Awake! Arise! See Your Salvation!
Blessed Holy Monday to you! As I read and rehearse these verses from Isaiah 52, it is as if they are an echo from the future… a “pre-telling” of Christ Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem… into Zion, the holy city of God. Although historically, or chronologically, these words were written centuries before Christ Jesus walked the earth, there is this sense that the prophet Isaiah was addressing the very moment, the very day we observe as Palm Sunday. Both moments are a call for an awakening… an invitation to rise up and put on the garments of praise which are our strength. They are a call to shake-off every disqualifying element that would render us unworthy, render us unclean before God. They are a beckoning forth, a shout bidding us to shake off the weight of captivity, judgement, and sin, for the Faithful One… the one with the beautiful feet, our Savior, has come!
One thing it is important for us to note, is that the Savior, the Deliverer is not the one trumpeting his own horn, but it is the voice of the watchmen… the voices from the witnesses that we hear. How much are the words and the images evoked by Isaiah 52:7-8 an echo from Christ’s descent from Mount Olivet? Hear the testimony of Luke 19:37b–38: “… the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
Today, I receive these messages… these verses from both Isaiah and Luke in a deeper way. I hear them not merely as calls to wake-up and rise-up, but as calls to speak up… as calls to add our voices to those of the watchmen and witnesses. On today, Let Us add our voices to the witness concerning the One who is the author of our salvation… the One who is the publisher of our peace.
Let Us Pray
Lord God, we give you the honor! Lord God, we give you all the praise! We are ever grateful for all you have done for our sakes… to redeem us, free us, save us, and claim us as your own. Lord God, we lend our voices… join our voices with the praises of all your saints. Hosana! Hosana to you, Lord God! Hosana in the highest!.