\u201d\u02dcHosanna\u2019 was also a cry of release from the heavy yoke, burdens and hardships long-endured by the Jewish people because of the Roman occupation. They were longing for the Messiah to set them free. \u201d\u02dcSave us now\u2019 had long been their prayer of hope. The same prayer that echoes round the world today. But this is a prayer with a health warning. It is costly.<\/p>\n
Religious people have often assumed that God could be enlisted to the service of their particular cause, project, nation, or culture. But as Abraham Lincoln once said, \u201d\u02dcMy concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God\u2019s side.\u2019<\/p>\n
The followers of the one who rode into Jerusalem that day are called to a grander allegiance than that of tribe or nation \u201d\u201c we must seek the \u201d\u02dcKingdom of God and his righteousness.\u2019 Transcending loyalties of blood and statehood, we are enlisted for God\u2019s agenda of justice, peace, and the common life of friendship. This is the way of love. In the face of this we must, as another book title once put it, \u201d\u02dcGive up our small ambitions.\u2019<\/p>\n