Making Sense Out of Hosanna

One of my favorite books is J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. There is a place in it where the king is coming into the city but he is incognito, and nobody really knows whether he is the true king and one of the old wise women says, “Ah, but the hands of the king are healing hands and thus shall the rightful king be known. So she says let’s take him into the house of healing and see if he can heal some people.” The hands of the king are healing hands. Think about Palm Sunday. What was Palm Sunday all about? It is the entrance of the king into His city. The King comes into the city to bring healing and restoration, but not in the way that the power brokers, nor ourselves expected. And in a week’s time this King would prove and demonstrate His Kingship through His death on a cross and His subsequent resurrection, defeating death and evil. In Acts 3:1-10 we see God’s reign of grace manifested in this account of Peter and John healing a man lame from birth. And we learn three things about the reign of grace. First, we learn of our desperate need of the reign of grace. This man is lame from birth and we are born into sin. We are crippled from birth. We desperately need grace. We are helpless without it. Second, this text teaches us the living reality of the reign of grace. In v.6 Peter tells the man “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Third, we learn of the radical propulsion of the reign of grace. The man rises up and walks to do what? To worship and live. We need to rise up and walk in order to live for Christ.

This whole passage is all about the gospel. The gospel is good news of something that has happened. And look at what the reign of grace produces in this man’s life. It brings healing and renewal to him that leads to an overflow of his heart and life whereby he worships and lives for God. The gospel produces renewal in that as the text tells us all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. The gospel is always moving outward.