‘Hosanna to Him who comes in the Name of the Lord’

DAVID JONES on how evil will not have the final word

THIS Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week when the people of Jerusalem thronged to greet Jesus with palm branches and shouts of Hosanna. They had heard from Jesus words of peace and love and had witnessed acts of kindness and healing that confounded the empty religiosity of the hierarchy of the day.

How then that by the end of the week the cries of ‘Hosanna’ had changed to ‘Crucify Him’? Jesus condemned the religious self-interest of those like Herod and chief priests Caiaphas and Annas for their evil intent and misrepresentation of the very nature and character of God.

The former Archbishop of York John Sentamu said at the weekend that Vladimir Putin will ‘have one day to answer to God’ for the absolute viciousness he has and continues to unleash on the Ukrainian people.

Putin’s retreating forces have left devastation with the murder of innocent civilians as mass graves and signs of brutality have emerged and added to the worldwide resolve that his abject evil must be brought to justice. Add to this the silence of the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia who hand in glove with Putin has brought condemnation not only from his fellow leaders but from the worldwide church.

We see again religious self-interest pandering to the whims of a cruel and evil dictator. Caiaphas it appears lives on in the evil intent of those who masquerade faith and use it to their political and religious ends. Caiaphas was, of course, doomed to failure.

Jesus entered Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday to proclaim that evil and sin were on borrowed time. The people shouted ‘Hosanna’ meaning “he who saves.” As he came to claim the city as his own and establishing forever a Kingdom of righteousness which would be fulfilled on Easter Day the day of resurrection. God has eternity to work out his purposes and evil will not have the final word.

Religious bigotry which condones evil and is silent in the face of suffering will meet with the severest judgement.

It was Dr Martin Luther King Jr who once said: “When evil men burn and bomb, good men build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred the good must commit themselves to the ways of love.”

Palm Sunday is the way of love – ‘Hosanna to Him who comes in the Name of the Lord’.