Hosanna Until It Gets Hard | Palm Sunday Faith

What happens when we praise Jesus on Sunday… but feel confused by Monday?

In this Holy Week episode of Divine Shenanigans, we’re talking about the tension of Palm Sunday through John 12:12–19 and the hard truth that the same crowd shouting “Hosanna!” later shouted “Crucify Him!” Oof. Humans stay human.

This episode explores what happens when Jesus doesn’t meet our expectations, when faith feels shaky because God doesn’t “win” the way we thought He would, and why so many people wanted a political savior instead of a suffering one. We’re getting honest about disappointment with Jesus, unmet expectations, and the temptation to walk away when following Him gets uncomfortable.

We’ll talk about how faith shifts when God’s plan looks slower, quieter, and harder than we imagined, and how Holy Week invites us into a deeper kind of trust — one that stays even when the parade ends and the road turns toward the cross.

This episode includes a personal story, community reflections, Scripture, practical life application, Holy Homework, a closing prayer, and this week’s Song of the Week: Hosanna on Monday.

If you’ve ever loved Jesus deeply but struggled when life didn’t go the way you hoped, this episode is for you.

Scripture: John 12:12–19

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's divide Chanel. It's sanctified clear. With print on the mic and truth in her hands. She's breaking down the bubble with laughter and a plant. It's divine. Oh, it's divine shenanigans.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Hey y'all, welcome back to Divine Shenanigans, where we are learning, laughing, loving Jesus, and trying not to spiral when Jesus doesn't follow our very well thought out plans. I am so glad you're here. Today's episode is called Hosanna Until It Gets Hard. And man, this one is honest. Because Palm Sunday is beautiful until it isn't. It's loud, it's hopeful. It's full of praise and expectation. But it's also the beginning of a week where everything shifts. The same crowd that shouted Hosanna later shouted Crucify Him. And today we're gonna talk about what happens when God doesn't meet our expectations, disappointment with Jesus, why we often want a powerful Savior instead of a suffering one, and how to stay in faith when the road gets hard. We'll talk about Scripture, real life, holy homework, and our song of the week, Hosanna on Monday. So let's get into this. Let's slow it down for just a minute, because Palm Sunday is one of the most emotionally layered moments in Scripture. On the surface, it looks like celebration, it looks like victory, excitement, movement, hope finally showing up. And it feels like the moment everything is about to change. The crowd hears Jesus is coming to Jerusalem and they don't just casually show up. They run out to meet him. They grabbed branches, which weren't just decorative, by the way, they were symbols of victory. This is like waving flags after a war has been won. This is like saying the king is here, the battle is over, this is the moment. And they start shouting Hosanna, which means save us now. Not eventually, not spiritually, not metaphorically. Now. That word carries urgency, desperation, expectation. So this isn't just praise. This is a demand wrapped in worship. This is we believe you can save us, and we expect you to do it in the way we need. And here's where the tension starts tightening. Because while the crowd is celebrating a victory they think is about to happen, Jesus is walking into a completely different kind of moment. They see a throne, he sees a cross. They see takeover, he sees surrender, they see immediate change, he sees necessary sacrifice, and those two visions do not match. The crowd wasn't wrong about who Jesus was. They were wrong about what he came to do. They were expecting political freedom, national restoration, visible power, immediate results. But Jesus came for something deeper. He came to deal with sin, brokenness, the human heart, eternity. And here's what makes this moment so powerful. Both things matter. Their pain was real, their oppression was real, their longing for change was real. But their understanding of how God would bring that change, that's where things started to unravel. Now let's talk about the detail we tend to skip over too quickly. Jesus rides in on a donkey, and I need us to sit with that because that is not random. If Jesus wanted to match their expectations, he had options. He could have came in strong, he could have made a statement, he could have looked powerful in a way people recognize power, but instead a donkey? Which was a symbol of humility, peace, servanthood, not war, not dominance, not political uprising. So while the crowd is shouting take over, Jesus is quietly saying, I came to lay my life down. And that right there, that is the tension. Palm Sunday is the gap between what people thought Jesus would do and what he actually came to do. And that gap, it's uncomfortable because expectation feels exciting, but reality requires surrender. Expectation says this is about to go my way. Reality says this is about to go God's way. And those are not always the same thing. Now let's bring this into our lives, because it's not just their story. This is ours. We do this all the time. We don't just follow Jesus, we build expectations around him. We say God, I trust you. But underneath that is, to fix this situation, to heal this relationship, to open this door, to make this make sense, to give me the outcome I've been praying for. And when it starts looking like that's happening, we get excited. We start our own version of Palm Sunday. We're like, yes, God is moving, this is it, breakthrough is here. We are spiritually waving palm branches. But then Monday comes. Because Palm Sunday energy doesn't last forever. Eventually, Jesus starts moving in ways that don't match expectations. And now we're confused. Now we're asking, wait, why is this taking longer? Why does this feel harder? Why isn't this going the way I thought? Why does this look like loss instead of victory? And this is where faith gets tested. Because it's easy to trust God when it looks like he's doing what you wanted. But what about when he isn't? Palm Sunday is not just about what the crowd said. It's about what happens inside us when expectations don't match reality. Because there's a moment, and you may have felt this before, where your heart quietly shifts from God I trust you to God, I don't understand you. And if we're not careful, that can become God, I'm not sure I trust you anymore. That shift doesn't happen loudly, it happens slowly, suddenly, internally. It's not always dramatic. Sometimes it's just distance. A little less prayer, a little more doubt, a little more hesitation, a little more emotional pullback. So this is where the crowd changed. Because when Jesus didn't meet expectations, the crowd didn't all leave immediately, but their enthusiasm faded. Their certainty weakened, their expectations cracked, and eventually their disappointment turned into rejection. And here is the hard truth. If our faith is built on Jesus will do what I expect, then our faith will struggle when he doesn't. But if our faith is built on Jesus is who he says he is, then even when we don't understand, we can still stay. Because let's be honest, some of us love Jesus like, Lord, I surrender everything to you, as long as you circle back with me before making any major decisions. Like, God, I trust your plan, but I would also like to review it, approve it, and possibly suggest edits. And Jesus is like, yeah, yeah, that's not how this works. Alright, bringing it back to Palm Sunday, because it's beautiful, but it's also uncomfortable. Because it forces us to ask, do I love Jesus for who he is or for what I think he will do for me? Do I trust him when the outcome looks like victory? And also when it looks like the beginning of a cross? Because the same Jesus who was praised on Sunday is still the same Jesus walking toward Friday. And if we want real faith, we have to follow him through both. And that's where we're going next, because once expectations start breaking, that's when disappointment shows up. And we need to talk about that. I have had seasons where I was convinced God was about to come through in a very specific way. Like this is it, this is the breakthrough. This is where everything makes sense. And then it didn't happen. Or it happened completely different. And suddenly I wasn't questioning God's existence. I was questioning his strategy. Like, Lord, respectfully, what are you doing? I thought if God was with me, it would look like winning, but instead, it looked like waiting, restraint, confusion, obedience without results. And that's when I realized I didn't just trust God. I trusted my version of how God should work. And those are not the same thing. In John twelve, twelve through nineteen, Palm Sunday tells us the crowd hears Jesus is coming. They grab palm branches, they shout, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus rides in on a donkey. Not a war horse, not a throne, not a show of force, a donkey. That was intentional, because Jesus is saying I am king, but not the kind of king you expected. They wanted political rescue, visible power, immediate victory, and Jesus came to bring spiritual salvation, heart transformation, eternal victory. They wanted Rome gone. Jesus came to defeat sin. And when those didn't match, disappointment started growing. Let's talk about that crowd for a minute, because it's easy to read this story and think, wow, how did they miss it? But if we're honest, we might not have done anything different. The crowd wasn't lazy, they weren't blind, they weren't irrational, they weren't even entirely wrong. They knew Jesus was powerful, they had seen miracles, they had heard the teaching. Some of them had watched Lazarus walk out of the tomb. So when they shouted Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, they meant it. But here's the problem. They were right about who Jesus was, but wrong about what he came to do. And that distinction matters more than we realize. The people were living under Roman oppression. They were tired, frustrated, waiting. They wanted freedom, justice, relief, restoration. They wanted a king who would overthrow Rome, take power, fix the system, and make their lives better immediately. They wanted visible victory. They wanted a Savior who would step in and say enough is enough, we're flipping this whole thing. And honestly, that doesn't sound unreasonable. Because when life is hard, we all want God to fix what's hurting us. While they were focused on Rome, Jesus was focused on sin. While they were focused on politics, Jesus was focused on the human heart. While they were focused on external freedom, Jesus came to bring internal transformation. And here's the tension. They wanted relief from their circumstances. Jesus came to redeem their souls. One is temporary, the other is eternal. So why was this so hard for them? Well, because what Jesus brought didn't look like what they expected. They wanted power, and he brought humility. They wanted force, he brought surrender. They wanted immediate change, he brought a process. They wanted a throne. He moved towards the cross. And that disconnect, that's where disappointment begins. Here's the assumption the crowd made. If Jesus is the Messiah, then he will do what we think the Messiah should do. And before we judge that too quickly, we do the same thing. We still do this today. We don't say it out loud, but we build expectations around Jesus all the time. We say God, I trust you. But underneath that is to fix this situation, to make this work out, to heal this quickly, to open this door, to make life easier. And when things start lining up with that, we get excited. We're like the crowd, yeah, this is it, God is moving. But when God doesn't follow our script, that's when tension shows up. Because we don't just want a savior. We want a savior who works the way we want. We want fast answers, visible results, emotional relief, clear direction, satisfying outcomes, and we want God to move in ways that make sense to us. So here's the hard truth. Sometimes we don't just want Jesus to be Lord. We want him to be manageable, predictable, understandable, aligned with our preferences. We want him to save us, but we also want to define how that saving should look. Jesus will not be reduced to a political tool, a personal assistant, a life coach who just improves your situation, or a version of God that only exists to make you comfortable. He is not here to serve our expectations. He is here to fulfill the Father's will. Often looks different than what we imagined. Because when Jesus doesn't match expectations, we have a choice. Do we adjust our faith or do we walk away? The crowd chose disappointment because the Savior they wanted didn't match the Savior they got. And here's what's so important to understand. The crowd didn't instantly hate Jesus. It wasn't immediate rejection. It was gradual disillusionment. First confusion, then disappointment, then distance, and eventually rejection. And that is still how it happens today. It looks like this in modern day. I really thought God was going to fix this. I really believed He was going to come through. I thought this was the answer. And when it doesn't happen, we don't always leave loudly. Sometimes we just stop expecting, stop praying the same way, stop trusting deeply, start holding back. We don't wave palm branches anymore, but we also don't lean in the same way. Now let's be real for a second. A powerful Savior is easy to follow. A victorious Savior is inspiring. A miracle working savior is exciting, but a suffering savior, that's harder. Because if Jesus walks through suffering, then sometimes we will too. And we really don't like that part. We want rescue, not refinement. We want out of the storm, not strength in it. Answers, not mystery. Solutions, not surrender. But Jesus often works differently. He doesn't always remove the situation. Sometimes he transforms us in it. Because let's be honest, we love a Jesus that says peace be still. We struggle with a Jesus that says follow me and carry your cross. We're like, Lord, I'm available for blessings, but I'd like to opt out of the suffering package. And Jesus is like, that's not how redemption works, honey. So here's the real question. Do we want the real Jesus or the version of Jesus we imagined? Because the real Jesus won't always meet your expectations, won't always move on your timeline, won't always fix things the way you hoped. But he will always be faithful, good, present, sovereign, and working in ways deeper than you can see. The crowd didn't reject Jesus because he wasn't powerful enough. They rejected him because he wasn't predictable enough. And that's where we start to see something important. Because when expectations aren't met, praise can shift. And we need to talk about that next. This is the hard truth. Praise based on expectation is fragile. When Jesus didn't meet their expectations, the tone changed. Because it's easy to praise Jesus when he looks impressive. But real faith shows up when he's quiet, he's slow, he's leading you somewhere uncomfortable. Palm branches are easy. Crosses are not. Now let's be honest for a second. Some of us have felt disappointed with God. Not because he failed, but because he didn't do what we thought he would. You prayed, you trusted, you hoped, and it didn't turn out how you expected. And now that's left you wondering, can I still trust him? Well here's the truth. God can handle your honesty. You don't need to pretend with him. The Psalms are full of how long? Why? Where are you? That's real life. This shows up in real life all the time. The prayer that didn't get answered the way you hoped, the relationship that didn't get restored, the healing that didn't come yet, the situation that got harder instead of easier. And in those moments, faith gets tested. Because now the question becomes, do I trust God or just the outcome I wanted? We often want Jesus to fix everything fast, make life easier, validate our perspective, remove discomfort. But Jesus is not just here to fix our circumstances. He's here to transform us. And that process is slower, deeper, and sometimes uncomfortable. Maturing faith often looks like this God will fix this quickly, to God is with me even here. From I understand what he's doing to I trust who he is. From following when it's easy to staying when it's hard. That's holy weak faith. So here's how it plays out in real life. Identify your expectations. Where have you quietly told God how things should go? You need to be honest with God. Tell him where you're confused or disappointed. Stay close to him even when you don't understand. Redefine winning. Sometimes winning looks like staying faithful, choosing peace, trusting through uncertainty. Here's the question for today. Where are you tempted to walk away? Because God didn't meet your expectations? That's not a shame question. That's an honesty question. And Jesus wants to meet you there. Our holy homework for this week, I want you to journal. I thought God would and then put your answer. I want you to be honest, and then write underneath that. But even here, Jesus is. I want you also to read John twelve slowly. Practice staying instead of escaping. Even a simple prayer. Jesus, I don't understand, but I don't want to walk away. That brings us to the song of the week. Today's song is Hosanna on Monday, because Sunday's praise. Is one thing, but Monday's faith, that's where it gets real. This song is about trusting God after the excitement fades. Staying when things don't make sense. Choosing faith when expectations are challenged. Because real disciplineship isn't just about what you shout in a crowd, it's about what you hold on to when things get hard. I've included the full song at the end of this episode, so please stick around. You can find the lyric video on my YouTube channel, Bryn Elise Music, along with all of my Christian music. While you're there, find the Divine Shenanigans channel and join us for morning and evening prayers, daily devotionals, and also the weekly video series. Mondays, Strength for the Week, Tuesdays, Faith in Real Life, Wednesdays, a midweek reset, Thursdays, our podcast day, and then Friday is Encouragement Friday. It is truly an all-around Christian channel to get you through the week. I'd love for you to be a part of the Divine Shenanigans community slash family. I want to close with a little bit of encouragement. Jesus is still king, even when the story is confusing, the outcome is unclear, the road is harder than expected. He didn't fail the crowd. He just didn't fit their expectations. And maybe that's true in your life too. Let's pray together. Jesus, help us trust you when we don't understand. Meet us in our disappointment. Strengthen us in our waiting. Remind us that you are still good, still present, still king. Give us the kind of faith that stays. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you so much for being here, my friend. If this episode encouraged you, please share it with someone who might be struggling with expectations, disappointment, or faith that feels a little shaky right now. And remember, Jesus is still King, even when it gets hard. This is Divine Shenanigans, and I'll see y'all next time.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

We were shouting like we knew everything you came to do, waving hope like victory, crying now. You set us free. Didn't know it be across fields. We had plans for how you'd save us. We had dreams you'd overthrow every power standing over us, every enemy we know. We sang it loud and strong, Hosanna in the highest. We were sure we were wrong. You were riding in our voices. We thought you'd take control, but you walked past all the power, didn't call the armies down, didn't silence all our enemies, didn't wear the victor's crown. You spoke of something deeper, a kingdom we can't see. And suddenly the freedom didn't look like victory. And the louder that we praised you, the more confused we grew. Cause you weren't who we expected, We're doing what we choose. Something fell off key, Hosanna in the highest, but not the way we dreamed. You were healing hearts and sinners. We were craving history, Hosanna on Monday, but not the victory we'd seen. We wanted crowns without the dying, we wanted glory without the cost, we wanted rescue on our terms, not a savior on a cross. So when you didn't fit our picture, and you didn't take the fight, we traded palms for disappointment and hope for our own right. But Friday it was different. The same streets, different cry. The voices that once praised you were the ones that passed you by. Some shouted for your ending. Some just walked away when you didn't meet expectations. We didn't know how to stay. And I wonder if I'm different, or if I do the same. When you don't move how I want you to, do I still praise your name? Hosanna on Monday. When you don't fix the story the way I thought you might, when you're not the kind of savior that makes my life feel whole, I still cry, Hosean when you don't take control, Hosean on Monday. Teach my heart to stay, even when I don't understand, or when you don't make away, you're still the king of heaven, even when it's unknown on Monday, and every day beyond not just when it's easy, not just when it's clear, Hosanna in the waiting, Hosanna in the scene.