Hosanna

Hosanna.  Anybody reading this is likely to have heard this song. It's a great one to be sure, written beautifully, poetically describing God's glory and power to save. But until we sang it today, in Spanish, I had never quite captured its true meaning.

To me this song had always simply been a song of praise. It's a guaranteed tear-jerker, always a heart-mover, and overall a great song to throw in after an especially convicting sermon.  The explanation of the song has always been simple enough: We sing words like "Hosanna" because that's what people shouted to Jesus as he entered Jerusalem. We're just lifting Him up in the same way. We can see in Matthew 21:9 how the people hailed Jesus,

"Hosanna to the Son of David!" 

     "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"  

          "Hosanna in the highest!"

We all know what Hosanna really means.  Or at least we think we do. Your Bible will tell you that "Hosanna" was a Hebrew word that meant "Save" and that it later became an exclamation of praise. So we could say that what these people are actually shouting is, "Praise you Son of David!"; "Praise you Messiah!"; "Save!"
(By the word "Save", they were actually acknowledging Jesus's power to save, effectively acknowledging Him as the Christ or Messiah.)

As we sing the song, we echo the very words of those Jews on that famous day. "We praise you, God!"; "Save!"; "Glory in the Highest!"  In every chorus, that is what we sing, and this sentiment, that God is worthy of praise and mighty to save, is central to its message.

However, as we sang this song today, my attention was drawn to the bridge, and as I listened, the true meaning behind what we were declaring suddenly became very clear to me. I like the Spanish better than the English version of this song, because in it all the poetic qualities of the original are diminished, and we are left to see the very heart of what we're singing.

"Heal me," it says. "Clean me. I want to see Your works with my eyes. I want to love You just like You love me."  

It was like a smack in the face: Heal me? Clean me?  This person is broken! This person is dirty! They struggle to see God in their lives, and they can never love God as much as He deserves, no matter how much they try! They don't have it all together! They're not even close! That person is...well, that person is me.

And I cried. I cried not because of how dirty I think I must look in God's eyes, but I cried because of the person's reaction: They recognize that they are filthy and broken, and yet what is their response?

"Hosanna!"


When I heard these words, I had to cry. My tears were tears of love and tears of joy, because I realized that the debt is paid, and all that matters now is "Hossana, God! Hosanna!" 


When I'm dirty, God, "Hosanna!"; When I least deserve you, God, "Hosanna!"; When I fail to recognize your greatness, God, "Hosanna!"

"Hosanna."

It's all that matters. In your life, in every moment, even in the moments that we feel so bogged down by sin that it seems God by all reasonable standards should not keep His promises to us because we are a lost cause, God has already made us holy. God has already made us worthy to stand in His presence, because it is no longer our sinful selves who stand before Him, but his own sons and daughters, made pure and counted sinless by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so now, having already freely received the most costly gift while we could not pay for it, the only thing we can possibly give back is a life of praise to the One and Only One Who is Worthy of it.

"Hosanna."