This Is Jesus

MORE THAN TWO THOUSAND years ago, as Jesus approached Jerusalem, a large crowd of people gathered. Many spread their cloaks and palm branches on the road, shouting, “Hosanna … : Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” When Jesus entered Jerusalem, “all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.”1

As Jesus entered Jerusalem that day—now known as Palm Sunday—the multitude expressed their collective yearnings and pleadings. The word they used was hosanna, meaning “save now.”2

The multitude hoped the Messiah would rescue them from Roman occupation and believed that He had arrived. They had heard of His fame, and some had personally witnessed His miracles. Now, they thought, was the moment for their deliverance.

As Jesus looked over Jerusalem, He wept in sorrow for what lay ahead for its people.3 He knew that some who now cried “Hosanna!” would soon cry “Crucify him,4 for they either could not—or would not—understand. His imminent, voluntary suffering was part of His Father’s perfect plan—the one way to eternal freedom for us all. And so He went forward, suffering immensely for the sins of the world, ensuring that every person who ever lived would live again.

Today, hosanna still means “save now,” but it also includes a shout of joyful praise—an acknowledgment of hope, a recognition that Jesus did indeed triumph over sin and death. And so we raise our voices in word and in song with the cry “Hosanna!”—asking God to save us even as we sing joyful and hopeful praises to Him.

Two thousand years ago, the multitude jubilantly—even triumphantly—welcomed Him, saying, “Hosanna: Blessed is the King.5 When He returns, the scriptures declare that “every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess” that Jesus Christ is Lord.6 On that day, the question once asked in Jerusalem—“Who is this?”—will be answered beyond doubt for all: This is Jesus—the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the King of kings.

1. See Matthew 21:8–11.2. Bible Dictionary, “Hosanna.”3. See Matthew 23:36–38; Luke 19:41–44.4. Luke 23:21.5. John 12:13.6. Mosiah 27:31.