This week I started to consider that perhaps the Jews yelling, “Hosanna” got it more right then I had previously thought. They were yelling “Hosanna” (Save us) in hopes that Jesus would overthrow the Roman bondage they were enduring. Previously I thought that, “no, Jesus came to save them from the bondage of sin.” Yes he certainly did, but follow along with the Zechariah prophesy and Jesus also did in fact overthrown the Roman bondage the people at that time were enduring and how He did it offers us amazing ways to freedom ourselves.

Zechariah 9:9 Jesus comes in on the famous donkey: “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you,  a righteous one bringing salvation. He is lowly, riding on a donkey—on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

A friend of mine is sort of a horse whisperer and we were discussing this passage and his insight is really helpful. He said “Robby, you can’t ride a colt of a donkey. It would be like trying to ride a six month old Labrador Retriever, he would be all over the place totally uncontrollable.” One of the miracles of the triumphal entry was Jesus total mastery of this colt, in front of the big city folk. Can you imagine all the people screaming yelling and here is this baby donkey ready to head for the hills with any other rider. This is like the animals all coming to the arc for Noah. Or Lawrence Anthony, they called him the Elephant Whisperer, as he had taken charge of a dangerous elephant herd  back in the 1990’s and upon his death they said elephants came from miles around and stood vigil for two days. Jesus was in control, don’t miss that, you make think he was hunted but he was the hunter. He was hunting all of us, I’ll say that again, all of us, the Romans, the Greeks, The Jews, you and me.

Come on down to Zechariah 9:13  “I will bend Judah as my bow and fill it with Ephraim.  I will rouse your sons, O Zion against your sons, O Greece. I will wield you like a warrior’s sword.  This passage grabbed my attention when I understood that word, “O Greece”. In Hebrew, (Yavan) the son of Japheth, grandson of Noah, who according to the table of nations settled in Ionia. The capital of Ionia in Jesus time was Ephesus. Yes, where Paul started the Church, that later John came and settled with Jesus’ mother Mary, and later in the book of revelation he would write his first letter to. The arrows of Ephraim, Paul, John, and many others. Yes, they changed the world and yes Rome was overcome by Christianity as a result. You can’t miss the fact that much of the Church’s original expansion came from these arrows.

What those arrows had to change the world was the Gospel to be sure, but in that was Grace and Truth. Listen to this Barbie Movie clip and see if you can catch the Grace and Truth. You see Barbie encounters Spike the Stone Fish and show amazing grace as he seems to want to kill her, instead by sharing the truth in love with Spike and covering his spikes with pearls he now is free from the isolation he had suffered with.

Think of the Grace and Truth that went out with the Bible the number one selling book of all time has and is changing the world every day. Jesus is the Word and He is filled with Grace and Truth and He has been ‘Hosannaing” saving all of us, Romans, Greeks, Jews, me and you since the first Resurrection day.