Psalm 118:25-26 declares, “LORD, save us! LORD, please grant us success! He who comes in the name of the LORD is blessed. From the house of the LORD we bless you.” It was from these verses that the people drew their shouts of praise as Jesus made His way into Jerusalem on the first day of the week. Matthew 21:8-9 states, “A very large crowd spread their robes on the road; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. Then the crowds who went ahead of Him and those who followed Him kept shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest heaven!’”
Hosanna is an Aramaic or a Hebrew term that is essentially a prayer: “Save, we entreat You,” or “Save now.” The expression apparently became not just a prayer, but a declaration of praise; with it, the people were not just asking Jesus to deliver them but also were acknowledging Him as the Deliverer. The people who made up the crowd that day could not have fully understood the gravity of the event; nor did they truly comprehend the kind of Deliverer Jesus was. Even so, their words ring with authenticity, for they certainly were offering their prayers and praise to the right One.
Still, not everyone knew who Jesus was. When Jesus entered the city, people were overwhelmed by the commotion and asked about the identity of this man. Matthew 21:11 states, “And the crowds kept saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!’” In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses foretold a prophet’s coming: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” Just how familiar with Jesus was the crowd? Some members of the Passover throng were from Galilee, where Jesus had resided (see Matt. 4:12-13), so these people had heard a great deal about the Lord. Others had come because word had spread about Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead, something that recently had occurred (see John 12:17-18). Then there were the residents of Jerusalem. They did not know Him as well as did others. Yet the Jewish religious leaders, particularly those in Jerusalem, knew about Him (or at least thought they knew about Him) and opposed Him vehemently. This likely hindered Jerusalem residents from knowing and understanding the Lord. These were the people who were asking who Jesus was in Matthew 21:10.
Evidently Jesus went directly to the temple, and from it He “drove out all those buying and selling” (see vv. 12-13). The Lord also healed some people who had difficulty walking or who were unable to walk, and He healed some blind folks as well (see v. 14). When some Jewish religious leaders overheard young voices calling out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they became extremely upset and asked Jesus if He’d heard what the children were saying. Jesus replied, “Yes. Have you never read: ‘You have prepared praise from the mouths of children and nursing infants’?” (vv. 15-16). This was a quotation from Psalm 8:2. So children as well as adults were shouting “Hosanna!”
As we said earlier, the prayers and shouts of praise were based on Psalm 118:25-26. Significantly, Jesus quoted from this same Psalm in Matthew 21:42: “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes’” (see Psalm 118:22-23).
Copyright © 2016 B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations in this article are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.