The Cry of Hosanna: Mark 15:6-15 - Passion Sunday

  ⁶Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. ⁷Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. ⁸So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. ⁹Then he answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” ¹⁰For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. ¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. ¹²Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” ¹³They shouted back, “Crucify him!” ¹⁴Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” ¹⁵So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. (NRSV)

Last Sunday I failed to acknowledge or offer prayers for the victims of the massage parlor shootings in Atlanta, which left eight people dead. This comes on the heels of an alarming rise in acts of violence against Asian Americans occurring since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This past Monday, a man opened fire in a Boulder, Colorado supermarket, which left ten people dead, including a police officer.

With the deaths of three persons from our extended church family that same week; many more battling serious illnesses, and the continued hardships of the pandemic, the heart can only hold so much.

We, too, cry out, “Hosanna!” or, “Lord, save us!”

But what is it that you are hoping Jesus will do when you cry out to him?

The crowd waving palm branches before Jesus believed they were welcoming a messiah who would liberate them from the brutal Roman occupation and restore the kingdom to Israel. This was what generations of Israelites believed the Messiah would do. But they will soon find out that this was not Jesus’s reason for coming to Jerusalem.

Instead of fighting Rome, Jesus fights the religious establishment; driving out the money-changers out of the temple; and exposing the hypocrisy of the scribes and teachers of the law. But he has no objections against paying taxes to Rome! Instead of standing up and fighting the enemy, Jesus calls for God’s people to love one another.

This is why it was so easy for the religious leaders to turn the crowds against Jesus, and demand Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus and free Barabbas.

Barabbas had been arrested for murder and insurrection against the Roman occupiers. He was the kind of folk hero strongman with the guts to take the fight to the enemy. Barabbas was no messiah—but he fit in better with their plan of salvation than Jesus.

When you think about it, the idea of a crucified messiah is pure nonsense. A real messiah, a real savior would never have let something like that happen to him. Better yet, a real messiah and savior would show you how you can triumph against all your enemies, eliminate all possibilities of suffering, achieve all your dreams, and live happily ever after.

But with this kind of messiah, there’s no grace, forgiveness, or unconditional love in this plan of salvation; no need for a relationship, beyond you following his example. The Church gets reduced to entertainment and self-help.

Your Jesus bears his cross in solidarity with you and everyone in this world who suffers weakness, rejection, helplessness, and pain. He bears his cross in solidarity with everyone who suffers evil and everyone who suffers death. He doesn’t defeat evil with violence but with forgiveness. He doesn’t defeat death by escaping it but by suffering it, and rising from the dead. Your salvation is not something you achieve through your faith and good works, but a gift you receive through faith. And Jesus leads us in healing this broken world by loving your enemies, praying for your persecutors, showing grace and mercy to the least of these who are members of his family.

It’s painful for our hearts and minds to ponder Jesus’s suffering and death—just as it is painful to experience it firsthand, or witness it happening to someone else, known to you or not. But we enter into this holy week with a sacred promise and a blessed assurance—Jesus bears his cross for you, and waiting for you on the other side of suffering and pain is Jesus, who is always eager forgive, who is mighty to save even in the most impossible of circumstances; a savior who lives through you to heal broken lives and a broken world, who will overcome death with resurrection.