Hey All
I learned something new this Easter season. The definition of Hosanna: save, rescue, or savior. In the context of the Easter story think, John 12:12-13 “On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”
So the people of Israel are realizing and acknowledging that Jesus is the savior, the rescuer, who has come to be the true king of Israel. But did they realize what Jesus was really coming to save them from? Look back to Jesus birth, Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Not Roman occupation, or oppressive governments, or religious leaders.
What are the sins, that they are being saved from? Now I have written about sin in the past and I believe sin; defined as ‘missing the mark’, is simply the lie we believe about God. We are missing the mark, the reality, the truth about who God is, about his character, his motives, basically we missed the Heart of God. Our sin is not believing the truth about who God says he is. Our sin is believing the lies of the enemy when he tells us God cannot be trusted. This is the sin Jesus saves us from.
Colossians 1:15 – “He is the image of the invisible God.”
And how does he do it? Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is God made flesh. Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the Father. Jesus said he is the only way to the Father. Jesus said He and the Father are one. Jesus said I only do what I see the father doing. No one has ever seen God but the one and only son. Jesus didn’t come to change us, he came to change the way we think about God, or more specifically, change what we believe about God.
Think of it this way. There is so much evil and hurtful activity in this world and in our lives. Much of this pain is the direct result of people who don’t trust God can or will take care of ‘it’, and who do ‘it’ themselves. People who believe God isn’t good and God won’t deal with whatever is going on and they take things into their own hands. People who are quickly reminded they rarely make things better, but usually hurt more people in the process. After all isn’t the old saying, hurt people, hurt people. I mean seriously generational sin is really just me passing on the pain of my father, who passed on the pain of his father who passed on the pain of his father, ad infinitum.
You see this in Genesis 3, you see this in the story of Cain and Able, we see it throughout scripture, people who have been lied to about the true nature of God, people who have been hurt, and in turn hurt others. And what did God do about it… He sent Jesus, he sent Jesus to save people from their sins, he sent Jesus to correct all of us who thought God was too holy to be in relationship with us, who thought God didn’t care about our pain, that God was only interested in sacrifice, God sent Jesus to correct this false view of God, Jesus came to show us the father, to show us how much he loves us, how much he desires to be one with us, and that the only thing holding us back from enjoying such a perfect union with God was our unbelief. The lies of the enemy have been defeated at the cross, where love wins and death is no more. This is the gospel message, the reason God sent His son, to save His people, and reconcile them to Himself.
John 1:18 – No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.
John 14:9 – Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?