A PALM SUNDAY REALIGNMENT

Hosanna!

It’s the Word of the Day on any given Palm Sunday. It’s the word we usually offer up as a cheer, an enthusiastic burst of praise to Jesus as we recall him parading down the street on a donkey. In our Moravian Christian tradition, we even have a beloved (though complicated) song we sing back and forth, antiphonally, smiling the whole time because it is such a delightful moment. And even though we usually have an awareness that our hosannas initiate Holy Week–a somber time of remembering Jesus’ persecution and execution–we do so knowing what the outcome will be: Resurrection!

But our hosannas sound different this year. They are contaminated, like everything else, with worry. With insecurity. With unknowing.

Hosanna.

If we do the linguistical somersaults that take us from English back to Greek, and from Greek back to Hebrew, we discover the original definition of hosanna :

Save us! Save us now! Save us, please! Just save us!

This is the meaning that suits the crisis. This is the meaning that matches the moment.

This is the prayer that wells up—unbidden—the first moment you slip a bandana-and-hair-tie-mask over your face when you step out to walk the dog. This is the prayer that springs up—spontaneously—when a loved one awakens with a fever. This is the prayer that surges—instinctively—when you can’t bring yourself to turn off the news. This is the authentic prayer that might not ever be spoken from the lips because it lives in the gut.

Hosanna.

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As hosanna is the Word of the Day, palm fronds are the Symbol of the Day. This is because, in some of the biblical descriptions of the event, the people who cheered for Jesus as he processed through the streets of Jerusalem cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road as a sign of recognition and respect–much like “rolling out the red carpet” for celebrities and royals. To capture that sense, it’s typical for churches to distribute palms.

But even more than displaying an intentionally severed branch that will decay, I like to commemorate the start of Holy Week by tending a living, potted palm. I will trim back the boughs that have cycled through the seasons but are now spent because, it’s true, death is a part of life. But I will also appreciate the new growth that first shoots straight up like a blade and then fans out magnificently. And I will remember that, it’s also true, NEW LIFE is irrepressible.

This is the very reason why hosanna means more than “save us” to anyone who has ever been moved by the wonder of Easter. It is why hosanna also means “rejoice!” This is the year, more than any other, that we will try to hold both meanings in our hearts at the same time.

Hosanna!

Expectantly,

Pastor Chris