It is the tradition in many of our Lutheran Churches to celebrate confirmation on this day, or as some do on Pentecost Sunday and as others do, on a certain day of the year. This year here at St. Matthew, although we do follow this tradition, today we do not have any of our young people ready for confirmation, but we will again next year, if the Lord is willing. With that said, even though today is not a celebration of confirmation, it is a day of celebration as this is the day of Palm Sunday. This is the day we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of Holy Week. This day for Jesus marked the beginning of a rather long week as began His journey to the cross. This week we would do well to take the time to remember what was happening in the life of our Lord each day. To help you do that I have included in the bulletin a list of scripture readings for each day. I would encourage you to make use of this information for your daily devotions this week.
Our text for today is the prophecy of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. We begin at verse nine, “9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.10I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth” (v. 9,10).
Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem begins Holy Week. Our text is a prophecy foretelling of this triumphant entry and begins by telling us that the One who is coming is the King. It does not say that He has come to be declared King. He is, already, before He comes, our one true King. Our text describes our king with four words; righteous, having salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey. Our King is righteous, there is no wrong in Him, He is true perfection. Our King is one who is having salvation. Literally this word is “victorious.” We know, even before the battle begins, our Lord will come out victorious. Our King is humble. Actually this word is more degrading than humble. Our King is lowly, poor and afflicted. He is described as being like one of the beggars we see out on I45. Of course, we do not like that type of description for our God. We would rather talk about Him simply begin humble. The reality is that He came, lowly, poor and afflicted to save sinners, us included. And our King is mounted, that is He is riding. He is riding on a donkey. The Lord’s chosen “chariot,” if you will, is humility. Our Lord, the King of Kings, has lowered Himself to the lowliest of lows.
Jesus comes to bring peace. He does that, not through the bearing of arms, not through the defeat of many or even any nations. He comes bringing peace through His suffering, through His blood shed on the cross, through His death. He comes to restore the broken relationship of humanity to God. He comes to undo what was done in the Garden of Eden and to undo the sins we daily commit.
His victory will confirm that His dominion is over all, over heaven and earth forever. His victory will be over sin, death and the devil. His victory will be a complete victory and His victory will be an eternal victory. His kingdom will have no end.
Our text from the Old Testament lesson proclaims what our Epistle lesson confesses. Our Epistle lesson is thought to be one of our earliest Christian creeds or at least a part of an early Christian creed. This creed confesses that we believe that Jesus gave up the glory of heaven, which was rightfully His as true God, in order to take on human flesh and blood, to become one of us.
This creed confesses that we believe that Jesus took on flesh and blood, that is, He became truly human. Thus, Jesus was both true God, as we confess in our creed, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and true man, again as we confess in our creed, conceived of the human woman, the virgin Mary. We know that He had to be truly God in order to be born sinless and in order to lead a sinless life and He had to be truly human in order to be our substitute, in order to trade His life for ours.
And this creed confesses that we believe that Jesus gave His life for ours. Jesus humbled Himself, He became the lowest of low in order to give His life for ours on the cross, so that we might have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness we might also have eternal life. Notice that Jesus did not come in power. Jesus had nothing to do with power, although all power was His. He gave up His glory and power to become one of us. This is where I believe we have so many problems in our society, in our families, and even in our churches and in our own church today. So many people want power. Everyone wants to know who authorized this or who authorized that. Instead of the question being, how is this helping in our mission, rather it is why am I not being consulted. We have become the new Pharisees who asked Jesus, “show us by what authority you do the things you do?” Our Epistle lesson reminds us that our attitude, instead, should be the same as Jesus’ attitude. Instead of coming in power, Jesus came to serve. Instead of asking, “who authorized,” Jesus asked, how can I serve and how can I save.
Our text from the Old Testament lesson also proclaims what is happening in the Gospel lesson. In the Gospel lesson we see Jesus, the sinless, righteous Son of God, on trial for our sins. We see Jesus lowering Himself to suffer for our sins so that we might have salvation. We see Jesus’ active obedience in that He fully obeyed all God’s Laws and commands perfectly, all the promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah, perfectly. We also see Jesus’ passive obedience as He allows Himself to be arrested, put on trial and condemned.
In the Gospel lesson we also see guilty, treacherous, murderous Barnabas released, as we sinners are released, because Jesus takes the blame for us. Jesus came as our substitute. He came to live for us and He did, perfectly obeying all God’s Laws and commands, including being perfect as His Father in heaven is perfect as God demands of us. He took our sins. He suffered the eternal spiritual death penalty of hell for us. He gave His life for ours. He shed His blood for us, in our place.
In the Gospel lesson we see that Jesus is the Son of God. We hear the witnesses confess that they believe He is the Son of God. We see the curtain in the temple tear in two from top to bottom as our Lord, through Jesus’ death, removed the barrier that was between He and the people, the barrier that we have put up with our sins.
Today is Palm Sunday and the beginning of what we call Holy Week. For the past six weeks we have been in the Lenten season being reminded that it was because of God’s great love for us, and because of our sins, that Jesus came to live, suffer, die and rise for us. This week we move toward the finale, if you will. On Thursday we celebrate Maundy Thursday, the day our Lord celebrated His last earthly Passover with His disciples and from that Passover celebration He gave to us a new celebration, His Holy Supper. Just as the lamb was slaughtered and the blood covered the doors of the Children of Israel as they prepared to be delivered from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, so Jesus is the Lamb of God who offered Himself to be slaughtered on the cross so that we might be covered by His blood so that we might be delivered from our bondage of slavery to sin. And just as the Children of Israel ate the lamb so that it was a part of them, so too, we eat the body of Christ, the Lamb of God in His Holy Supper so that He might be a part of us.
On Friday of this week we will be reminded again of our sin and our part in putting Jesus on the cross. We will hear of Jesus’ suffering and death as we have our Tenabrae Service, our service of darkness. As is our custom we will carry the cross down to the cemetery and then we will wait. We will wait through Holy Saturday and prepare ourselves to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday morning. Indeed, we continue to worship on Sunday because Jesus rose on Sunday and so every Sunday for us is a mini Easter celebration. I would encourage you to take the time during this Holy Week to slow down and contemplate all the events that are taking place. Traditionally Holy Week was a week without other distractions, meetings, and the like so that we could contemplate Jesus love for us. Again, I would encourage you to do the same.
So, today we celebrate Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where He came to give His life for ours, to pay the price for our sins so that we have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness we know we have life and salvation. Thursday we celebrate Jesus’ gift of His body and blood in His Holy Supper. Friday we are reminded of God’s love for us in the giving of His Son and His Son’s life for ours. Our response of faith is simply to rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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