<p>21:9&nbsp;<em>And the crowds that went before him and that followed shouted: Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest- </em><i><br /></i>Hosanna means &lsquo;Save now&rsquo;. This obsession with &lsquo;Salvation now&rsquo; was their equivalent of today&rsquo;s prosperity Gospel, which is a similarly false understanding of the Lord.&nbsp;<br />Matthew records here that the people cried &lsquo;Hosanna&rsquo; at Christ&rsquo;s entry into Jerusalem. Seeing that first century Israel spoke Aramaic, this is doubtless what did actually come out of their lips. But Luke says that the same group of people shouted &ldquo;Glory&rdquo; (Lk. 19:38). Luke&rsquo;s Gospel seems to be designed for the Greek speaking world, and so he uses the Greek equivalent of &lsquo;Hosanna&rsquo;, even though they did not actually say that word. The way the New Testament quotes the Old with slight changes without pointing this out is another example of how God&rsquo;s word mixes interpretation with direct transmission of facts (e.g. Ps. 32:1-2 cp. Rom. 4:6-7). God has inspired His word in order to interpret certain facts to us. This is further proof that we are not intended to insist on a strictly literal meaning to everything we read (for example, that the sun literally rises). This fact is not irrelevant to the issue of demons. The accounts of demons being cast out are framed in such a way as to show the supremacy of God&rsquo;s power over the vain traditions of the first century world.</p><p>&quot;He that comes&quot; was a clearly Messianic title. They accepted Jesus as Messiah, but their understanding of Messiah was so wrong. They assumed He would bring &lsquo;salvation now&rsquo;, and immediate freedom from the Romans and economic hardship.</p><p>Hosanna<em> &quot;</em>in the highest&quot; suggests that because the people wanted &lsquo;Save&nbsp;<em>now</em>&rsquo; and immediate deliverance from Rome, they assumed that God shared their view. Thus they assumed that their cry of &lsquo;Salvation now&rsquo; was being uttered in Heaven too. This assumption that God is of course in tune with our wishes is very dangerous- the dashing of this expectation was what unleashed the fury and gross misjudgement in these people which lead to their very soon screaming for the death of God&rsquo;s Son.</p><p>The other records add that the Pharisees asked the Lord to restrain His supporters. His response was &quot;I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out&quot;. There's a strong similarity between the Aramaic and Hebrew words for &quot;sons&quot; and &quot;stones&quot;; and the Lord's 'sons' were the disciples, His spiritual children. It was the disciples who were enthusiastic for His triumphant entry- the crowds soon lost their enthusiasm.</p>