Slowing the Donkey’s Gait
A meditation on Palm Sunday
Matthew 21:1-17
I have always been moved by the hymn,
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna,
which is sung in many English speaking churches on Palm Sunday
.
Its text celebrates the role children played when Jesus’ entered Jerusalem on a donkey during the last week of his life.
Hosanna, loud hosanna,
the little children sang;
through pillared court and temple
the lovely anthem rang;
to Jesus, who had blessed them
close folded to his breast,
the children sang their praises,
the simplest and the best.
From Olivet they followed
amid a cheering crowd,
the victor palm branch waving,
and chanting clear and loud.
the one whom angels worship
rode on in lowly state,
and glad to see the children,
Slowed down the donkey’s gait.
It was written in the 19th century by an English hymn writer, Jeannette Threlfall, who had been orphaned at an early age. Many of her hymns reflect on the role of children as pilgrims and in this Palm Sunday text she expands the role children played during Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem.
Matthew’s gospel mentions specifically that once Jesus gets to Jerusalem he goes to the temple to drive out the money changers and heal the sick. The chief priests and scribes get angry, not only because of the amazing things Jesus was doing, but also because they heard the children crying out “Hosanna to the Son of David.” Their actions are a reminder that for centuries, those in power have abused and mistreated children through mass genocides, conscripting them as soldiers, or caging them at borders. In this story from Matthew Jesus confronts those in power by quoting Psalm 8:1, “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself.”
Right up to the end, the children Jesus had blessed and pointed to as true examples of what it means to inhabit the realm of God, were prophetic in their knowledge of who he was. They could not be silenced. They shouted “hosanna” which means “salvation has come.” These children, whose praise and presence angered those in power, remind me of young people today who are speaking out against injustice. Young people like Greta Thunberg, the Swedish environmental activist on climate change and Janna Jihad Ayyad, a young journalist who has used her mother’s iPhone to document and post on social media the horrors of the apartheid system in Palestine. I want to encounter their passion in Holy Week.
They prompt me, as the third verse of the hymn says, to make that ancient song mine. To sing it with all my power, with all my heart, life and voice…
"Hosanna in the highest!"
That ancient song is ours,
We hail our great Redeemer
and sing with all our powers;
"Hosanna, Christ, we praise you
with heart and life and voice.
Hosanna! In your presence
forever we'll rejoice!"
On this Palm Sunday, let us “slow the donkey’s gait” to see and celebrate the children in our midst who can, along with Jesus, teach us more that we can ever imagine about speaking truth to power.
Rev. Elder Mona West, Ph.D
Austin, Texas, USA
