Hosanna to the Son of David

...and, I promise, that I shall not begin musing unduly on how I'm positive that the same people who shouted "Hosanna" were crying out "Crucify him" a few days later. :)

Rather, I am thinking first of the LXX text of Isaiah 45:23-25.

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth,
For I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn…
Before me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear…
In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength…
All who have rages against Him will be put to shame…
In (me) all descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult.”

I am very tempted to go into a massive exegesis of Philippians 2 - the more because I have been reviewing commentaries these past few days which have a rare richness. I am weary, however, and shall mention only a few points.

The term used for Jesus' being in the 'form' refers to that ‘form which truly and fully expresses the being which underlies it,' according to Philip T. O'Brien.  The saving significance of Jesus’ death is not the stress here. The central concern of this passage is what Jesus’ obedience meant for him – condescension, humiliation, death, and finally exaltation. As well, Jesus is showing us the nature of God - sacrificial, self-giving, and naturally the ultimate in humility (since the meaning of 'humility' is 'truth.')

I found the following quote from N. T. Wright to be worth some reflection: ‘The real humiliation of the incarnation and cross was that one who was himself God, and who never…stopped being God, could embrace such a vocation.’ But where do we take this? We are deified through Christ - and the Creator continually recreates us in his own image - where Christ took on our likeness.

I cannot claim to understand in just what 'obedience' consists. Yet it is sad that, for centuries, too much theological thought stressed atonement and sacrifice (the latter as if Jesus had to appease the Father.) Deification was lost somewhere in the shuffle.

Today, my prayer for myself and my readers is that we are given the grace for a true "Hosanna." May this Holy Week be a time of realising Jesus' glory - and our own.