The Shout and the Silence – Hosanna to the Cross

It’s interesting to see how the world’s view of Jesus has shifted over time, and remains grossly divided to this day. Before His death and resurrection there were those who regarded Him as everything from a wise teacher, to a political revolutionary, to a madman – but there were very few who seemed to grasp that He was something far more than any of these things, and essentially no one understood what it truly meant that He was the Christ, the Son of God. For the most part after His resurrection the same camps remain – those who thought Jesus had been a great teacher, those who believed He had been a rebel justly executed, and those who simply believed He’d been insane. But for the hundreds who witnessed Him firsthand, and for all those who accepted the truth of His resurrection, there was a new category, a new realization that this Man who walked among them, who worked and taught in their midst, who was conspired against by the Jews and killed by the Romans, was God. Some 2,000 years later, it’s still the same camps – the teacher, the revolutionary, the madman, and the Son of God are all views that are maintained to this very day – but we also add another whole category in that there are some who hold the belief that Jesus never existed at all. The interesting thing is that, while it’s a staunchly held belief by some, especially among some of the so-called “new atheists,” the idea that Jesus never existed in the first place is in the minority. It’s still debated, but the fact that Jesus, the Man actually existed is accepted on a considerably wide scale. We have four biographical accounts of the life of Jesus in the four gospels – the Man who, by the world’s standards was an itinerant Jewish rabbi from backwater Galilee – and yet His four biographies tie Jesus with the Roman emperor who ruled during His earthly ministry. We have far older and more congruent texts around the life and ministry of Jesus than we do for someone like Genghis Khan for example – not that I’m comparing Jesus and a Mongol warlord, but no one doubts that Genghis Khan existed, and that he established the Mongol empire, conquering the vast majority of the continent of Asia. And yet, despite the fact that Jesus walked the earth nearly 1,200 years before the first Khan, there is greater historical evidence for His literal existence than there is for Genghis Khan. The fact that Jesus’ literal existence is so defensible is certainly a good thing, but it’s not the slam dunk that it may seem at first glance, because even once we’ve shored up that one point, and established the fact that the Man called Jesus of Nazareth did truly walk the earth during the first century, we’ve only arrived so far as the same old debates. Putting the existence argument to bed is important, but if we’re honest, it was a stupid argument to begin with, and it only gets us back to the starting line for many people. Affirming that Jesus definitely existed leaves us with the teacher – revolutionary – madman – Son of God options, just like before option five was thrust onto the table. The thing is, even admitting that Jesus existed is uncomfortable for some people, and once they do, admitting that He is who He claimed to be, that the resurrection and ascension are true is even more uncomfortable. While it’s the cornerstone of Christian faith and the very foundation for all believers in Christ, the Truth is not something that has a home within the general theological crowd. The problem is that your comfort does not matter. Is it good to leave someone in a burning house because it’s cold outside and they find the warmth comfortable? Their comfort doesn’t somehow magically change the fact that staying where they are will end with them burning alive – it is the truth, the reality of their position that matters. This is not to say that there is no comfort in the truth – there’s actually all comfort in Truth, but there’s also accountability, because the Truth casts out the lies of self-deception. In Ezekiel 18:20–22 God says,

“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live.”

If I play the game of the cafeteria Christian, picking and choosing the pieces of Scripture that I find advantageous, holding the gospel with two fingers instead of clinging to it like my eternity depends on it, then I’m not actually a Christian. If I say, “This Jesus person had some good ideas, not hating people, not lying, not cheating on my wife, I think I’ll adopt some of this stuff,” my life will absolutely be better than it would have been without following these tenets, but that doesn’t acknowledge Jesus for who He truly is, it requires no surrender, no accountability, and no love for His Word. As we observe Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Passover, before Jesus was crucified, and the Sunday before the Easter celebration of the resurrection this is a perfect moment to stop and reflect not on who we think Jesus is, not on who we want Him to be in our flesh, but who He truly is. Jesus didn’t enter Jerusalem under furious glares and calls for His execution, but to cries of celebration and fanfare. Many of the people were delighted to see the Man they held as a teacher and miracle worker arrive – yet as we track the events of Holy Week we see that this clearly did not remain the case. As we look at this idea of shouting moving to silence we’re able to take a look at our own lives, our own worship, and our own acknowledgement of Christ, and based not on our own understanding, but on His Truth, surrender ourselves and give Him the glory that He alone is due.

1. The Shouts of Celebration

The roughly three year ministry of Jesus is, unbeknownst to His disciples, about to draw to a close. His ministry began with the same core message as John the Baptist’s – “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Throughout His three years traveling throughout Galilee, Judea and their surrounding regions, He has taught and He has healed, and in everything He has pointed to the coming kingdom – He has, through perfectly acting out the position of the servant as the Son, glorified the will of the Father. Many have flocked to Him, have praised Him and delighted in His coming. Many others have rejected Him, having no place in their hearts for His teaching – and still others have outright despised Him and plot to see Him dead. But even for many of those who are following Jesus, they largely do not understand who they follow, only seeing Him for who they want Him to be. I said that Jesus’ disciples were unaware that His earthly ministry was coming to an end, but for the closest twelve this shouldn’t have actually been the case, as they were told what was coming multiple times. Matthew 16:21 says,

“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

But we see Peter immediately reveal the group’s lack of comprehension, and their overall shortsightedness in Matthew 16:22–23,

“And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’”

If those who followed Jesus the closest, those He taught personally and extensively for years, who witnessed His miracles firsthand and were even blessed to perform miracles themselves, fail to grasp who Jesus truly is, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the crowd doesn’t understand His identity either. I’m not excusing this or saying that it’s right, simply pointing out that the blindness of man was present across the spectrum. Matthew 21:1–7 says,

“Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, “The Lord needs them,” and he will send them at once.’ This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”’ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.”

Jesus arrives on a donkey, fulfilling the words of Zechariah 9:9,

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

In doing this, arriving on a beast of burden and not a mount of war He communicates to the crowd what He has come to do. The crowd doesn’t grasp this – despite how clearly His teachings and miracles have communicated who He is, the image of a King who has come to bring peace and eternal deliverance, as opposed to immediate conquest and an earthly kingdom is lost on them. Their celebration is intense, and in many ways their testimony is true – this is after all the very same crowd that Luke writes of in Luke 19:37–40,

“As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’ And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’”

What we see described here is real, earnest praise offered up by true followers – and yet, if we look at the other gospels, we see that there’s something else happening here as well. Returning to Matthew, we see in Matthew 21:9–11,

“And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’ And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘Who is this?’ And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.’”

The praise is real, but it’s not complete – Jesus is a prophet, actually He’s the Prophet, the One who would come like Moses, foretold in Deuteronomy 18, and He is from Nazareth in the region of Galilee – but this is far, far from being all He is. If someone were to ask me what my wedding ring is I could accurately answer that it’s a ring, I could say that it’s a band of forged metal, I could speak of its durability, its anti-corrosive properties, its color, or its shape. All of these things are true, but none of them really capture the true nature and essence of what it is. It’s my wedding ring – it’s a symbol of the love between my wife and me, of the covenant established between the two of us and God – it represents something vast and deeply significant, and lesser descriptions don’t do it justice. Matthew 16:13–17 says,

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

Simply calling Jesus, who is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, “the prophet from Nazareth,” fails to see Him as He is, fails to recognize Him for who He has claimed and shown Himself to be – it attempts to reduce the divine to a level more comprehensible to man, at the cost of proper praise and reverence. We can see this shown again from a slightly different angle in John’s account of the triumphal entry in John 12:12–16,

“The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!’ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’ His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.”

The people are celebrating, they’re laying down the palm branches to signify victory, they praise God, they praise Jesus, and they call Him… “King.” This again isn’t wrong – Jesus is in fact the King of kings and Lord of lords. But we know what the people thought of Jesus as a king from their response after the feeding of the 5,000 that we see in John 6:14–15,

“When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”

Jesus is a King – again, He’s the King, but the people don’t comprehend the kind of King He is – the King who is God, who has stepped down out of heaven and taken on flesh, the King who had made Himself the Lamb, who has come, not to wage a war of conquest, but to give up His life and claim a spiritual victory beyond anyone’s imagining. The people want a worldly empire, they want insurrection against the Romans. Israel is in many ways still seeking a king as they were when the approached Samuel in 1 Samuel 8:4–9,

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, ‘Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.’ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ And Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.’”

This is something we have to be aware of in our own relationship with God, something we have to be aware of and guard against in our worship. God is not who I say He is, Jesus is not the redeemer that I say He is – God is who He says He is, and my confession is not just my own, but His. I cannot worship on my terms, I cannot attempt to force God into a box of my desires or understanding – I can’t do what we’re seeing the crowd do as Jesus rides into Jerusalem, welcomed and paraded into the city that will crucify Him in just a few days’ time. In John 15:13–15 Jesus says to the disciples,

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

But Proverbs 1:7 tells us,

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Jesus may call us friend, but this isn’t exactly reciprocal, and it certainly doesn’t mean that we somehow lose the fear, reverence, and reality of who He is as God. The crowd has lost this, their actions prove that their eye was not truly fixed on the reality of who Christ was (and still is), and so their praise, while accurate, in many ways amounts to little more than noise. The question becomes, are we happy to have Jesus on our own terms, do we celebrate Him for what He can be in our earthly understanding, or do we worship and revere Him for who He truly is? Not just a teacher or a prophet, not just some wise rabbi with a large following, or a political revolutionary, but the literal, eternal, Son of the Living God. Jesus is not your buddy, God is not your get out of jail free card, and our worship of Him is not something to be given frivolously or in a self-serving manner – He is a righteous and holy judge who has gone to unimaginable lengths to offer us redemption and reconcile us to Himself, and we spit in the face of majesty if we treat the Lord as anything lesser than the Alpha and Omega, the God of all creation that He is. 

2. The Shouts of Condemnation

The week began with shouts of joy, of the crowd rejoicing as Jesus rode into Jerusalem – but by dawn on Friday things have changed drastically. John’s gospel provides the context that Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead was a recent event, further captivating the crowd, and enraging the religious leaders. But Matthew 26:3–5 says,

“Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, ‘Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.’”

This shows us that while the plan of the ruling Jews was certainly that Jesus be killed, they themselves were afraid of the crowd and were decided to refrain from seeking His life during the Passover week. There are several things that bring about their change of plan, as after the triumphal entry, Jesus cleanses the temple, driving out the salesmen and money changers and shaming the religious leaders. He rakes the Sadducees, scribes and Pharisees over the coals, shaming them again and again through parables, and openly in His tirade against them in Matthew 23. In addition to all this, Judas approaches the chief priests and offers to betray Jesus to them – and suddenly, having Jesus executed on the week of Passover goes from unthinkable, to the primary plan. You may think, “But wait, just because they were shamed, and just because one disciple betrayed Jesus, what about the sea of people who shouted and cheered just a few days prior during the triumphal entry?” This is a fair question, and it makes complete sense that the group of men who were delaying their plan to kill Jesus solely because of fear of the crowd would still be deterred by the people’s affinity for Him – after all, regardless of them being shamed, the crowd is still the crowd, and the crowd loves Jesus, right? Matthew 27:20–23 says,

“Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas.’ Pilate said to them, ‘Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?’ They all said, ‘Let him be crucified!’ And he said, ‘Why? What evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Let him be crucified!’”

We don’t know the specifics, we don’t know verbatim what was said, but through slander, lies, and manipulation, the religious leaders have flipped the crowd, so that they cry out for the blood of the Man whom they cheered and celebrated just days before. There are those who will make excuses for the crowd, saying that these were just agitators, specifically placed and operating on behalf of the ruling Jews, and maybe they were, but in many respects it doesn’t matter. Because if the shouts come from those in opposition, where are the voices of support? Where is anyone speaking out to oppose what is being done, as the crowd, now turned mob, calls for the freedom of a murderer and insurrectionist, and that the blameless Christ be, not just killed, but crucified? Here, in the midst of cries for violence we also see the beginnings of silence – because as the crowd cries “crucify Him,” His defenders are silent. A parade welcomed Jesus to the city just days prior, they cried out in praise, they shouted “hosanna,” they called for salvation to the only One who had the power to save – where are they now? There is no one who comes to the defense of the Christ they’ve waited hundreds of years for – and of the twelve, of His closest disciples, one has betrayed Him, and the rest have fled. Pilate gave the crowd a choice – grant freedom to the worst of his prisoners, or to the Man in which he himself can find no blame, and the crowd – the mob, chooses Barabbas. But it doesn’t end there, the wicked desires of the people are not spent, and the cries against Jesus were so venomous and so unhinged that they continued even while He hung on the cross crucified. Matthew 27:37–44 says,

“And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’ Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, “I am the Son of God.”’ And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.”

Can you fathom the depth of fury it takes to witness a crucifixion firsthand and to stand, filled with such merciless loathing that you mock the one who is dying, nailed to a cross? Can you understand how much contempt you must have for someone to hurl insults at them while you yourself arebeing crucified alongside them? To use what little breath you have as you hang, suspended on impaled wrists and propped up on pierced feet, to devote your energy to ridiculing the man next to you, as the robbers beside Jesus do? This is the spirit of the crowd, the spirit of the world – emotional, temperamental, fickle, and unpredictable. Their allegiance is ultimately to themselves, to the “right and wrong” that they collectively determine. There is no stability in them, because they don’t understand and have no basis in Truth, only self, their cheers and their taunts are almost interchangeable because, as we can see, one bleeds right into the other.

3. The Silence of the Christ

Jesus says in John 12:23-24, 27–28,

“… The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” … “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name…”

We see Him pray in Matthew 26:39, 42,

“… My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” … “… My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

And we see an exchange between Him and Pilate in John 19:10–11 that emphasizes both His complete control, and also complete surrender to the will of God,

“So Pilate said to him, ‘You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.’”

It was the plan of the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus, to eliminate the One who exposed their darkness and threatened their influence, and yet it was Jesus’ plan first. He walked into this situation knowingly, and in full control. Brought before kangaroo courts and testified against by false witnesses, Jesus makes no defense for Himself. He doesn’t argue His case or try to justify anything to the wicked men who think they have successfully conspired against Him. As the Lamb of God He fulfills the words of Isaiah 53:7,

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

The only response we see from Jesus when before the Sanhedrin comes in Matthew 26:62–64 which says,

“And the high priest stood up and said, ‘Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?’ But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, ‘I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.’”

Jesus doesn’t give defense or excuse, but offers the truth that these men will use to condemn Him. His stance did not change when He later stood before Pilate, seen in Matthew 27:11–14,

“Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus said, ‘You have said so.’ But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, ‘Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?’ But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.”

Jesus knew His mission, He knew the will of the Father because He is the very embodiment of the will of the Father. There was no doubt, there was no defense to give or argument to make, and so His ultimate reply to the shouts was silence. From the cross, suffering in both mortal agony as His body is crucified, and divine agony as He bears the weight of the sin of mankind, we don’t see weeping, or moaning, or outcries of pain, but very few words spoken. Luke 23:34 records Jesus saying as He is crucified,

“… Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do…”

Showing that even as He is tortured and nailed to a cross, there is no hate, no malice, only compassion for those who cannot comprehend the scope of their own wickedness. Luke 23:42–43 shows the exchange between the repentant thief on the cross and Jesus,

“And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”

Again, showing Jesus offer mercy and compassion to a man who just lashed out and reviled Him along with everyone else, but is now expressing sincere repentance. John 19:26–27 records another interaction Jesus has while He hangs crucified on the cross saying,

“When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.”

Here He stops, while in the process of dying to fulfill an earthly duty, passing the care of the woman who was His mother to John, taking care to ensure that she is provided for, which John accepts immediately. John 19:28 records some of Jesus’ final words simply being, “I thirst.” This served the dual function, one in fulfilling the prophetic words of Psalm 69:21,

“They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”

As well as providing His mortal body with a sharp, revitalizing drink that He might in His final moments, not dull His senses and curb His suffering, but rather heighten them. Matthew and Mark both record some of Jesus’ final words on the cross being, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” This is not, as some will make it out to be, a breaking in the resolve of Christ, a moment of doubt under the weight of His suffering. Rather He is quoting the beginning of a Psalm that prophesied His current position – broken, brought low, tortured and abandoned, and yet still praising God and placing all faith in Him. Psalm 22 says in its entirety,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; ‘He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!’ Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.”

This leads directly into Psalm 23, which begins with the confident, peace-filled claim, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Jesus’ cry is not one of despair or brokenness, but a reminder that points us back to what He is doing, and who is in control. We can see that each time Jesus spoke there was weight and relevance to what He said, His words were measured and level, and continued to serve the will of God and honor the Father – the polar opposite of the noise of the crowd. After quoting Psalm 22 He cried out, committing His Spirit into the hands of God the Father, declared His work as finished, and gave up His own life – not having it taken from Him, but yielding it freely. And then, from the cross, there was silence. Luke 23:47–49 says,

“Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, ‘Certainly this man was innocent!’ And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.”

A Roman, not just a simple soldier, but a centurion, a commander, praises God and confesses the innocence of Jesus. The crowd – the very crowd that cried out for blood, that demanded Jesus be crucified, that mocked and jeered at Him while He hung on the cross, leaves Golgotha in a state of lamentation. And a group of those who have followed Jesus throughout His ministry stand and bear witness to this – to the confession of the guard, the mourning of the people, and to the complete silence that emanates from the cross. Because regardless of any confession, and regardless of any regret, the mortal body of Jesus has died, and despite what anyone may think, the Romans did not succeed in killing Him, and the ruling Jews didn’t succeed in having Him executed – Jesus Christ gave up His own life, and He holds the authority to take it up again. And so, there is silence – the week which began with cheers and celebration draws to a close with the lifeless body of Jesus hanging on a cross – not feigning death, not comatose, but having truly died. And this, in the most final way, shows us why we as followers of Christ can absolutely not be part of the fickle crowd. James 4:4,

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

The people in general wanted Jesus for what He could offer them, then turned on Him at the provocation of their religious leaders, then lamented His passing – even His closest followers not understanding the words of their own Law and prophets, and not understanding what Jesus Himself had told them would happen. The events that unfolded were tragic – the blameless Son of God, betrayed by the very people He came to save before any others – but this account is not a tragedy. The crowd’s silence of lamentation is not the same as Christ’s silence, which is one of victory, a silence of finished work. If we follow Christ in the way of the world then we do not follow Christ. If we understand our God the way the world understands Him then we do not understand at all. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, He is the Light of the world that the darkness has not, and will not overcome, He is the spotless Lamb who has atoned for our sin and brought us out of death into true Life in Him, the Good Shepherd who has led us to the river of living water – understand Christ for who He says He is, for who His Word says He is, for who He reveals Himself to be, both in the accounts of Scripture and in our lives today. Do not allow the majesty of Christ to be watered down with worldly teachings and secular reductions – to do anything less is to align yourself with the crowd that can’t determine if Jesus is their hero, or the One they want crucified, because they don’t really know who He is to begin with. As we celebrate Palm Sunday, as we enter Holy Week, remember the crowd – understand that there is a difference between loudly proclaiming Christ for the benefit of self, and boldly declaring Christ because His Word is Truth. And as we prepare for the greatest celebration in Christendom as we commemorate the resurrection, remember the Christ, God made flesh, who suffered in silence, undeterred and unswayed by the noise of the cheering parade that became a bloodthirsty mob. Do not allow your hope or your despair to be anchored in the world, but set your foundation firmly upon the unfailing, unchanging Rock of Christ, and be built up from there in Him. With that, I leave you with these words from Luke 12:28–32,

“But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc2X1QrdEeE