Matthew 21:12-17
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers!” The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the experts in the law saw the wonders he performed and heard the children calling out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant. They said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” “Yes,” Jesus told them, “Have you never read, From the lips of little children and nursing babies you have prepared praise?” He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Forgive us when we take our faith and Your grace and mercy for granted. That Monday of Holy Week, You walked into a market in Your temple; people—religious leaders—were treating forgiveness as some money-making venture. Those animal sacrifices pointed to the sacrifice You would make at the end of the week. Your forgiveness was and is not for sale.
Yet it was not the adults in the room who understood your love but those children, singing the Hosannas they had heard the previous day when You rode in on that donkey. Hosanna—Hebrew for “God save us, please!”—was their cry, and You answered all their prayers on that Friday. Then, You willingly allowed Yourself to be betrayed, apprehended, judged, beaten, mocked, scourged, led to, and nailed to the cross. You willingly suffered God the Father’s eternal wrath to answer their prayer; you gave up Your life and saved us all.
In Your death, you brought life and salvation to all people, delivered to us by faith in You. Please give us the lips of little children to sing Hosanna; please hear our prayer. Make a change in our hearts to believe and trust in You so that we may also share this good news with others so that they, too, will know You and sing Hosanna. Amen
Written through Pastor Roger Emmons
God’s miracles still happen today. Through His Word and sacraments, he brings life to a soul so that the soul trusts and has faith in Jesus as their Savior.