Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is recorded in all four gospels, and each includes some different detail about what the crowds cried out as he came. All of the gospels except for Luke record that the crowd cries out, “Hosanna”—which means “save now” or “rescue us.”
But what did they expect Him to save them from? Most were not thinking about sin or spiritual renewal. They weren’t anticipating a cross or a resurrection. Even His closest followers, though told what would come, responded to His arrest with panic and to His death with despair—not expectation. The crowd was looking for a king, but the kind who would overthrow the Roman Empire and restore Israel to its former glory—something like the days of David. They wanted a return to the “good old days.”
But Jesus doesn’t ride in on a war horse. He comes on a donkey—humble, peaceful, unexpected. Because He didn’t come to restore what was—He came to make something entirely new.
And that misunderstanding still exists today. Many people come to Christ hoping He will take them back—to who they used to be, to how life used to feel, to a version of themselves before the pain, the addiction, the grief.
But Jesus didn’t come to rewind your life. He came to remake it. Scripture says He makes old things new. He brings dead things to life.
The true disciples, then, are not just the ones who shout “Hosanna” as He enters the city—they are the ones who follow Him out of it. The ones willing to take up their cross, deny themselves, and walk the road that leads through death to life. Because it’s only when the old self is put to death that something new can be raised.
That’s what baptism represents. It’s not just a ritual—it’s a declaration: the old is gone, the new has come. We are not going back. We are being made new.
Romans 6:4 (KJV)
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
