The word “Hosanna” is one of those church-y words like Hallelujah or Amen or Gloria – great words that we use all the time in church, but perhaps without a strong sense of what they mean and where they have come from.

“Hosanna” is often used like a word of adoration – “Hosanna! We adore You!” However, the word actually comes from two Hebrew words: one meaning to save or deliver, and the other meaning to beseech. So when the crowds laid down palms and cloaks and shouted “hosanna”, they were actually crying out “Deliver us, please! Save us now!” It certainly changes the tone of the scene, doesn’t it?

I wonder what we need salvation or deliverance from. Where is it that we need Jesus to intervene and save us? Hell is perhaps the first answer that comes to mind – but let’s go beyond that, because again, answering “hell” to such a question is answering with what we think the right answer is, without really knowing what it actually means. It brings to mind the age-old word of advice to kids during the children’s talk: if you get posed with a question, as long as you answer with one of “God”, “Jesus”, or “The Bible”, you should be ok!

We are coming to the end of Lent, sisters and brothers; this is as good a time as any for real honesty with ourselves. When we sing “Hosanna”, do we dare imagine what we really want God to deliver us from? Might it be depression? Debt? Family tension? Boredom? Violence? Bitterness? Arrogance? Loneliness?

And what might deliverance look like? Here’s my perspective on this: look around you. To be surrounded by dear friends and Christian community in a time of great need is to experience solidarity and deliverance in an intensely sacred and holy way. This, for me, is how God delivers us. God doesn’t email deliverance from God’s penthouse office. God comes. God incarnates. God stands with us in our darkest times to experience life and death. God delivers by never, ever leaving us.

When we view the theatricality of Palm Sunday from this angle, there is potential for some real depth in this celebration. Embedded in our music and pageantry is an earnest appeal to God that originates in the most vulnerable places inside us, that bubbles uncontrollably to the surface. Hosanna! Deliver us! Take the broken places that will tear us apart, and make them whole! Save us from our fears! We beg you God, jump into the water and drag our almost-drowned selves to shore? Deliver us! Hosanna!

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

As we weave ourselves into those crowded streets, and parade with our Lord,

Hosanna! Deliver us!

Deliver us from lukewarm faith.

Deliver us from callous indifference.

Deliver us from trivial hopes and petty dreams.

Deliver us from unquenchable greed.

Deliver us from lazy habits and faithless commitments.

Deliver us from soft-mindedness and hard-heartedness.

We cry from the depth of our hears and the pit of our souls:

Hosanna. Deliver us. Deliver us now. Amen.