Sermon manuscript:
To the disciples it appeared that everything was going well
as Jesus made his way into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. In fact, things were going
very well. If they would have thought back on the past few years they would
have recalled things that kings and prophets would have liked to have seen and heard.
Jesus did many powerful signs. He made the blind see and the deaf hear. He fed
the 5,000 and the 4,000. Jesus taught as one having authority, instead of like
the teachers who were only trying to fill the time and cash their paycheck.
Many were converted to faith in him.
Jesus’s overwhelming success might be one of the main things
we should have in our mind’s eye when we imagine that Palm Sunday. All around
Jesus there were spontaneous acts of love, honor, and devotion. There was no
campaign manager artificially pumping up the crowds with stirring music. That
wasn’t necessary. The crowds loved him, and worshipped him, and this is the
only way to understand their actions:
They threw down their garments on the road so that the donkey’s
colt, a small animal carrying a fully grown man, might walk on them. They cut
palm branches in their hands and waved them about. Nobody was embarrassed.
Nobody was self-conscious. All that they were conscious of was Jesus. They
wanted to catch sight of him. They were praising God joyfully, with a loud
voice, for all the miracles that they had seen.
The words that the crowd said were heavy with all that those
words signified. They sang, “Blessed is the king who comes in the Name of
the Lord.” They are identifying Jesus as the king. This would have come as
news to Pontius Pilate, the highest Roman official in that region, or to Herod,
who ruled in Galilee. Jesus had no earthly office or authority. He was a poor
Jew from the hinterlands. But these people recognize him as king.
Furthermore, they do not recognize him as the king pending
the approval of the Roman Caesar or any other human authority. They say that he
is the king who comes in the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. They do not
see Jesus as an upstart, making his way to the top by his own bootstraps. They
recognize him as the Christ, the anointed King, sent by none other than God
himself. How else could he have done the signs or taught the way he taught?
Believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, which means “the anointed
one,” is the shortest Christian creed. These people have this confession of
faith.
The other thing that the crowds say is so outrageous that it
makes the Pharisees embarrassed. They say, “Peace in heaven and glory in the
highest.” This was a bit too much for the Pharisees. The Pharisees, like
every believing Jew, was looking for the Christ, the one who would be like King
David, but King David was just a man. The Pharisees fear that these people’s
theology is getting dangerously out of whack. A human being might be able to
bring about peace on earth, but what is this about peace in heaven? Only God rules
in heaven. Furthermore the people are giving him glory in the highest. Only
God, and certainly no man, should be given glory in the highest. The Pharisees
tell Jesus that his disciples are in need of a stern rebuke.
But Jesus is not alarmed. The Pharisee’s theology is
correct, as far as that goes. But they do not see what the people see, and
therefore they are wrong. The people see that Jesus is God. All glory, laud,
and honor are to him, the Redeemer King. If he were but a man, then it would be
inappropriate to say what they had said. Since he is God in the flesh, what
they have said is entirely appropriate. All creation sings its praises to Jesus
the King: Fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
Palm Sunday is when everything was going splendidly for
Jesus’s disciples. This is just how they had hoped everything would go once it
was revealed to them that Jesus is the Christ. Exciting things were in store.
Oh, the places they might go! It’s just a matter of time, they think, before
the Gentiles start coming to Jerusalem with their expensive gifts. That will be
sweet. And they had been with Jesus from the beginning. It’s good to be friends
with the king.
But, as you know, at the end of this same week Jesus would
appear before Pontius Pilate, battered and bruised. There he would declare, “My
kingdom is not of this world. If it were, I would have commanded my angels so
that I never would have been handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom
is not of this world.” The crown that was placed on Jesus was not a crown
of gold, but a crown of thorns. His throne was a cross. He was not held in
honor, but was mocked and shamed. Those Pharisees who thought that he was blaspheming
on Sunday probably thought that he was getting his comeuppance on Friday.
It is fairly common, even among Christians, to look at Good
Friday as the day the music died. But that is the wrong way to look at it. If
anything, you could perhaps think of this event as a change in key in Jesus
being king. It’s like one of those bridges to a higher key that really brings
the whole thing home.
Good Friday was not an accident. It was not a derailment of
Messianic hopes. For the disciples it certainly seemed that way at the time.
They had dreams of sitting at Jesus’s right and his left, being great in the
eyes of their fellow human beings. But their sights were not set high enough.
What the crowds sang on Palm Sunday was entirely accurate, even if they might
not have fully realized it or understood how it might come about. This king who
comes in the Name of the Lord brings about peace in heaven.
Jesus’s peace brings to an end the devil’s accusations. The
devil accuses us of our sins and would have us hate and fear God as a harsh
judge. And he is a judge. He declares Jesus to be guilty and punishes him in
our place. The punishment that should fall upon us, falls upon this divine
king, until he is crushed and dies under the weight of it all. Thus there is no
condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The devil cannot accuse us of our sins
before God because the Lord is our righteousness. The fact of the matter (and
this is no wishful thinking, but a plain fact) is that God’s peace and God’s
good will is towards men. God’s favor rests upon mankind because Jesus the
Christ has achieved peace in heaven.
Even if, through progress and hard work, we were able to
achieve world peace, cure cancer, and cure COVID while we’re at it, together
with all the other ambitions we might set for ourselves, these would be nothing
compared to what this king does. Even if we were able to roll back all the
curses and punishments that came with sin, we would still be alienated from our
Creator. This king brings about reconciliation between God and sinners. Jesus
works peace, good will, and happiness.
But none of the great works this king does can really be
seen now. They can only be known by faith alone. Many people get lost when the
music changes its key. It’s too high and they can’t sing it. They are more
interested in the things of this world: How do I get people to do what I want
them to do? How do I use the limited resources to my greatest advantage? I look
at you and I think, “What can I use you for?”
All people are necessarily enslaved to their desires,
whatever those desires might be, unless they are set free by dying and rising.
We have to be born again by the water and the Spirit to see the kingdom of God.
We have to die with Christ and be raised with Christ. We have to be baptized. Otherwise
we will stick with what we have been doing since we were a baby. We will do
whatever we can to manipulate others, to achieve our own ends.
Jesus the king opens up a different way of looking at life.
Instead of looking for how you can use others, you can look for how you can
serve them. Instead of trying to lord it over others and have them serve you,
you can become as the least and the servant of all. You can walk in the
footsteps of your teacher and master. He came not to be served, but to serve,
and give his life as a ransom for many.
There is a tremendous change that takes place with the
disciples’ thinking from the way the disciples had been thinking on Palm
Sunday. Those who continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ even after he is
crucified, died, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead have their
thinking changed very much. You can tell it by their actions. The apostles did
not go out into the world to create little kingdoms for themselves. They did
not gather a following so that they could sit on thrones and live richly at the
expense of others. Insofar as the Holy Spirit blessed them, they poured
themselves out rather than trying to collect as much as they could. They were
no longer afraid of suffering and loss. They were glad to suffer for the
benefit of others.
This also, just like with our Lord Jesus Christ, can be too
high of a key for people to appreciate. It sounds dreadful, in a way, that we
should love to the point of suffering and even death. What kind of glory is that?
Suffering and death look terrible. There’s no crown of gold. The adoring crowds
are nowhere to be found, and we just might get the reward of abuse and scorn instead.
But do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. It is good to
love others, no matter what anybody else might say. It is better to give than
to receive, no matter what anybody else might say. It is better to serve than
to be served, no matter what anybody else might say.
During Holy Week there is something divine and beautiful
going on, even though it can only be seen by faith alone. Apart from faith it
looks like a tragedy. With faith it is seen for what it really is—peace in
heaven. This is also true in the lives of Christians. The Holy Spirit works to
bring about the image of God in them, the image of Christ the crucified. This
is not a defeat. It is a victory. You can tell by the way the song goes. It is
high and beautiful.
So hark the glad sound! The Savior comes. The Savior
promised long. Let ev’ry heart prepare a throne and ev’ry voice a song. Amen.
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