MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
Hosanna (Palm Sunday) (Jesus Christ Superstar)
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Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/music/hosanna-palm-sunday-jesus-christ-superstar-3316
Description

The song representing Palm Sunday in the musical movie Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), when Jesus entered Jerusalem and was acclaimed by the crowds as king, only to abandon him to his death a few days later.


It was customary at the time to receive kings or victorious warriors hailing them with palms and olive branches, while he processioned around the city riding on a white horse or a splendid chariot. Jesus knew that the crowd was expecting his arrival enthusiastically, so he wanted to send a clear message to them. By choosing to ride an ordinary donkey instead of an elegant horse, he was saying: here, the kingdom I bring is not a kingdom of power and violence, it's a kingdom where everything will be subverted: the first will be the last, the poor will rejoice while the rich will see their privileges shatter, the powerful will be abased and the ordinary people will get the power. So when the High Priest (the establishment of the time) ordered him to tell the people to be quiet, Jesus said it was impossible to stop them now.

Indeed, the Kingdom that Jesus preached and proclaimed, the very revolution that took him to the cross, is still far from being a full reality, but Jesus himself said that the Kingdom of God is like a little grain of mustard that slowly grows to become a tree and finally give shelter to all the birds in the sky (all the nations in the world), and it is like the yeast that is almost invisible but slowly works inside the dough till all of it is fermented and produces good bread.

It is true that Jesus' Kingdom is still far from being a reality, but it is also true that Jesus unleashed unstoppable forces that started to work slowly inside society, transforming it over the centuries in something closer and closer to that which he preached in the Sermon of the Mount: a universal kingdom where the power will be given to the people, all men and women will be equal, no more oppression, no more injustice, no more political persecution, no more tears and no more pain. The cry of "liberty, equality and fraternity" grows from the very seed that Jesus planted, and that little tree is still growing and growing towards perfection till the day when Jesus himself will come back to give it full complexion.

His charger was a humble donkey, his army a bunch or fishermen, his crown made of thorns, his throne a cross of torture, his joy serving the others... and still he was king and victorious and the forces of evil and death couldn't prevail against him, and the political and religious power of the time and, eventually, the Empire itself, all fell and passed away. Only He and his message survived and spread to all the nations on earth, and no matter how hard they try to stop it today, as they did then, the story will finally repeat itself because the Kingdom is God's plan for us, and so, eventually, it is unstoppable. That's our hope, that's our joy and that's our conviction, that love and justice will finally prevail.

Transcript

Hosanna
Hey Sanna Sanna Sanna Hosanna
Hey Sanna Hosanna
Hey JC, JC won't you smile at me?
Sanna Hosanna
Hey Superstar

Tell the rabble to be quiet, we anticipate a riot.
This common crowd, is much too loud.
Tell the mob who sing your song that they are fools and they are wrong.
They are a curse. They should disperse.

Hosanna
Hey Sanna Sanna Sanna Hosanna
Hey Sanna Hosanna
Hey JC, JC you're alright by me
Sanna Hosanna
Hey Superstar

Why waste your breath
moaning at the crowd?
Nothing can be done to stop the shouting.
If every tongue were stilled
The noise would still continue.
The rocks and stone themselves would start to sing:

Hosanna
Hey Sanna Sanna Sanna Hosanna
Hey Sanna Hosanna

Hey JC, JC won't you fight for me?
Sanna Hosanna Hey Superstar

Sing me your songs,
But not for me alone.
Sing out for yourselves,
For you are blessed.
There is not one of you
Who cannot win the kingdom.
The slow, the suffering,
The quick, the dead.

Hosanna
Hey Sanna Sanna Sanna Hosanna
Hey Sanna Hosanna

Hey JC, JC won't you die for me?
Sanna Hosanna Hey Superstar

Explanations

HOSANNA= Hebrew expression used to express praise or adoration to God.


JC= Jesus Christ.


WON'T YOU...?= The same as "Will you...?". A polite way to ask a favour.


RABBLE= A mob, a tumultuour crowd, lots and lots of people.


COMMON= Ordinary, with no importance or high status.


CROWD= A mass of many people together.


MOB= (despective) crowd.


CURSE= (the opposite of blessing) Something evil which will bring about disgrace.


DISPERSE= Separate, disappear, go away.


WHY WASTE YOUR BREATH?= Don't say that because it is useless.


MOANING AT= Complaining about.


STILLED= Stopped, quietened.


SING OUT= Sing aloud.


FOR YOU ARE BLESSED= Because you get God's love and favour.


THE KINGDOM= In Jesus' message, the kingdom is a world of peace, justice and happiness, either here on earth or/and in heaven.


THE SLOW= In English we can use the construction "the + adjective" to refer to a group of people who has that quality, so THE SLOW = SLOW PEOPLE, and the same with the rest: the suffering (people who suffer), the quick (those who are quick) and the dead (people who are dead).