Beginning with Hosanna, literally "save us!" to invoking the Blood of the New Covenant upon us and our children:
- what might seem to be a shift in the crowd is ironically in a twist a consistent plea to be saved, albeit in a way that the human actors are unaware--much as we who voice their words as ours on Palm Sunday
- there is a consistent theme of God's plan coming to fruition in spite of human sinfulness
- even the thirty pieces of silver are used to purchase a field of "blood" in which to bury foreigners--that precious blood makes available the possibility of eternal life, not only for the people of the Covenant of Moses, but alas for all people--the "many"
Yet here is the one passage that struck me as new and gave me pause to reflect--and something to go and study now (I italicize and put in bold the parts of the passage that I had never quite heard before in this way):
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection,they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
