Palm Sunday prayer from Byzantine Vespers, “Passing from one divine feast to another, from palms and branches, let us now make haste, O faithful, to the solemn and saving celebration of Christ’s passion Let us behold him undergo voluntary suffering for our sake, And let us sing to him with thanksgiving a fitting hymn: “Fountain of tender mercy and haven of salvation, O Lord, glory to you!”

Shortly after Jesus entered into Jerusalem a week before His resurrection, some Greeks wanted to see Jesus.  After such a reception that He had as He entered Jerusalem, it comes as no surprise that they first approached some of His disciples.  Eventually, word got to Jesus that they wanted to see Him, and He responded, “If anyone serves Me, He must follow Me; and Where I am, there will My servant be also.” 

As Christians, we often talk about following Jesus.  Some in fact, refer to Jesus follower.  Usually thought of as following His example. What would Jesus do, sort of thing.  Now, to be sure, Jesus does serve as an example to us. We hear of His miracles, His teaching, His passion. He is the perfect son of God, and we are called to be imitators of Him in our way of life.

But is this what being a Jesus’ follower is all about?  Is it simply about a moral code of conduct, of suffering for doing the right thing?  Is being a Christian simply a life of imitation?  Ultimately, though, these words of our Lord are not words of the Law. They are not a burden that our Savior puts on us in order to show us how to be “good Christians.” These words are Jesus are pure Gospel, and invitation to faith, to life, to see Jesus only.

When learning to walk, people sometimes look at their own feet to make sure they don’t trip over themselves.  Their eyes are cast downward, to their own steps, their own direction. You can’t see where you are going if you’re looking at your own feet and in our sin we are too full of ourselves to look at anything else. Through faith, God’s Spirit lifts our eyes to see only Jesus.

So we follow Jesus this week as we start off the holiest of weeks in the year. We follow Jesus as He enters Jerusalem.  We follow Jesus to the upper room where He and His disciples eat of the Passover meal and Jesus institutes His Supper. We will follow Jesus to the garden of Gethsemane and hear His prayer. He will follow Him through His arrest, His trial, His beatings. And we will follow Him to the cross.

At the beginning of Holy Week, Jesus knew where He was going and what His outcome would be.  He spoke to His disciples foreshadowing His death and His resurrection.  We know where this is all going. We know the outcome. We know that Easter is coming. This is the reality behind all of our ceremonies, all our holidays, all our prayers and songs and praise.  That is what lies behind today, as well. We hear again of these critical accounts of what our Lord Jesus went through in order for us to be saved. The events of Holy Week, our walk following Jesus’ footsteps, aren’t just retelling a historical story.  We aren’t involved in a passion play, it’s not a reenactment of what Jesus went through, but a time to reflect upon Christ and His passion, and that it is all for us, for the forgiveness of our sins, for our life and salvation.  And that He delivers these to us, here and now,

So we too may reflect on this happy outcome. Christ has defeated sin and death.  And through faith in Him, by means of His Word and Sacrament, He delivers that to us here and now, to deliver and preserve us in the true faith.  So as we look to Jesus this week, by faith, we know that our afflictions, that our sadness and loss, has an outcome. There is an end in sight, a blessed end, whether here in time or there in eternity. God will end the cross of the godly and turn it to their advantage at death, for then we shall obtain the crown, the white robe, and the joy of eternal life all because of Jesus. 

Jesus is the only grounds for our justification.  Just as a man, when faith awakens, ceases to look at himself and sees nothing but Jesus only, so God also looks not upon the man who believes nor does He see his indwelling corruption and his sins, for they are atoned for by Jesus.

Sin always remains, yet is always atoned for!  It is a blessed thing when the faithful soul in prayer fixes His eyes of faith on Jesus only; when he does not look about him to lay hold on his own scattered thoughts, nor behind him at Satan who threatens him with the thought that his prayer is in vain, nor within him at his sloth and lack of devotion; but looks up to Jesus only, who sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us. Jesus is the strength of the Christian, who fights the war against the corruption of your heart and minds, for which there is no cure on heaven or earth except Jesus only.

Our conscience, our own anxiety, all the slaves of the law bid us go the way of obedience to the very end in order to find peace with God. But the way of obedience has no end. It lies endlessly before you, bringing continually more severe demands. If you seek peace on that road, you will not find peace, but the debt of your sins is too great. But now Christ is the end of the law; the road ends at His feet, and here His righteousness is offered to everyone who believes. It is to that place, to Jesus only, that God wishes to drive you this week. Jesus only, the foundation of our faith, and Christian, a follower of Jesus, sees nothing else, believes in nothing else, builds his hope on nothing else than Jesus.

Do not ask to be like this or that person, but pray that you may be like Jesus.  Do not attempt to imitate the gifts of others or their measure of grace, but walk in your Savior’s footsteps.  Don’t skip over Holy Week, don’t miss out on Thursday and Friday as we gather together in worship and in remembrance of Him. But also don’t stay there, in the dark, nor at the cross. The Church celebrate Holy Week as one unified liturgical experience centered in salvation’s great event, the suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord Christ.

Some of this came sermon comes from the chaper, "Jesus Only" by Bo Giertz, in The Hammer of God