Sermon manuscript:
“Blessed is the King who comes in
the name of the Lord!”
The Gospel reading today is when Jesus entered Jerusalem on
Palm Sunday. There are some unusual aspects to this story. Jesus told his
disciples how they would find a donkey’s colt when they entered the village.
They didn’t need to buy the colt. They would only say, “The Lord has need of it,” and the colt would be sent along.
The animal upon which Jesus sat is also unusual. Donkeys are
already somewhat small animals to ride. A colt would have presumably been even
smaller. Matthew, in his Gospel, tells us that the colt’s mother might have
also been involved. I’m not sure what that would have looked like. In addition,
this colt had never been ridden. That means he wasn’t broke. Nevertheless,
Jesus was placed upon him and it seems to go fine as he rode into Jerusalem.
All these strange details are not just strange for the sake
of being strange. They have Old Testament connections. Zechariah, a prophet who
lived about 500 years before this, wrote: “Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your
king is coming to you; … humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of
a donkey.” What was happening with Jesus was not accidental. Jesus is
the king that Zechariah wrote about. The rejoicing of Palm Sunday was the
rejoicing that Zechariah wrote about.
And these last two elements are really the key features.
What is most important about Palm Sunday is that Jesus is the king, and that
his disciples are recognizing him as such. That Jesus is the king is not always
recognized by everyone. It is an article of faith. It is either believed or not
believed. Presumably there were a lot of people in Jerusalem that day who did
not believe that Jesus is the king. His disciples did. They were convinced by
the signs that Jesus had done.
You are familiar with the signs Jesus did. These, also, were
prophesied in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah lived over 700 years before
Jesus, and he said that when the great king would come he would “open the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf would be
unstopped, the lame would leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute would
sing for joy.” Jesus had done these things and more. In fact, just
before Palm Sunday he had raised Lazarus, who had been dead for four days. He
was doing all things well. They loved it, and they were praising God with a
loud voice. I would imagine that they were wondering to themselves: “What is he
going to do next?”
Especially, “What is he going to do next as he enters
Jerusalem?” Thus far Jesus seems to have spent most of his time in the north,
in Galilee, far from Jerusalem, which was the center of power. The temple was
in Jerusalem. The leaders of the Jews were in Jerusalem. Pontius Pilate, the Roman
leader, was in Jerusalem. What was going to happen when Jesus, “The King of the
Jews,” would come into contact with the powers that be?
I’m pretty sure that the disciples on Palm Sunday were
thinking, “He’s going to keep on doing all things well! He’s going to be a good
king!” Good kings set things right. They get rid of corruption. They help those
who need help. They put down those who oppress. No more lying, cheating, and
getting away with it.
Jeremiah, another Old Testament prophet, speaks of Jesus
this way in our Old Testament reading. He says, “In
those days and at that time a righteous Branch will spring up from David.”
Jesus is that righteous branch. And what will he do? Jeremiah goes on: “He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
This is exactly what Jesus went on to do during Holy Week. You
can read about that for yourselves. The first thing that Jesus did was he went
to the Temple. He pushed out all the buyers and sellers and money changers. He caused
pandemonium. He flipped over tables. He let loose their animals. He said to
them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house
of prayer for all nations,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”
On the days following this the powers that be tried to
entrap and ensnare Jesus. They needed Jesus to slip up with something he might
say so that they could nail him. So they sent their sneakiest and best. They
tried every which way to trick him, but it didn’t work. Just as the disciples
had been hoping on Palm Sunday, Jesus continued to do all things well.
I think by the time of Maundy Thursday the disciples were
almost drunk with excitement. Luke tells us a stunning detail about what
happened when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Not long after Jesus had
said, “This is my body which is given for you,”
and “This is my blood which is shed for you,” Luke
tells us that the disciples were arguing with one another over who was the
greatest. They were in high spirits. They were already filling Jesus’s cabinet.
Who would be secretary of state? Who would be attorney general?
Given the disciples’ eager expectation, you can perhaps see how
the crucifixion, which would happen less than a day later, would crush them. It
was cruel—even in the way it got carried out. It wasn’t a fair fight. Those in
power never want a fair fight. They arrested Jesus in the middle of the night.
They rigged their kangaroo courts in the middle of the night. Already by 9
o’clock that morning Jesus was nailed through his hands and his feet to the
cross.
Those in power know how to get things done for their own
advantage. They know how to do things in such a way where they come out on top
and none’s the wiser to their evil deeds done in secret. History—but often an
unwritten history—is filled with power crushing reformers. Those who speak the
truth and fight for what is right are marginalized and eliminated. The winners have
their perspectives written into the history books that glorify their deeds and
ignore whatever evil they have done. Thereby they appear to have won, but
appearances can be deceiving.
They better enjoy whatever they have gained for themselves
by all their sneaking around because a time is coming when, as Jesus said, “Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the
light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the rooftops.”
This will happen because the king is coming to judge. Again, as Jesus said, “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden
that will not be known.” It will be as Jeremiah prophesied: “The king shall execute righteousness and justice in the land.”
The disciples were not wrong with their thoughts about Jesus
being the king. The disciples also were not wrong about this king doing all
things well, setting things right, rooting out lies, and establishing justice
and peace. Their only mistake was that they weren’t thinking quite deeply
enough. They were thinking that Jesus would be merely an earthly king. Jesus is
the king to which all powers must bow—even the powers of sin, death, and the
devil. Jesus continued to do well on Holy Week. By his death and resurrection
he set things right in such a profound and fundamental way that it is beyond
our understanding.
If we lived at the time of these disciples we would
rejoice—and rightly so—at Jesus’s opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the
ears of the deaf, making the lame leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing
for joy. These are very fine miracles. Often Christians wish that they could
see some miracles like that to bolster their faith. But the truth is that the
miracles that Jesus works now and in the future are greater.
Jesus works now by the Holy Spirit to turn the hearts of
sinners so that they believe in the mercy of their Creator and Judge. The Holy
Spirit produces fruit in the hearts of believers so that they have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,
faithfulness, and self control. Instead of joining in with the powers of
evil that seem to offer so much advantage for earthly power and for the
indulging of our desires, Jesus’s disciples resist the ways and means of devil,
the prince of this world. They work at not lying, not manipulating, not
intimidating, not coercing, and so on. They work on following Jesus’s commands
that promise blessings to those who have the guts to keep them. These are not
small things!
And the miracles of the future will be even greater. They are
beyond my ability to communicate them. Jesus, the king, helped so many people
as we hear about in the Gospels. That same king will help us. He will give us
new bodies that will be like his glorious, resurrected body—better, even, than
the restored body of Lazarus. He will purify and strengthen our minds and souls
with love and light. He will set all things right like a good king is supposed
to. Great wonders are in store for us!
Therefore, we are not all that different from the multitude
of disciples who rejoiced as Jesus entered Jerusalem. We, like they, might
wonder, “What is he going to do next?” We, like they, might wonder, “What is
going to happen when Jesus comes into conflict with the powers and
principalities?” It looks like we’re in for show! They’ll kick up a fuss, no doubt,
wanting to hold on to their wicked ways, but their days are numbered. The king
is coming.
“Blessed is the King who comes in
the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
