I loved the Baptist church in which I grew up, but that didn’t prevent a bad flu-like case of high church envy. It would typically surface around Ash Wednesday. “Why can’t I get ashes on my forehead like Laurie?” I pouted. “All my friends have them.” And it would peak on Palm Sunday. “Why don’t we get real palm branches? Why don’t we march around the church and shout hosanna? All we do is sit in church.” By the time another Palm Sunday ended in disappointment, my fever broke and I was ready to move on to egg hunts and Easter baskets.

Disappointment is a funny word. It speaks of failure to meet a hope or expectation of someone.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, crowds followed him into the city for Passover. Jesus was trending. He had fed thousands of people with a single lunch, raised Lazarus from the dead and healed blind Bartimaeus. What would he do next? It seemed he could do anything.

The king had come—even though he rode on a donkey, and not a white stallion. His moment had arrived. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:9, 10) Expectations and speculation ran high. Surely, Jesus would roll back taxes, ease restrictions, and put a kosher chicken in every pot while he’s at it.

Perhaps the disciples were caught up in the excitement and expectations of the crowd, wondering what would happen once the palm branches and cloaks were cleared from the road. In the end, were they disappointed with withered fig trees, overturned temple tables, a basin and towel, a betrayer’s kiss and a rooster’s crowing.

Like the crowd and the disciples, it’s all too easy for us to have expectations of a savior who, all too often, looks like us—human. This savior will avenge our enemies, fight for our causes, restore us to position and power.

Jesus didn’t meet the disciples or the crowd’s expectations of a savior, nor does he meet ours—he exceeds them, fulfilling the promise of the prophet:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)

This is our Savior, humble and mounted on a donkey as he entered Jerusalem; then humbled and lifted high on the cross this Lamb of God, righteous and having salvation, takes away the sin of the world.

I might have been a Baptist suffering from high church envy, but now I have greater expectations for a greater Palm Sunday to come.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

Hosanna!