Palm Sunday A
March 29, 2026
St. Dunstan’s
The Rev. Patricia Templeton
I have always loved Palm Sunday. The waving of palm branches and crosses. The ragtag procession into the church. The shouting of hosannas. The once-a-year singing of the hymn, All Glory Laud and Honor.
Until a few years ago I had always thought that the word hosanna was interchangeable with the word alleluia. Our hymns and prayers suggest this. Even one of the dictionary definitions of hosanna is “expressing adoration, praise, or joy.”
That would mean the people gathered as Jesus rode his borrowed donkey into Jerusalem were praising him, showing their love for him, expressing their joy at seeing him. For decades I believed that was the meaning of Palm Sunday.
It’s a nice picture of a joyful, albeit ragtag, parade.
But within the last few years I learned that the original meaning of the word hosanna, what it meant in Jesus’ day, is something entirely different.
Hosanna is from two Hebrew words – Yasha and anna.
Yasha in Hebrew means to deliver or save. Anna means beg or beseech. So when the people were shouting hosanna that day they were begging for Jesus to save them.
Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice, the writers of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, knew that. Their memorable scene of Palm Sunday contains the song Hosanna. You probably know the refrain:
Hey sanna, ho sanna, sanna sanna ho
Sanna hey, sanna ho sanna.
One of the verses continues with these words:
Hey JC, JC, won’t you fight for me?
Sanna ho sanna hey, Superstar.
The people were begging Jesus to fight for them, to save them – not in some far away heaven, but on earth here and now.
Save them from what?
Save them from the oppression of the Roman Empire that occupied their land. Save them from Pilate and Caesar and the cruelty of their regimes. Save them from a tax system that robbed the poor to give more riches to the wealthy and powerful. Save them from working at hard labor all day and still barely being able to care for their families.
Save them from a legal system that operated at the whims of the powerful and provided no protection or justice for the poor.
Save them from the sins of the empire.
This week as I was preparing for today and the full week ahead, I realized that for many of us our Palm Sunday remembrance really began yesterday.
Across the nation millions of people turned out for the third No Kings rally, which are really rallies for democracy and against tyrants.
I was in Brookhaven, with about 25 other St. Dunstanites, helping to line a section of Peachtree with signs and protesters. I know many of you were at other protests, including the massive one downtown.
The people I was with laughed when we heard that House Speaker Mike Johnson had labeled protesters as “domestic terrorists.” Many of the terrorists around me were in wheelchairs with oxygen tanks or using walkers or canes to get around.
This was not a religious rally, but many of us were compelled by our faith to be there. Many of the signs I saw expressed values straight out of scripture.
There were signs calling for protection for immigrants. Signs calling for affordable health care for all. Signs protesting cuts in food stamps. Signs calling for respecting the dignity of all God’s children. Signs praising diversity, equity, and inclusion.
These domestic terrorists were carrying messages straight from the teachings of Jesus.
And the underlying messages of them all was save us now.
Save us from illegal wars started at the whim of a wanna-be dictator. Save us from balancing the budget on the backs of the poor in this country and around the world, while the rich add to their millions and billions.
Save us from acceptance of the slaughter of children – by our bombs in Iran and by weapons of war in our classrooms.
Save us from the casual cruelty of this administration, beginning with the occupant of the Oval Office.
Save us from the Gestapo tactics of masked, unidentified ICE agents, ignoring the law and terrorizing whole cities.
Save us from the building of internment camps designed to be inhumane.
Save us from assaults against the rights of women and minorities, including the right to vote.
Save us from the dismantling of our Constitution and our democracy.
Save us now.
The sins and cruelty of empire stay the same, only packaged in different ways.
I’ve read about those who mocked yesterday’s protests, saying they would not change anything. And they’re right. There will be no policy changes in the coming weeks because millions turned out yesterday.
But that does not mean that they were unimportant or a waste of time. That millions of people were willing to take to the streets to support our country, many of whom were standing up for real Christian values sends an important message of solidarity and hope.
Abraham Heschel, a leading Jewish theologian, who was active in the civil rights movement, went to Selma 60+ years ago to join with Martin Luther King in the voting rights march to Montgomery.
When asked why, he replied that he was praying with his feet.
Yesterday across our nation millions of people prayed with their feet.
Hosanna! Save us now! Hosanna!
Amen