“THE MASS: THE HOSANNA HOST FOR YOU”
Saint Matthew 21: 1-9
Palmarum: 20 March Anno Domini 2016
Father Jay Watson SSP
Jerusalem was not just David’s city, the locus of The Temple and Ark of The Covenant, it was also the city of horrible apostate kings, syncretists, cannibals, and child sacrificing pagans and heathens. There was a reason The Lord set Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians; an earned punishment of captivity.
But Jerusalem was God’s city of Peace because God had said so—in His Word. God had chosen Zion, His hill of holiness by His choice, His decision, and His placement of His precious Name. Where God’s Name is + located, He is. Is means Is!
God brings His people, all of you, to His Peace. God brought Abram and his family. God drew Abraham and Isaac to the hill country of Jerusalem, to Mount Moriah to have Isaac sacrificed. But God didn’t let Isaac be taken in blood and viscera. God had a substitute, a stand-in, an unblemished ram be caught in a thicket by its head, be slain instead. This mysterious Mount Moriah points both to Calvary and to your Augsburg Altar.
You and all real Christians come to church every Sunday instead of doing any number of other things the world would have you do, not because of obedience of the 3rd Commandment or even conformity to the Apostolic and Biblical norms of the New Testament (e.g. Acts) but because this is where The Lord is for you. He is here and He draws His branches close to the heart of The Vine—His own heart. He first drew you to your own Bethphage, your own Mount of Olives in the watery 8-sided font of eternity. In those regenerative waves He cleansed you from all filth and sin and anointed you not with Olives but with Blood and Water from His own veins, His own heart.
This is His story every week no matter how bored your Old Adam becomes. You sin every week; actually far more than weekly. You don’t only hug your wife on the day of your marriage but continually throughout marriage. You don’t forgive your sister when you’re both in grade school but continually throughout your lives. You not only love your son or daughter when they’re 12 or 18, but every day of their earthly lives. And you expect others to give you the same mercy—seven times seventy. Man fails but God never lets you down. The story isn’t a story but a present fact!
Jesus rode the colt, the foal of an ass not just to show humility but to show identity. Jesus was both David’s Lord and David’s Son. As the King, Jesse’s son once rode an ass both out, and, in, to Jerusalem, as did Solomon, so too does the real King fulfill Zecharias’ prophecy by entering a city where there was no peace in order to make peace in the Peace of His own sacrificial Body and Blood; will and desire.
As every Sunday is a “little Easter” every Sunday, most especially every Mass Day is a Palmarum! It is no coincidence that the Hosanna’s shouted and sung out by the Pilgrim crowd to Jesus’ arrival is placed in, and where it is, in the Liturgy of The Holy Sacrament. You’re not just singing from a hymnal you are joining your voices with the Saints in the Church Triumphant, with the Angelic choirs, in the great arrival of your God in the flesh. Your Hosannas are your confession, your testimony, your martyrdom, that He Who once came in Body and Blood to Jerusalem and the Crucifix, is now, at this time, coming in that self-same Body and Blood to the New Jerusalem, to the chalice and paten.
Hosanna can be an idiomatic word with two nuanced and complimentary meanings. It means both “save us” as well as “save him, or be saved.” Used by the crowd, strewing the ground with palm branches and articles of clothing, it meant both “Be our Savior, our King, Jesus of Nazareth,” i.e. fight for us, redeem us, as well as meaning “God save the King, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, save our Messiah King, Jesus of Nazareth, David’s Son!”
Jesus came in the Name of The Lord for He came in His own Name: Savior, the Great Joshua, the Prince of Peace. Jesus came in The Name of His Father for He and The Father are one God. He came to be sacrificed through suffering and death.
Jesus comes now for you in the same Holy + Name, your family name as well. He comes from suffering and death through life and light to bring you peace. Is means Is.
Never let another Divine Service pass you by without joyfully singing with meaning and grateful acceptance the great Hosanna. For your own sinfully blackened little fists, clenched in selfish and murderous rage: His innocent and tender palms bruised and bloodied. For your own filthy garments and whorish rags: His robe of righteousness; His wings of protection in His own Flesh.
Blessed is + He. Blessed is + He. Blessed is + He, Who commeth in the Name + of The Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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