Communion With the Christ:: Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

“Hosanna Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord” Mk: 11:9

St. Mark, in his Gospel account records the moment when Jesus arrived at the Holy City of Jerusalem. That moment of Jesus’ coming to Jerusalem was one of great anticipation, and for the Jewish people it was an Apocalyptic moment.

Blessed His Name

The Jewish people, using words from Psalm:118, which is part of the Hallal section of the Book of Psalms, Hallal meaning “to give praise”, shouted blessings upon Jesus as he arrives.

“Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” Mk:11:9

The Jews believed that the fulfillment of all the promises of God which he had made to Israel were about to be fulfilled, that the Messianic Kingdom had arrived. The Jews hoped that their Messiah was now, come and that David’s throne would be reestablished over Israel.

“Blessed is the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest Heaven” (10)

The Jews rejoiced in what they believed was the moment which would change all things for each and all of them lifting their nation to position of power and prominence.

Blessed His Name

As Jesus approached Jerusalem the crowds threw down palm branches and even their own robes before him as he rode upon the donkey. The anticipation of the Jewish people was reaching a climax. Hosanna!

Jesus had come, he was at Jerusalem, but Jesus, and the shouting crowds, had very different purposes. The people sought a king who would bring to pass all that they had believed was promised to them as they understood it; lands, power, riches and more. So they and blessed the name of Jesus, their King had had come!

St. John records in his Gospel.

“The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

“Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;

see, your king is coming,

seated on a donkey’s colt.” Jhn: 12:12-15

The Purpose of God

Jesus however, had was come to fulfill God’s purposes not the purposes of the crowd. Jesus had come not to be set upon the throne of Israel, but rather to, be set upon the cross of Calvary only few days later.

Jesus never lost sight of his reason for coming to the Holy City. Jesus came to bring something of far more value than riches, lands, power. Jesus had come to manifest the love, mercy, grace, redemption, atonement and forgiveness of God, not just to Israel, but to all peoples.

Jesus knew that many in the crowd that day shouting blessings to his name, would in just a few days hence cry out and curse his name and call for his crucifixion, for the higher their personal desires were for welcoming Jesus, so deeper was their anger when Jesus did not fulfill their expectations.

Jesus Looked at The Temple

The Evangelist St. Mark tells us that Jesus’ procession led him to the Temple which was the very heart of the peoples of Israel relationship with God.

“Jesus then entered into Jerusalem and he entered the Temple; and when he looked around at everything and then he left” Mk: 11:11

The Jews had hoped that Jesus’ entrance into the sacred place would be the moment when he would take the throne and be declared King, yet to their profound disappointment Jesus does not do this.

St. Mark simply records that Jesus left. Jesus then enters the very house of God and sees it’s condition, nothing is hidden from his sight he perceives it’s true state in spite of the outward appearance.

The salvation work of God would not be accomplished within the Temple courts at Jerusalem at the Alter through a glorious sacrament conducted by a robed Priest, and a King wearing a crown of gold, but rather, on the rocky summit of Calvary on a bloody cross and a thorny crown affixed upon the brow of the striped body of Jesus outside the Holy City.

“The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.” Heb: 11:11-13

Do We Continue to Bless Him?

Are we, each and all, like the people of Israel who long ago cried out “Hosanna Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord” when Jesus arrives in our lives, when he comes to us through the Gospel message and we come to receive him? Do we take up the palm branch and joyfully wave it giving Jesus praise believing that now our purposes in life are about to be fulfilled and we bless Jesus?

Blessings Turned to Cursing

It is so often that when Jesus enters the Temple of our lives, which is the very heart of our relationship with God, that he does not fulfill our anticipations or exceptions, but rather, Jesus comes to us for the fulfillment of the purpose of God in our lives just as he did long ago.

We may receive Jesus, so filled with glorious anticipation and hopes, and our own desires superimposed upon him, and we give praise to him and we worship him looking for him to accomplish our goals and purposes in life, yet when he does not, how do we respond?

Are we as the Jews, who blessed Jesus as he came in the name of the Lord and then days later cursed him demanding his crucifixion? Do our Blessings turn to cursing?

Or do we see that in truth Jesus came to do far more than make us comfortable in this life, Jesus came to fulfill God’s purpose in our lives?

The crowds that day only saw only a Kingdom which would restore the throne of David in an Earthly way and fulfill their hopes.

“Blessed is the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest Heaven” Mk: 11:10

A Kingdom

Jesus did not, at that time, come to set up the Kingdom in a way which the Jewish people had hoped. Jesus did not then, and he is not now establishing that Kingdom in the way which we might have hoped for.

His Kingdom

Jesus had come to bring something even more profound he had come to bring the people more than an Earthly Kingdom which was made up of wealth and power, lands or titles, but he had come to manifest a Heavenly Kingdom even in this midst of the challenges of this life, a Kingdom which will one day break forth and be seen over all the Earth.

St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Christians at the city of Colossi of the present reality of God’s glorious Kingdom which resides even now, not just someday, in the hearts and minds of any who will but freely receive it through Jesus.

Speaking of the work of the cross which Jesus had come not just face, but to embrace, and manifest the salvation work of God.

…”giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” Col:1:13-15

This a Kingdom which now resides within the heart of all who will but freely receive it and will one day the coming of Jesus be manifested over all the Earth.

Holding the Palm Branches

The palm branches which the crowds took hold of that day as Jesus rode into the Holy City had long been associated with the Kingdom of the Messiah; for the palm branches were used to build the booths for the Old Covenant observance of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Speaking of the Messiah’s glorious Kingdom, the Prophet Zechariah wrote of it in the 14th chapter of the book which bears his name. This Kingdom is depicted as glorious and powerful, rich beyond imagination, a resorted Israel. This is what they hoped Jesus was bringing them that day long ago and blessed him for as they waved the palm branches and blessed him.

But through the cross, death and resurrection Jesus has done far more. Jesus has fulfilled God’s divine purpose for all of us and bring us into God's Kingdom. Through St. John’s eyes we are given a glimpse of the reality of this glorious Kingdom of God which Jesus has made available for each and all, for any who will but freely receive, none need to be excluded except by their own choice to refuse salvation freely offered to us.

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands”. Rev: 7:9

This Kingdom is for us, this is God’s purpose for each and all who will but freely receive it. Jesus has come in the name of the Lord to fulfill the divine purpose of God for each and all, for this, we should all give him praise and loudly declare in shouts of joy.

“Hosanna Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord” Mk: 11:9

Benediction: May we each and all ever give praise to Jesus who has come to fulfill the purpose of God and open his Heavenly Kingdom to us, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.