Palmarum 2018

John 12:1-11

March 25, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

This Sunday, Palm Sunday, is the gateway to Holy Week. This week is the most important week of the entire year for Christians.  For we focus again on the very heart and center of the Gospel: the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is no passion play or commemoration. It is a question of our heart, our soul, in life of that suffering.

So today, we praise our King. Palm Sunday is the first time in Jesus’ life that He allows people to treat Him like a king. As a triumphant and humble king, He enters the city of Jerusalem, the city of the Great King. This is a great moment for which this Jesus, who shall save His people, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the long promised Messiah, the only begotten Son of God has come. His claim to kingship was the main reason for His condemnation by the Jews. Pilate who asks Him, “So You are a king?” to which Jesus replies, “You say that I am king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.” The King of the Jews sent to the cross, this title written above His head, often seen in pictures still “INRI.”

We hear today the beginning of the King’s march to the death. At the end of the Service today we’ll sing the truth and the goal of the Kingly march into Jerusalem, “Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die. Bow down thy meek head to mortal pain, Then take, O God, Thy pow’r and reign.”  Jesus made the long pilgrimage throughout the years of His human life by way of the cross-crowned hill, always seeking opened doors to hearts and souls, to homes and cities, that He might save and redeem. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. The considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted, a man of sorrows. And He was. Sorrowful over the sin of the world, sorrowful over your sin, and so the King was stricken for you, He was smitten, and afflicted by the wrath of God that your sin deserves. He was delivered up to death, He was delivered for the sins of the people ([Mark 10:33]).  And still He rides on. Christ’s work of salvation does not end with death, but continues into the victory of the resurrection.

And so we greet Him today as He comes.  We join in the triumph and the joy.  He comes still as humble as before, riding into our lives by the means of His Word proclaimed, and His Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper.  We have pomp and circumstance today, greeting Him with palm branches just like long ago. We sing Hosanna to Him, proclaiming “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” 2000 years ago the crowds which sang these words thought Jesus came to declare Himself King of Israel and expected to share in an earthly triumph. When they learned His destination was not the throne on Mt. Zion, but that on Mt. Calvary, their enthusiasm disappeared. Jesus’ glory isn’t the kind that they wanted.

So He comes today. His purpose is to bring salvation and blessedness, to heal and make whole and healthy, to set up a spiritual kingdom that will last forever. He looks as little like a King as ever. In His Church are many who shout Hosanna, save us, and yet run from the Garden of Gethsemane when the world comes to crucify this King.  Many call Him Savior, Prince of Peace, King of kings, and Lord of lords, but refuse to do His will among their own families or friends or business. May vow allegiance like Peter, at their confirmation vows, in their prayers, to look good before others, and then deny when the world turns on them like it did on Jesus.

Repent. Repent of your hesitation to open and receive Him as the King of your life. Repent of thinking that somehow you can make Him your king.  No, you can do no such thing.  You do not make Jesus your lord, Savior, or King. It is the other way around. He makes you His subject, His child, the object of His affection, the receiver of His gifts. You are just a little afraid of Him, and you should be. He saps self-confidence and kills your pride. He offends your attempts to make Him into a king of your own making.  His presence, His persistence, His patience disturbs and unnerves. When He comes, He does not let you do whatever you want to do. He gets in the way of your sinfulness, that He might take it upon Himself and give You what is rightfully His. That is what this King does.

So when you approach the altar today to receive the Lord’s body and blood for the forgiveness of sins consider your actions and your heart. The Lord is present, the King of kings comes hidden in, with and under the bread of wine.  Lutheran piety still includes bodily signs of worship surrounding this sacramental action. In most Lutheran churches the communicants still kneel, heads bowed in reverence. Many communicants bow before leaving the altar. It would be blasphemous to kneel and bow if there were not a real presence on the altar of the Lutheran church. No matter what else happens as the Sacrament is celebrated, not to adore and worship would be a sacrilege. Who, in the presence of God, the King of the universe. would not bow down, whether in body or in spirit? (Chemnitz)

Since Jesus truly is the Son of God and Son of Mary, truly the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, if He truly is our crucified, risen, reigning and returning King, if He is truly present in His Word and in His Sacraments, then the events of Holy Week changes us forever.  The Lord places us on the only path to freedom from sin, with a real hope of victory over evil and death. Earlier in His earthly ministry, just before His Transfiguration and just after telling His disciples that when He went into Jerusalem, He would be killed and on the third day be raised, Jesus told them, “If anyone would come after Me, let Him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”  Let us heed the Lord’s words on today as we begin this most Holy Week, following Him to the upper room, to the garden, to the cross, and with joy to the open tomb of Easter.