JCS: Hosanna & Simon Zealotes
Listen Along!
107 - Hosanna
108 - Simon Zealotes
I realized that there's only about 13 more days until Easter and I have 16 more songs to go so I am going to be doubling up a few songs that follow chronologically and have similar themes. "Hosanna" and "Simon Zealotes" are too such songs.
"Hosanna" is essentially Palm Sunday: Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey while the people sing Hosannas (I really can't stand the sound of that word) or, in the case of JCS, they sing, "Hosanna Heysanna Sanna Sanna Ho / Sanna Hey Sanna Ho Sanna." Say that 5 times fast. Meanwhile, Caiaphas and those nasty ol' Pharisees are plotting and "moaning at the crowd" as ol' JC puts it. What I like about this telling of the story is that Jesus' proclomation that if they shut up the rocks would begin to sing sounds happy. We can read that he says the same thing in Luke 19:40, but there's something about the tone of Christ's voice in JCS that gives you the feeling that he's enjoying the moment. And why not, it's one of the few happy moments he has left on earth: a disciple to betray him, another to deny him, a flogging, and a crucifixion. I imagine that Christ would be happy this day. Sure, these are the same people that in 5 days will turn on him and be instead calling, "Crucify him, crucify him!" but for right then and there, he was fulfilling prophecies and feeling his father's approval.
"Simon Zealotes" is sung by takes place directly after "Hosanna" and it features Simon the Zealot (a disciple of Christ, but not Peter) singing about how this whipped-up crowd that Jesus has control of could easily be prompted to rebel against Rome and begin the revolt that so many of the Jews imagined that Christ would lead if he really was the Messiah. Here again, the politics of being a country under occupation continue to color in some of the outlines that the Bible spells out. How could so many people, even those witnesses to miracles and teachings, still not believe in Jesus as anything more than a good Rabbi? Simple, their reading of the Torah revealed a warrior Messiah who they imagined would come to deliver them from the Romans. And then you get Jesus "love your enemies" Christ. Not exactly what they were looking for. Christ's message failed to reach them, not because of who he is, but of what they were expecting and the fact that it was counter to what God had actually been planning. Now there's a lesson for ya.
posted by Matt Wiggins @ 3:59 PM
3 Comments:
Expectation versus Results
One of the biggest lessons in the Bible. And we (as humans) seemed doomed to fall into this problem. We don't know much about Adam and Eve's expectations, but we can tell that as soon as they got conflicting data, they began to act irrationally. The same is true for the Israelites, the Pharisees, the disciples, and us. We don't respond well when life gives us multiple-choice tests. So, how do we work against our nature? How do we overcome the panic that sets in when we are presented with choice? Obviously, the Pharisees consulted their texts. However, we see now that they were misinterpreting them. They needed to get their faith out of the theoretical stage and into a practical one. Get the words off of the page and out into the open. Jesus represents the living Word, because he actually lived what was written. "And the Word became flesh." How do we, as mere humans, attempt to actually live out our faith so that when decision points come (to eat the apple or not; to crucify a prophet, teacher, and possible savior; to betray our God on a daily basis), we can respond appropriately?
Man, that's a dLog entry right there. Good words, Ben :)
Yeah, I got carried away.
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