The age of social media has had the intriguing effect of offering a spotlight to anyone in the world, so that thousands of ordinary people have suddenly become “famous.” The shallow fame that magazine covers brought a few years ago is now being brought a hundredfold by TikTok. And all these “famous” people are doing practically nothing to earn their fame! It makes you wonder how someone could gain notoriety almost overnight back in Jesus’ day, well before the Internet. But by the time he came to Jerusalem, Jesus’ fame was well-earned. The whole nation wanted to see the hot-topic teacher, and potential king of Israel, who had just raised a man from the dead.
The way they received him into Jerusalem showed that they expected incredible things from him. The custom of waving palm branches was only about 200 years old, but their song, quoted from Psalm 118, had been sung for a thousand years. It was clear by this point that this was no mere popular teacher; this was the son of David, the long-expected king of Israel, who God promised would bring salvation for all people. Naturally, then, their welcome was exuberant, because the whole world was in desperate need of salvation.
But it wasn’t quite the salvation they thought it was. Shouldn’t the Messiah's coming bring the end of injustice and oppression? Shouldn’t sin and death be conquered once and for all? Yes indeed—but Jesus isn’t done doing it yet! His triumphal entry did kick off his total victory over evil, but that victory has not yet been finished. On that day, the Messiah came in humility, riding on a donkey. But the next time he comes, he’ll come on a war horse and exact powerful vengeance on every evil on Earth.
And on that great day, the people of the kingdom of God will shout “Hosanna” just the same. Until then, Christ is busy making us into people of the kingdom of God. We dwell in the in-between. The king has come, but he is coming again. We celebrate what he has done, but we long for what he is still yet to do. And when he does come, the people of the kingdom of God will be ready to welcome him in with worshipful song. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
