat;
untie it and bring it here.
If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’
you say, ‘The Lord has need of it’;
and immediately he will send it back here.”
They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street;
and they untied it.
Some of the bystanders were saying to them,
“What are you doing, untying the colt?”
They spoke to them just as Jesus had told them,
and they gave them permission.
They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it;
and He sat on it.
And many spread their coats in the road,
and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields.
Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting:
“Hosanna!
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David;
Hosanna in the highest!”