Hosanna! — Richard Wurmbrand

Dear brethren, dear sisters, and very, very beloved children. To brethren and sisters, I say only dear. To children, I say very, very beloved. First, because during 14 years in communist prisons, I have never seen a child.

And for me, it is a special privilege to see children. And more so, as I have heard, that these children are Romanian. Is that right? I am very happy to see children of my own country. There are also other children here, and you are very, very dear.

First of all, I have to apologize for speaking to you being seated. During the prison years, we almost never walked. We had sometimes heavy chains at our feet, up to 50 pounds. They were beating with rubber truncheons on the soles of the feet.

And now it is difficult for me to stand a long time. It is difficult even to wear shoes. That is why you have a barefoot preacher before you. I can't stand a long time, but I can speak a long time. Secondly, I have to apologize about some difficulty which you will have to understand me.

Americans, American-born people, have a foreign accent when they speak English. Therefore, they don't understand me. But with a little bit of effort, you will understand and know each other. Before I speak to you, you should see my lovely wife, Sabina.

She has been in jail at the same time when I was in jail, but in another jail. I did not see her all these 14 years. We are married since 108 years, 108 years of marriage. I am 54, she is 54. We married the same day.

Hosanna Means “Save, Please”

She had to make one wedding for both. But 14 years we did not see each other, and now we are together. And now before speaking to you, I read from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. In chapter 21, beginning with verse 7.

They brought the donkey and the colt to Jesus, laid their clothes on them, and set him on them. And a very great multitude spread their garments on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

Then the multitudes went before Jesus who followed, cried out saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. I am Jewish. My lovely wife is Jewish too.

And I will tell you something which usually is not known. The word Hosanna means in Hebrew, save, please. Hosanna means to save. Na is please. So often you find in the Hebrew Bible the word na, please.

We speak with our wives, with our husbands, with our children, with our parents, without the na, without the please. Almost never in the Bible, in the Hebrew Bible do you find do this or do that. God, when he speaks with Abraham and with this one and that one, he says, do this please.

Is it not amazing? And the multitude also said to Jesus, save please, but not save anyway. Save please in the highest. You can be saved from a difficult situation, here you have a few dollars and that will help you, no?

You can be helped otherwise. You get a good job or some little capital to start something on your own that is already a better salvation from a difficult situation. There are different salvations. And the Jews who were there when Jesus entered in Jerusalem, they prayed, save us in the highest sense of the word to be saved.

Save us in the highest. When I was in Romania, I met once on a bitter winter day a beggar on the street. He was so poorly dressed. He froze there. And he asked for a few coins. Now I did not happen to have coins with me.

But it was somehow my stature. I said, good man, I have no coins. You come with me, or if you can't come now, come tomorrow or whenever you like. Here is my address. Come there. And I will see you should get clothes.

And my wife will see that you should get some food. And we will see how to help you. Leave me alone with these stories, he replied. Give me now. Now I don't have. But I have on me. It will not help you.

But for nothing in the world did he accept the idea to receive a better salvation than that which he expected. And we all from Jesus, we expect here and now. Don't tell me about the heaven, I don't know, then in eternity.

Have the needs today. And please fulfill these my needs today. There was a clever girl in Britain. You might have seen her pictures. Her pictures are everywhere. She was a teacher in a pre-school. A girl?

A teacher in a pre-school. Her name was Diane. And at a public event, I don't know how, there were several girls and several Sunday school teachers. Pre-school teachers. And the crown prince of Britain came there.

And he talked with the girls and he made a joke with them. Made friendship with them. And now that was a great occasion to make the acquaintance of a crown prince. And she could have asked him, could you not see for a better job for me?

The crown prince would have helped her to have a better job. Or she would have told him, I don't know, a crown prince can help in many ways, no? Give me some other school, a more prestigious school, or help me to study further, to become something better than that.

And many would have asked the crown prince for different such little things. I'm not a crown prince, but I'm a director of a mission and many come and ask me for the one thing or for the other. This girl said, why should I become a better paid pre-school teacher?

It would be nice, he is a prince, I should be a princess. And he will be a king and I should be a queen. And when all the other girls asked little things from him, she made it so that she should please him.

And she is now crown princess. And when Queen Elizabeth will die once, she will be queen. Queen of Great Britain. She asked salvation from Roman. Salvation is the highest. Hosanna is the highest. Why should I get small things from somebody who can give me the biggest?

Here I am a nobody. A girl, a teacher in a pre-school. And her family was not famous. Her parents were divorced and so on and so on. A girl, a brother somehow. But she made herself to be loved. But in charge.

And she will be a queen. And we also, we make the acquaintance with the prince. The prince of peace. He is the king of kings. He is son of God. We can get little things from him. We can. It is written in the Bible.

Don't ask too little. It is written right there in the Bible. It is a unique occasion. I mean to get acquainted with President Bush. He can help us so much, no? To get acquainted with a Rockefeller. I don't know what millionaire.

What it would mean for our mission, such a millionaire. Can I talk a check for the needs of our mission? And for every one of us a Rockefeller can give you a good job. He can give you a position and so on.

But it is nicer to become Mrs. Rockefeller. To get a job from him. And we make the acquaintance with the son of God. With the king of kings. With the highest. And in our relationship with Jesus. We ask all for very little things.

We have great opportunities. We hear that he can give eternal life. That is very nice. Eternal life, never to die anymore. And he has a beautiful heaven. And everyone dares to think well it would be nice I should be in heaven also.

I will be in a corner. But I should have a little place. Somewhere, somehow I should stand before the throne of God. I should be even there to adore him. Why in the world stand before the throne of God?

I, my feet ache. I can't stand. And even before the throne of God I would not like to stand. Why should I stand? Well, then perhaps a little chair. Why? It is written. Who will conquer? To those who will conquer.

It is written in Revelation 3. I would not dare to pronounce it if it would not be written there. To those who will conquer. I, said Jesus, will give. To sit. Not to stand. To sit. Where? To sit with me on my throne.

Prince Charles said to Diane. Don't ask me for a better job. Don't ask me to be advanced in your job. Don't ask me for little things. You will sit with me on the throne of England. And Jesus says, you will sit with me on my throne as I have conquered.

And sit on the throne with my father. That is what we can reach. That is what we can reach. Hosanna in the highest. Once you wish to save me, save me in the highest sense of the world. We all would like those who are children of God to be a little bit nicer child of God.

Some children of God, they are children of God, but they are naughty. We would like to be a little bit nicer, a little bit gooder. A little bit better, a little bit... I don't know what... But why a little bit?

It is said, when he will appear, we will be... Who knows how we will be? Like! A little bit, you know, we will also have a little bit of his... No! We will be like him. As much goodness as he has, I will have.

As much love, as much power as he has, I will have. As much wisdom as he has, I will have. Or otherwise, his promises, he does not keep them. The grand things are said in the Bible. And we can have them.

Becoming Like Christ in the Highest Sense

Jesus was on the cross. In terrible physical pain. And his heart ached. He saw his holy mother weeping at the foot of the cross. And he was a loving son. How did he feel about this? All the suffering which he had there.

And he said to God, Elohim, Elohim, my God, my God. It was with God. And God is mine. And I am a man with a big real estate. So all of the universe is my real estate. Because it is my intelligence, no?

It is my father's. And he loves every one of us. And he would be the only child. Pay attention to me. I had so many big men and martyrs and I don't know what. And big preachers. But every one there is loved.

As if he would be the only one. And he gives us everything. Heaven is my real estate. And all the beauties of heaven are ours. And we wish to be saved. In the highest sense of the word. We take it earnestly.

We wish to be like him. We wish to possess all the beauties of character which he has. And to have all the possibilities of being of help to others which he has. And to be ready as he was ready. Also to forsake everything in order to save others.

We wish to be Christ-like. And we can have it. So that is about Hosanna in the highest. To be saved in the highest sense of the word. And huge perspectives are open to us. We should not be like that beggar.

Give me here on the spot a few coins. I will not come far to get clothing and food and perhaps a job. We are called to very great things. And we can obtain them. There is something very strange in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus is God. God of God. Son of God. Equal with the Father. And he says that at the last judgment men will appear before me. And I will tell some of them, go away from me. I have never known you. What kind of a God who does not know his creatures?

He is meant to know how many hair I have on my head. And he will say at the last judgment to some men, go away. I never knew you. Not nice for a God to say he has not known his creatures. He should know.

He is all-knowing. Why does he say I don't know? Now very rarely you have occasion to hear a Jew preaching. And therefore I will tell you a secret of the Hebrew language. The language of the Jews. In the Hebrew Old Testament and in the Greek New Testament The word to know does not mean what it means in English.

In Hebrew Yada, that is the word to know. In Greek it is Gnosis. You must remember it is written in the Bible. Adam knew his wife Eve. And she gave birth to a child. Out of knowledge. He knew his wife.

And she gave birth. And Abraham knew Sarah. And she gave birth to Isaac. So knowledge in Hebrew and in Greek, in the Biblical languages does not mean the little thing which knowledge means here. Oh I know this man.

Hello, hello. I told him hello and he told me hi. And we know each other. Such a thing is not knowledge according to the Biblical language. You know when you are so united with somebody else. As a bride is with her bridegroom.

As a wife is with her husband. When you are in his embrace, only then you know. And when he says, I never knew you. He will tell you the last judgment to some people, I never knew you. You have never been so near to me.

As a bride with a bridegroom. As a wife in his embrace or something. Man you have never been, you have been at a distance. You told me hello. To know God means to unite with him. It means to unite. Roshan ha-bamromim.

Save me in the highest sense of the word. I can be saved in this sense that I and he should become one. In the song of Solomon. The bride says, Dodili ve-ani lo. My beloved is mine and I am his. And she, the bride, she is a human being.

And she tells of God, Jesus. You will see in the second chapter of the song. Put your arm under my head. She tells him to put his arm. He is a human being, he is God. And she tells him, you put my head on your arm.

Your arm, your left arm under my head. And with your right hand, she tells God what you should do with this right hand. And with your right hand you should caress me. That is what she says. And it is also in the song of Solomon.

She speaks to God. She speaks to the Son of God. He should kiss me. Kiss me. With the kisses of his mouth. Have you ever received his kiss? What a role does kiss play in the Bible? The Psalm 2 finishes with the verse.

Kiss the Son. The Son of God is meant. Kiss the Son. Now, I know about the Wesleyans. And also the others who are here. You try to be a biblical church. But the Bible says, kiss the Son of God. Did you kiss him?

When I worshipped him. But there is a written kiss. Then I give money in church. Very well. Kiss. I go a missionary to preach for him. But there is a written kiss. Did you kiss him? The song of Solomon says, let him kiss me.

With the kisses of his mouth. And Jesus when he was in the flesh. He was invited to the house of a Pharisee by the name of Simon. He was invited to a dinner. And you can be sure on the table there were appetizers.

And all kinds of good things. And fruits. And flowers. And everything was on the table. And he looked to all these goodies and said, Simon, Simon. I have come into your house. And you did not give me.

What did I not give? I told the maid to put everything on the table. The maid is no good. What is missing? I came into your house and you did not give me a kiss. He waits our kisses. Now, even the Greek word for worship, proskuneo, means to kiss.

As often in the original of the Bible. As often as you see the word worship. In the original in Greek it is written to kiss. To kiss God in spirit and in truth. Now what is the word? How can I kiss Jesus?

When he was in the flesh. It was easy. Well, then Mary must have kissed him thousands of times. Like every mother. The apostles might have kissed him. It was a habit among the Jews when they met to kiss each other.

Judas even kissed him. And Mary Magdalene kissed his feet and so on. But now when he is not in the flesh, how can I kiss him? Well, my wife, who was in one jail and I was in the other jail. She received then more kisses than now.

Because now when I wish to kiss her, the telephone rings. And I have no time to kiss her. Or a car is waiting for me. I have to run. I don't know where. And she does not arrive to be kissed. In prison I have no time to kiss her.

Because kissing in the spiritual sense does not mean the approaching of two pairs of lips. Men can approach the two pairs of lips and they transmit to each other only carbon dioxide and microbes and spittle.

The heart is not in it. The heart is not in it. Kiss is the melting. Two souls have such a longing, such a nostalgia one for the other. We can't have happiness without embracing each other. And that is what is meant our relationship with God.

And some will be reproached on the day of the Last Judgment. Jesus will tell them, I've never known you. I saw you in church. I saw you read the Bible. I saw you did this. You did that. But there was never this relationship between bride and bridegroom to be saved in the highest sense of the word.

Freedom from Outward Circumstances

What has given me the privilege to know saints of God? Our country, Romania, is an Orthodox country. And the Orthodox, like the Catholics, have many icons, many holy images in their churches, on the walls.

This saint and that saint and that saint. I have seen saints not in pictures. I have seen saints in flesh. We have no real saints. Who, because of this nearness with Jesus, living in the embrace of Jesus, we are no more slaves of outward circumstance.

We are not slaves of outward circumstance. We are slaves. There is a conflict in my family. But I must not be in the conflict. I just love both sides. I am not a slave because in the family there is a conflict.

I must be in the conflict. There are troubles. I must not be troubled. I must not enter. Don't be troubled. If in trouble you are troubled, then you have your trouble doubled. Because you have the trouble.

And you have the trouble about being troubled. When there is a trouble, keep quiet. Smile. We are no more under the pressure of circumstances. When a man is troubled, when a man gets angry, wrathful, 42 muscles of the face enter in action.

42 muscles. When you smile, only 4 muscles. No American would be so stupid to pay $42 for what he can buy with $4. Then why should you crisp your face in trouble and in sadness and in wrath and so on?

You are above these circumstances. I live in the embraces of the heavenly king, of the heavenly bridegroom. Whatever the outward circumstances, I am not under them. I am above them. Not the whole of my soul.

I am 6 feet 3. But not my whole soul lives here. A part of my soul lives in heavenly places. St. Paul and other Christians were in a jail. And they sat on the concrete, on the cold concrete of the jail, as I said.

They had no straw, no nothing. They just sat on the cold concrete. And from there he writes such a useless thing. He wishes to explain where he sits. And he writes in a letter, we, the Christians there, we sit.

Don't tell me where you sit. I know you sit in an unpleasant place. You sit in a prison. He says, no, I don't sit in a prison. We are seated in heavenly places. A part of me is seated here. It is seated here.

But this is not my whole being. I have a higher being. I belong to God. I am a bride in the embraces of the bridegroom. We are on a higher level than that. I have known such men and my lovely wife. Observe that I say not my wife.

I say lovely wife. And I will tell you why. I have two motives. First of all, because she is very lovely. And I have also a practical motive. A few months ago a pastor came to me and said, I congratulate you.

You won a lady for Christ. So I said, who is it? He said, well, a lady came to me and said she has been converted. Thanks to Werner. And he asked her, did you hear him preach? I never heard him preach.

I never saw him. Did you read any of his books? I did not know that he had written books. Then if you never knew about him, never heard him, never read from him, how did he convert you? She said, I was not a believer.

I have never been a church goer. I have never read a page of the Bible. I was not interested in religion. I entered to a neighbor and she was listening just to a cassette with a Bible study by Werner.

And I had to be polite and to listen to her for some 15 minutes. I must say that Werner still bored me. He spoke about such things without sense about Thessalonians, Colossians, Philippians. I did not know what kind of fish these were.

She did not know anything from the Bible. And I had only one single thought. When will he finish this boring speech of his? But then I observed that in 15 minutes he said three times, my lovely wife, my nice wife, my beautiful wife, I am married 30 years.

I have not heard such words from my husband. That is the right religion. I will take it. I would not need this motive. She is just lovely. But it is nice also to say my lovely husband, not only my lovely wife.

And she would have to tell from her experiences with female prisoners. I will tell you about one. I was in the same cell with Nicolae Mondovano, the great composer of Christian hymns in Romania. Because he composed Christian hymns, he was sentenced to 16 years in jail.

16 years in jail for having composed Christian hymns. And now we were in the same cell. We were many prisoners. And the wardens entered and shouted, everybody lie down on the belly. That was their amusement.

And you had to lie on your belly. It was winter, cold. We had no sweaters. We had no overcoat. It was sheer sickness to lie there. And they kept you there on the floor of this concrete as much as they liked.

And they would also tremble with their boots on you. And after an hour or so, they had whims. After an hour they said, all right, now you can arise. And we all arose and everybody had his thoughts about these drunken wardens.

And he arose with a smile. It takes only four muscles to smile. Only four muscles. You can smile in a prison. And you can smile in a millionaire's palace. Everywhere you can smile. You smile. And he smiled.

With a big smile he arose and said, I will sing to you the new song which I have composed while lying on the belly in winter on the concrete. And it is a song which is sung now in the whole of Romania.

It is a song of joy. A song of love. A song of gratitude. Not a little bit of bitterness and of sadness in this song. He was above the circumstances. The preschool teacher has become a princess. And this man has become, he was only a human being.

He looks like me. But he has elevated him. He became Christ-like. Christ could sing. Christ could sing. On the last evening, he told his disciples, Now I will be arrested. They will beat me. They will sentence me to death.

They will spit on me. They will whip me. They will drive nails into my hands and into my feet. So let us sing a song. It is written. After his last speech, he said, Let us sing a song. In any case, they will do it to you.

They will whip you if you sing. If you sing or if you don't sing, they will whip you. If you sing or will not sing, they will crucify you. But it is a song. You take it easy. And he said, Let us sing.

And this man knew to sing. He was a victor. Over external circumstances. He did not expect next life, in heaven, somehow to be Christ-like. I can be Christ-like this minute. I can be Christ-like. I know I try.

I have not succeeded yet to be a good preacher. My aim in life is to be a good preacher. I did not arrive yet to this. But I don't despair. I am only 82. So I have time to advance. It is easier for these young ones.

But still, I did not die. And I can say, when I am preaching, I ask myself, What would Jesus say, if he would be this afternoon in the Wesleyan church? And how would his face be? And how would his gestures be?

I don't have to wait. When I will be in heaven, I will be like him. I might not be able to be like him 24 hours a day. But I can be like him the next five minutes. These five minutes, I shall try to speak like him.

And to smile like him. And to be good like him. And if I have another five minutes, I will try the other five minutes too. And I have seen this Moldavano. Overcoming the outward circumstances. They brought me to that prison.

Joy and Courage in Communist Prison

It was an underground prison. Underground. You pass near the prison, you did not know it is a prison. You have seen cows grazed over the prison. Dirt deep in the earth. I don't know how many feet under the earth goes this prison.

And one day they brought eight or ten pastors, the new prisoners. I was then already after eight years in jail, and I was accustomed to everything. But for them, it was the first day in jail. And the first day is a terrible shock.

You have been free, you have been with your family, with your church, with everybody. And now at once, they dress you in this garb of a prisoner, like a zebra in a uniform. And you are ridiculed and so on.

And it was for them the first day in prison. It was a terrible shock. And from time to time, drunk wardens would enter the cell and shout, all priests, pastors, all kinds of what you have here, Christians, Jews, everybody who is with the religion, should come out.

And they give you good beatings. Once they would call all the Jews for beating. Then they would call all the Christians for beating. I am a Jew and a Christian. So I had to get two beatings. Until I learned the lesson.

When they shouted all the Jews out for beating, I did not know I am a Christian. When they shouted all Christians out for beating, I am a Jew. You can turn everything into an advantage. And you can take everything with a smile.

And for them it was the first day. And again and again, because the guards came another shift and another shift, and they called them out to be beaten. And it was very sad for them. And I sat down near one of them, whom I have known in liberty.

I wished to tell him a few words of comfort. His name was Yush. And I asked him, Brother, are you sad? And I hope never to forget that he lifted towards me beautiful blue eyes, and said, Brother, I know only one sadness, not to be a saint.

What do you say about such a word? If you stand in a pulpit and say such words, that is what a pastor has to say, you know. But in these circumstances to say, I know only one sadness, not to be a saint.

Where is this sadness? No other sadness counts for him anymore. That he doesn't have all the money, and all the health, and all the family relations. That does not count anymore, if you have the one sadness, not to be a saint yet, and to continue, and to have the hope, and to make the effort to be a saint.

This I heard in prison. And now I will tell you from female prisoners. Because you made the mistake to invite me, instead of inviting my wife. Because who listens to her once, does not invite me anymore.

She has written a book, The Pastor's Wife. Who reads this book, does not read my books. Why should you read? There is something better. I will tell you about a female prisoner. A girl by the name of Anne Marie.

She was arrested for having worked in underground printing. In communist countries, it's not like here, you wish to have a Bible. You enter in a shop, and you buy a Bible. And they ask you, what Bible do you wish?

King James? New King James? International Bible? Revised version? Living Bible? Dead Bible? All kinds, all kinds. Several kinds of Bible. Instead of having one Bible and fulfilling it, they make every year another Bible, for not fulfilling it.

I should compare this one with the other one. But with us, it's not so. Gospels and Christian books get printed secretly. The mission to which I belong, my director is young Tom White. I'm 82. He's some 40.

He's my director. And we smuggled into communist countries, not only Christian literature, but we smuggled in also printing machines. We have made two printing shops, secretly in caves in China. We have helped making in Russia such printing shops.

And now in Romania and so on, you can't smuggle in a machine, but you smuggle in a lever, and then another time a wheel, and another time this, and another time that, and then an engineer goes there and puts everything together.

And that is how they work. And she worked in such an underground printing press. And one day she was discovered. And as it is a habit, they begin to beat and to torture her to make her say, from where do you have the paper?

From where do you have the machine? From where do you have the money? And how do you distribute what you have printed? How do you transport it? From where do you take a truck? And so on and so on. She had to say many things.

And she did not work alone in this printing shop, so there must be others. If she would have said, then others would also have been arrested and beaten and tortured. She did not say. But while being tortured, she was angry.

While being tortured, her dominant thought was not how to escape. You can escape. By a compromise with the communists, you know. I will tell you. I will not tell you everything. I will tell you something, you know.

And to begin to go their way. That's one way. But she did not think how to escape suffering. She had one thought. It's so beautiful to have this thought. She had one thought. I am tortured by a human being.

How can I bring him to salvation? How can I make him to be a saint instead of a torturer? Some husbands have a terrible habit of beating their wives. Some have even a worse habit. A lady came to me once in tears and said, please speak with my husband.

He beats me often. I can take it already. But he spits on me. This I can't take. Speak with him. He should beat me. He should not spit at me. There is such a beast. And it is terrible, I imagine. It's very difficult for a man to transpose himself into the state of mind of a beaten wife.

But it must be terrible. But a beaten wife could overcome everything if she would say, well, what a husband my God gave me. He had a beastly man and he has confidence in me. I will change him into a saint.

How should I do it? If she would think about this, the hurts which she receives from him would not hurt her anymore. She would not have the problem of a bad husband. She would have the challenge. What did the cannibal give to me?

What I should make out of cannibal a saint? If one has a bad wife, I have never seen a bad wife. I have seen only bad husbands. But I have heard there exists also bad wives. And if one has a bad child and a bad parent, and whatever, whatever he has, everything can be overcome by the idea of love.

Jesus came into a sinful world. He did not think, how can I escape from the hands of these wicked men? But how can I save these wicked men? And even if it means that I must be crucified by their hands and that will save them, all right, crucify me.

Well, you should be saved. That is the thought of Christ. And this little frail girl, perhaps 18, she had one thought. How to bring to Christ the chief torture. Now, we only set occasions to speak quietly with the torturers, because to torture is a very difficult job.

One of the torturers told us, Why do you shout when I beat you? What kind of a question is this, why I shout? Because it produces pain, you are beating. Pain! You don't know what pain is. You don't know what sorrow is.

Ask me what pain is. I beat you how long? Half an hour. I have no more time for you, because I have to beat so many. And then you go back to your cell, and you are quiet. But I have to beat 8 hours a day.

The only music which I hear is, Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! The noise of the lash, and the cry of the one beaten. 8 hours a day I hear only this music. 6 days a week, 30 days a month, since 10 years! From early in the morning until late in the evening, I hear only, Pah!

Pah! Pah! Pah! When I go out, I am like mad, like drunk. Then I go into a pub, and get drunk, go home, and beat my wife too. That is my life since 10 years. You speak about suffering, you speak about pain.