<p>12:13 <i>Took the branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, and cried out: Hosanna Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord, the King of Israel- </i>It has been so often pointed out that the crowd who welcomed the Lord into Jerusalem with shouts of &ldquo;Hosanna&rdquo; were the very people who days later were screaming &ldquo;Crucify him&rdquo;. It&rsquo;s been suggested that the crowds were comprised of two different groups; those who shouted &ldquo;Hosanna&rdquo; were those who had come up from Galilee, and the Jerusalem crowd shouted &ldquo;Crucify Him&rdquo;. But Jn. 12:13 and Jn. 19:14,15 seem to encourage us to make a connection between the two scenes, for &ldquo;the crowd&rdquo; <i>shouts </i>both times- firstly &ldquo;Hosanna&rdquo;, and then &ldquo;Crucify Him&rdquo;. Personally I am convinced it was the same basic crowd. They were a classic witness to the fickleness of human loyalty to God&rsquo;s Son. And remember that only a few months after Jerusalem slew Him, the leaders of the Jews feared that &ldquo;the people&rdquo; would have stoned them if they acted too roughly with the followers of Jesus (Acts 5:26). Popular opinion had swayed back the other way again. And a while later, it was to sway against the Christians again, when &ldquo;there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem&rdquo; (Acts 8:1). But this leads to questions, questions which aren&rsquo;t answered by a simple acceptance of humanity&rsquo;s fickleness. Why this <i>anger </i>with Jesus, a man who truly went about doing good, caring for little children, impressing others with the evident congruity between His words and His person? How could it have happened that the anger of His people was so focused against Him, leading them to prefer a murderer as against a Man who clearly came to give life, and that more abundantly&hellip;? &nbsp;</p><p><i>Branches of palm trees- </i>They welcomed Him into Jerusalem with the waving of palm fronds. These were a symbol of Jewish nationalism- hence the palm appeared on the coins of the Second Revolt (AD 132-135). Back in 164 BC when Judas Maccabeus rededicated the temple altar, palms were brought to the temple (2 Macc. 10:7); and Simon Maccabeus led the Jews back into Jerusalem with palm fronds in 1 Macc. 13:51. The crowd were therefore welcoming Jesus, expecting Him to announce His Messianic Kingdom there and then. The &ldquo;Hosanna&rdquo; of Jn. 12:13 was used in addressing kings in 2 Sam. 14:4; 2 Kings 6:26. It meant literally &ldquo;Save <i>now</i>&rdquo;. They wanted a Kingdom there and then. His whole interpretation of the Kingdom, extensively and so patiently delivered for over three years, had simply failed to register with them. It seems that only after the crowd had started doing this, that the Lord consciously dashed their expectations by sitting on a donkey.</p>