"Hosanna to the son of David."--_Matt. 21:9._
IT was only the great rich wicked men that hated our Lord. The common
people heard Him gladly, and only wanted Him to begin to be king. And
they really thought the time was come when He came up to Jerusalem.
Just before He came in, He sent two of His disciples to fetch a young
ass on which no one had ever sat, and on it He rode down Mount Olivet.
[Illustration: CHRIST ENTERING JERUSALEM.--Matt. 21:8, 9.]
Now, there was an old prophecy which said to Jerusalem, "Behold,
thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass." People
remembered this, and began to receive Him like a king; they spread
their mantles on the ground before Him, and others cut down branches
from the trees and strewed them in the way; and the people before
and behind, especially the children, cried out with all their might,
"Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of
the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna means, "save now."
The Pharisees were very angry, and bade Him stop them; but He answered
with the verse of a Psalm, "Yea, have ye never read, Out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength?"
But as He looked at beautiful Jerusalem, He wept over the city, for He
knew that sad and dreadful punishments were coming on it; and yet the
people would not listen to Him, and be sorry, and so be saved.