When Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, the crowds cheered and cried “Hosanna!” It wasn’t a shout of praise, as many think — it was not “Hallelujah!” — but instead a cry for salvation. “Hosanna” literally means “save.”

It is an especially poignant episode for us now, as so many are crying out for God to save us from the coronavirus.

Jesus entered Jerusalem as its king that day, intentionally fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9:

Say to Daughter Zion,
“See, your king comes to you,
Gentle, and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Chafing under Roman rule, knowing they were the people of God, constantly aware of their lost heritage of David’s kingship, the people were desperate for a king who would save them, set them free, restore their sovereignty. And maybe to let the Romans have a taste of their own medicine.

This was the salvation they craved. It was not the salvation Jesus came to bring. He had come to set up His throne in hearts, not in a palace. His kingdom was “not of this world;” not in the model of worldly kingdoms. 

By a week later Jesus had fulfilled the most crucial part of His mission, dying on a cross and rising again. Not, however, before He had been set humbly before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. There the crowds saw Him subjected to Rome, not ruling over it. Their cheers turned to contempt and calls to “Crucify Him!”

They did not know what He had come to save them from: their sins, their rebellion against God, the death that each one could expect as a result.

Seek the Salvation We Need Most

Today the whole world is crying out for deliverance from a cruel and tormenting disease. It is a weak and cowardly foe, in that it mostly (not entirely) kills the weak; it is a strong enemy in that it has virtually imprisoned millions in their own homes.

We need rescue. 

But just as the Jews lining the road with palm branches were mistaken, so we too can go wrong in our prayers for rescue. God cares about life and health, so He does not fault us in our prayers for them. Jesus healed the sick, too.  His primary concern, though, was always sickness of the soul.

On this Palm Sunday, therefore, let us cry out “Hosanna! Save!” And by all means let it be a prayer for an end to the scourge of this virus. But let it be more than that; let it be a prayer for the life and health of our souls, our own and our countrymen.

We have strayed far from God, we who live in the western world. We have established a culture of setting ourselves up as our own gods, with our own “truth,” and ruled by (if you can call it that) our own moral standards. Our gods have no demands on us, least of all that we would grow in knowledge of the true God.

This isn’t mere sickness, it is spiritual death — which, happily, is exactly what Jesus came to save us from. This is the deliverance for which we must cry out, even more than from the pandemic.

Jesus is King Regardless

Jesus entered Jerusalem as its king, humbly that first time. For now He allows us to choose or reject His life-giving kingship in our lives. Whether we choose Him or not, He is King. He will return, next time on a warhorse, not a donkey, and complete His work of delivering His people from an evil world — including its sicknesses.

That’s later, though. Now His chief concern is our souls — our sin, and our opportunity to be freed from it through Him. Let that be our chief concern, too, for now.

It doesn’t mean not fighting the virus. It means not forgetting what “Hosanna” really means in this age. 

Tom Gilson (@TomGilsonAuthor) is a senior editor with The Stream, and the author of A Christian Mind: Thoughts on Life and Truth in Jesus Christ and Critical Conversations: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Discussing Homosexuality with Teens, and the lead editor of True Reason: Confronting the Irrationality of the New Atheism.