At church this morning, we celebrated Palm Sunday. I learned that the donkey has a cross on its back (see here). I also learned that "Hosanna" means "Save"---and I could figure out why it meant that: In Hebrew, it's the hiphil imperative of yasha with a na ("please") attached to it. The pastor made the point that many of the Jews of Jesus' day wanted a political salvation---in which they'd possess Jerusalem and be independent of Roman oppression---but Jesus was offering a spiritual salvation. The Jews were not expecting a Messiah who would humble himself, suffer, and die for their sins.
There is a certain coziness that comes from knowing that God loves me and forgives me and that I am his child, and that I can hope for a rich eternal future, regardless of what my present external situations may be. But I can understand why there were many Jews who wanted political liberation---with all of the poverty and the taxes that they had to pay to Rome. One of the texts that we read today was Zechariah 9:9, which was about the king of Israel humbly coming to Jerusalem on a donkey. But so much of the chapter is about God walloping Israel's national enemies, and creating a concrete (not merely a spiritual) state of peace. I was wondering at church this morning where the king's humility in riding on a donkey fit into that, and I remembered that I discussed that issue a while back in my post here.
But I still admire Jesus for rising above political grievances and showing a higher way. He brought different people together, people who ordinarily hated each other---such as Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax-collector.