Preached on Maundy Thursday, March 27, 2002 by Professor Roger Kuerth

Psalm 118:25-26

Hosanna!!

The Gospel writers, Matthew and Mark, record that at the conclusion of the Passover meal, on the night of Jesus' betrayal, before they went out to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn.

The hymn that they sang was very likely a series of Psalms known as the Hallel, or hymns of praise. The Hallel consists of 6 Psalms, Ps. 113-118, and they were sung by God's OT people at each of the 3 great Jewish festivals, Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.

At the Feast of the Passover, which the Jews are celebrating this evening, Psalms 113-114 were sung before the drinking of the 2nd cup, and the final four, Psalms 115-118, our text for this evening, were sung after the drinking of the 4th cup, at the conclusion of the ceremony. So it is very likely that Psalm 118 was the last hymn sung by our Lord and his disciples after the institution of the Lord's Supper that we, together with all Christians, remember and celebrate this evening.

In fact, it is the only time in the historical record where we find our Savior singing!

A close study of Psalm 118 reveals important clues into the inner thoughts of Jesus' heart and mind as he made his way out of the lighted and cozy confines of the upper room, to the dark, lonely, foreboding solace of the Garden of Gethsemane, and the brutal suffering, pain, torment and agony of Golgotha and the cross-the terrifying cup of His Father's wrath on sin and sinners that lay immediately ahead of him as man's Sin-Bearer, "...the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world!"

Indeed, a close scrutiny of Jesus' words and activities during Holy Week, the last week of His public ministry here on earth, reveals that the words of Psalm 118 must have weighed heavily on his heart and mind, for it is quoted and referred to no less than 4 times during Holy Week, 3 times by Jesus himself.

Beginning with the cries of the children waving their palm branches and shouting at his public presentation at the Temple on Palm Sunday, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

To his parable of the vineyard, where he quotes verses 22-23 of Psalm 118 and applies them to himself as the "stone that the builders rejected has become the capstone! The Lord has done this and it is marvelous, yes, miraculous in our eyes!" (Mt. 21:42)

To his lament over the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants when he weeps over her painful rejection of him as her Messiah and stubborn unbelief, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

Peter and Paul both quote this Psalm and apply it to Jesus, Peter quoting twice! Hence, there can be no doubt as to its Messianic character, pointing God's OT people, Israel, ahead to their coming Savior, Redeemer and Messiah, Jesus.

Indeed, the name Jeshua, Jesus, itself, is a name derived from the same Hebrew root, Yasha, as the word used by the writer of Psalm 118 and the children who cried out on Palm Sunday, "Hosanna! Hoshiana! Blessed is he who in the name of the Lord comes! Hosanna in the highest!"

The word Hosanna itself, in Hebrew, means "Save now!" It is both an expression of high praise as well as a prayerful expression of confident hope! It is a fervent plea for divine help! A fervent plea for divine rescue! A prayer for divine deliverance! A plea for divine mercy! A prayer the Lord for God's salvation!

It was the same root word used by the Holy Spirit of the mighty deliverance of OT Israel from the bondage and slavery of Egypt and Pharaoh's cruel taskmasters, and that first Passover, when the angel of death passed over every Jewish home in Egypt that had, in obedience to the Lord's command, smeared the blood of a year-old male lamb without defect "on the sides and tops of their doorframes."

It was the same root word the Holy Spirit used to describe Israel's deliverance from the Midianites at the hand of Gideon. The same root word used by the Lord to describe Saul's deliverance of God's people out of the hand of the Philistines. And Saul, when appealing to the name of God, describes him as the Lord who saves Israel! (I Sam. 14:39)

Yes, proclaims Isaiah, whose name is also derived from this same root word, "They shall cry unto the lord because of their oppressors, and he shall send them a Savior, and a great one, and he shall deliver them!" (IS. 19:20)

Throughout the Book of Psalms, the Lord is described as the one who "Saves the meek," saves the needy, saves the contrite, yes, saves the righteous! In fact, that is who the Lord is! The God of free and faithful grace! Adonai!! The God who saves lost, dying sinners! The God who delivers his people from sin, death, Satan and hell! Yes, the God who heals our lonely, broken hearts and renews our spiritual strength and joy with his forgiveness of sins, life and salvation!

Yes, testifies the Lord through his faithful prophet, Isaiah, "I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior! There is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none, but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other! By myself I have sworn my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked. Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, in the Lord alone are righteousness and strength. All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But in the Lord all the descendents of Israel will be found righteous and will exult!" (Is. 445:21-25)

No wonder at Jesus' birth, and angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins!"

As the Messiah, the Anointed One, anointed to his 3-fold divine office of Prophet, Priest and King, Jesus was to be the very embodiment of the Lord's divine rescue, help, deliverance and salvation! Yes, testifies Paul, "In Jesus dwells all the fullness of the godhead in bodily form..." , "In him (Jesus) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge...", Yes, "in him was life," writes John, "And that life was the light of men...", yes, 'We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth...', yes, 'From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another!"

Yes, Jesus is, as he testified, the great 'I am!' the Way, the Truth, and the Life. "No one comes to the father apart from me!" Yes, 'Without me you can do nothing!" "I am the true vine! I am the door! Yes, "I am the Good Shepherd who lays down, willingly, his own life for his sheep" on the tree of the cross. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my Father's hand!" For "I and the Father are one!" Yes, "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die!"

Yes, this evening, Jesus begins that mind-boggling process of laying down his own life, once for all, as the perfect sacrifice for sin, the pure, holy, spotless Lamb of God "Who takes away the sin of the world!"

He lays it down freely, willingly, without compulsion, in sacrificial love as a suffering-servant, to forgive us our sins, to deliver us from the evil One, to crush the serpent's head, to destroy the devil's work, yes, to destroy the destroyer, him who holds the power of death, i.e. the Devil, "and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death!"

This evening, we again take our place in God's House to hear God's Word, to sing God's praise, and to feast at the Lord's banquet table. To feast, not just on the humble earthly elements of bread and wine, but, as we confess from Luther's Small Catechism, "In, with, and under the bread and wine", to feast on the very body and blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, "Given and shed for you for the remission of sins!"

It is a feast in every sense of the term! A feast of divine forgiveness! A feast of eternal life! A festival of unending salvation and free and full deliverance from all our enemies and foes, temporal and eternal, physical and spiritual!

It is a solemn feast, to be sure! A feast of remembrance for the great sacrifice Jesus made for us this night and on Good Friday! But it is also a festival of great joy! Joy that our salvation is now come! Joy that our mighty deliverer is now here! Yes, Joy that "Blessed are we who in the name of the Lord come!"

Yes, this evening, our blessed Savior tenderly invites his people to come! "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...yes, rest for your souls!"

So, then, we who know and love Christ, come to his table, in obedient faith, with full certainty and assurance that the same Lord Jesus Christ who once rode into Jerusalem atop a humble donkey on Palm Sunday to the cheers and Hosannas of the multitudes along the way, is the same Lord Jesus Christ who rides into our hearts and lives this evening atop the humble elements of earthly bread and wine! This evening, He comes to us, in the same way he once came to them, "In the name of the Lord!" Yes, the Savior God! And pronounces all who come to him in penitent, humble faith, "Blessed!"

Rightfully, then, do we come "In the name of the Lord", to the Lord's Table this evening with that ancient Hebrew word of praise and supplication, "Hosanna!" on our lips. "Hosanna in the highest! Save, now, O Lord! Not tomorrow! Or next week! Or next year! Or a thousand years from now! But now! Today! This very night! For now is the day of salvation! Now is the time of God's favor! Now is the acceptable year of the Lord! For "Blessed is he who in the name of the Lord comes!"

Yes, Hosanna! Hoshiana! Is still our fervent plea as redeemed children of God! And, as Jesus makes clear, it is still our joyful blessing! Save now, O Lord! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! Amen.