Palm Sunday and the Hosanna Shout

Today is Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter when we commemorate the triumphal entry of the Savior into Jerusalem.  John recorded the event in these words, “On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord” (John 12:12-13).  When the Pharisees saw this they rebuked the Savior, but He responded, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40).  It was the fulfilment of prophecy from Zechariah who wrote, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9:9).  The word “hosanna” that they cried out means “save us, we beseech thee,” and the Savior’s entry into Jerusalem signified that He had indeed come to save His people, though surely those there did not fully understand that He would do that through offering up His life.  This song from Rob Gardner captures well that momentous occasion.    

               So it is very fitting that today on this Palm Sunday we will have the opportunity as a Church to participate in the Hosanna Shout and remember those early Saints two millennia ago who welcomed the Savior into Jerusalem.  We thank the Lord for His coming in the meridian of time to save us from our sins and for His coming in the dispensation of the fulness of times to bring forth the restoration of all things.  The scriptures of the Restoration record several instances where the people cried hosanna or were invited by the Lord to do so.  After Nephi expressed his faith in the words of his father, the Spirit cried out, “Hosanna to the Lord, the most high God; for he is God over all the earth, yea, even above all” (1 Nephi 11:6).  When the Nephites defeated the Gadianton robbers through their trust in God, they cried, “Hosanna to the Most High God…. Blessed be the name of the Lord God Almighty, the Most High God” (3 Nephi 4:32).  Not many years later when the Savior came among the Nephites, the people exclaimed, “Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God!” (3 Nephi 11:17)  In our day the Lord said to Martin Harris, “And speak freely to all; yea, preach, exhort, declare the truth, even with a loud voice, with a sound of rejoicing, crying—Hosanna, hosanna, blessed be the name of the Lord God!” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:37)  To Edward Partridge the Lord similarly instructed, “You are called to preach my gospel as with the voice of a trump…. And you shall declare it with a loud voice, saying: Hosanna, blessed be the name of the most high God” (Doctrine and Covenants 36:3).  The Savior said the same thing to James Covel: “Wherefore, go forth, crying with a loud voice, saying: The kingdom of heaven is at hand; crying: Hosanna! blessed be the name of the Most High God” (Doctrine and Covenants 39:19).  And then in the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple—the first time in this dispensation that the official Hosanna Shout was done by the Church—we read, “And help us by the power of thy Spirit, that we may mingle our voices with those bright, shining seraphs around thy throne, with acclamations of praise, singing Hosanna to God and the Lamb!”  The Saints all around the world will again “shout aloud for joy” today as we declare, ““Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna to God and the Lamb, Amen, Amen and Amen!” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:79-80).