Times were tough in ancient Egypt. The Israelites had been
slaves for 400 years, and their masters were very cruel to them. For years,
they prayed for deliverance, and God heard their cries. He sent a guy named
Moses, and God used Moses and his brother Aaron to deliver the Israelites out
of slavery. God sent ten plagues on the Egyptians, and the last one was the
hardest for the Egyptians to handle. The firstborn of each family, even
including the animals, died. But God passed over the Israelites and spared
their firstborn. Up to that point, the Pharaoh had been pretty stubborn about
wanting to keep his slaves, but losing his heir made him realize that some
things just weren’t worth losing what you love the most. So he finally let the
Israelites go. So began a period of 40 years as the Israelites traveled home to
the land of their ancestors, and every year they celebrated their deliverance
when God passed over them. Passover became one of the most important feasts of
the year. For years, they had been praying, “Hosanna!” Please save us! God had heard their pleas and answered. He had
saved them. But as the years went on, they needed to be saved again and again.
Years later, they split into two kingdoms and eventually were captured by the
kingdoms of Babylon and Assyria. The nation of Judah got to return home after
70 years in exile in Babylon, but eventually, the empire of Rome came along and
took over the whole area. Prophets foretold of a Messiah who would one day
deliver them from their oppressors, and so they continued their pleas of
“HOSANNA!”
Somewhere around 1400 years after the Israelites left Egypt,
angels appeared to shepherds on a hillside announcing that the promised Savior
had arrived! Wise men from the east saw a star and came to worship this new
child who had been born to a girl named Mary. The child’s name was Jesus, and
he grew up to become a respected rabbi who preached, told stories to teach
lessons, and did some amazing miracles. Word was getting around that Jesus was
fulfilling a lot of the prophecies of the Messiah.
So it was that the year Jesus was 33, He and His disciples
arrived in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. People came from all over the place
to celebrate in the capital city, and as Jesus got close, He had an odd task
for some of His disciples. He told them to go to a nearby farm, where they
would find a donkey colt. They were to untie it and bring it to him. Jesus told
them, “If the donkey’s owner asks you why you’re untying it, tell him, ‘The
Lord needs it.’” So they did as they were told. Sure enough, the owner asked
why they were untying his donkey. They explained the situation just as Jesus
had told them to do, and he let them take it.
Many years earlier, the prophet Zechariah had foretold that
the Messiah would come in victory, riding a donkey colt. So now they saw that
prophecy happening before their very eyes! The plea that they had been praying
for hundreds of years suddenly became a shout of praise! “HOSANNA! SAVE US!
Yay! Our Savior is here! You’re here in the name of the Lord, and you rock!”
While they were shouting and excitedly praising God, they took off their coats
and laid them on the ground for the donkey to walk on. They had cut down palm
branches from nearby trees, and they laid those on the ground too! This was how
they welcomed a King into the city.
There were some Pharisees in the crowd, though, and they
weren’t too happy with what they heard. They told Jesus, “Tell your followers
to be quiet!”
“Are you kidding?” Jesus replied. “If they stopped their
praises, the rocks would shout out!”
For hundreds of years, the Israelites had praised God for
all the wonderful things that He had done. They praised Him for delivering them
from Egypt, for providing food in the wilderness, for helping them to conquer
their enemies in the Promised Land. All that time, they had also been praying
for deliverance from their oppressors. Now their prayer for deliverance became
their shout of praise for what they knew Jesus was about to do: deliver them!
But as we’ll find out next week, Jesus had a plan up His
sleeve that was much better than delivering them from the Romans. They didn’t
realize right away that it was better, though.
