Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!
--Mark 11:9b
Palm Sunday is here and Holy Week is underway! Services are scheduled; messages are being prepared; directors, musicians, and singers are working on the finishing touches.
In Team of Rivals, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin shares the story of Abraham Lincoln's trip to Washington DC for his inauguration as president of the United States. One stop along the railway journey was Baltimore. Before arriving, Lincoln received word of an assassination plot through a detective named Allan Pinkerton. The president-elect was advised to travel through Baltimore ahead of schedule on a night train to confound the conspirators.
Jesus Christ, on the other hand, made no effort to confound His conspirators. His entrance into the holy city of Jerusalem -- right on schedule! -- was marked with palm branches, crowds, and cheers. The word Hosanna comes ringing down the centuries straight into our eardrums. Linguistically, the term pulls double duty. It is a cry for deliverance and an ascription of praise all rolled into one.
As we journey through life, there are conspirators that plot our overthrow. Any efforts of our own to confound the conspiratorial work of the devil, the world, and, yes, our own sinful flesh are of no avail. The situation calls for the One who comes in the name of the Lord! He is not a heaven-sent Allan Pinkerton; He is a heaven-sent Savior. We get to hear the story again this week, and, once more, the word becomes ours: Hosanna!
PD
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