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Sermon for Palmarum – Palm Sunday
Matthew 21:1-11 + Passion Narrative from the Gospel according to St. Matthew
There are so many things packed into our service today: the palms and the procession that began our service, the long Passion history reading that took us all the way through those bitter-sweet 24 hours during which our redemption was purchased and won, the many hymn stanzas we’ve sung so far, a confirmation rite coming up in just a moment. With so much activity, so much divine truth laid out before us, what should our confirmand – what should all of you remember about today above all else?
Remember Jesus riding on a donkey.
Oh, you might well remember the other things that surrounded that, too, like all the different kinds of people who met Jesus in Jerusalem:
- You had the ignorant and indifferent people, those who still, for some reason, didn’t know and didn’t much care who this Jesus of Nazareth really was who was riding into town on a donkey.
- You had the haters among the Jews who knew Jesus and wanted him dead.
- You had the false followers of Jesus who tagged along in the procession and acted like they believed in Jesus, but really, they were in it for the glory and adventure of following this popular teacher and miracle worker.
- You had the fair-weather followers of Jesus, who believed in him and supported him as long as things were going well, but in the time of testing, they were quick to leave.
- And finally, you had the devoted followers of Jesus, including his own inner circle of disciples – those who had followed him faithfully through good times and bad, those who loved and worshiped him as the Christ sent by God, and as their Savior from sin, some of whom would one day lay down their own lives as martyrs, witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, the last three groups mentioned were there scattering their palm branches and cloaks along the road. They were all singing well-deserved praises to Jesus and calling out “Hosanna! Come and save us now!” But if you listened to the whole Passion reading today, then you know what happened to those five groups of people. They combined into just two groups of people: those who openly hated Jesus, and those who loved Jesus for awhile, until something else got in the way.
Those who openly hated Jesus wanted to see Jesus suffer, and they got what they wanted. The rest – the false followers, the fair-weather followers, the devoted followers – they didn’t want to see Jesus suffer. But neither were they willing to suffer with him. As for the inner circle, Jesus’ own disciples, one of them betrayed Jesus to his haters. Another – Peter – denied him three times. And all the rest ran away from Jesus in his darkest hour. And those were his closest friends! They loved him until something else – until their own safety, their own comfort, their own life – got in the way.
We have the same characters, the same groupings of people in the world today: The ignorant and indifferent who don’t know Jesus either because no one has told them, or because, they’ve cared so little about God that they haven’t bothered to find out. You still have the open haters – didn’t the atheists just have a rally of some 20,000 people in Washington? They still refuse to acknowledge their utter sinfulness and hopelessness; they still openly reject Jesus as God and Savior.
You still have the false followers and the fair-weather followers, and the most devout Christians. And guess what? The most devout Christians today – always in church, always looking for ways to hear the Word of God and serve their neighbor – the most devout Christians today are no better than the apostles themselves, no less prone to stumble and fall when it becomes really hard to follow Jesus.
Jesus knows all this – about the people surrounding him on Palm Sunday and about the people who make up our world today. He knows all about you as he sends his disciples to the place where he knows the donkey to be. Jesus, the very Son of God, knows all this and he gets on the donkey anyway and rides on, surrounded by false followers and fair-weather followers and devout followers alike, knowing exactly who they are, knowing exactly what each of them will do this week. He rides on, resolute. He has a cross waiting for him. He has a baptism to undergo, a baptism in soldiers’ spit and in his own blood. He won’t turn back. He won’t turn aside. He has to die. He has to. For the sins of all who hate him, for the sins of all who love him only a little. He has a world to buy back out of slavery to sin, death and the devil.
Jesus rides on in lowly majesty, gentle; humble, having salvation. Because he knows that, as he humbles himself and makes himself obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, he will accomplish the very saving act that will be preached to the nations, that will turn some of his haters into believers, that will call back Christians who have gone astray, that will kindle faith in the hearts of some, so that they see their sin and his willing sacrifice as their substitute under divine wrath, and hear his promise that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. And they will believe.
One day Jesus will ride in on the clouds in power and great majesty. The king will ride in for judgment and rule with an iron scepter. And God’s wrath will be revealed against every impenitent sinner, against everyone who is not found clinging to him in faith. On that day, the king will ride in with vengeance against his enemies.
But until then, Jesus still comes riding in on a donkey. As long as this Gospel is proclaimed, as long as Baptism is administered, as long as there are ministers to hand out forgiveness with the Key of Absolution and to hand out the body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins – as long as all of that is still going on, Jesus is still coming to you in humility, with salvation.
And as he comes, his message is the same to all, no matter which group you’re in. “Repent and believe the good news!” As long as Jesus is riding on a donkey in these means of grace, he isn’t gathering the war horses for battle. As long as Jesus is riding on a donkey, he is proclaiming peace to the nations, peace to all who mourn over their sin and look to him for salvation, because with him, there is forgiveness. Mourn over your sin and rejoice in your Savior from sin who fought for your salvation all by himself and earned it all by himself, who redeemed the world without any help from anyone and gives repentance and forgiveness to his people.
Dana, you’ll be confessing your faith today in the presence of God and of this congregation. And you’ll be making some very serious promises today, promises that every communicant member of this congregation has also publicly made: to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully; to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death; to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it.
As history has shown here in this church and throughout the world and throughout history, not all remain faithful to those promises. Many fall away.
God help you to remain faithful, which doesn’t mean you won’t sin. “Faithful” means living in daily repentance and faith. “Faithful” looks like coming to confession and receiving the absolution. “Faithful” looks like gathering with the Lord’s people around the Lord’s Table and the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day.
And if you should ever walk away or run away and abandon Jesus, then, Dana, you remember this day before it’s too late. You remember today, Palm Sunday, the day of your confirmation. But don’t remember your promises before God! Don’t remember them! What good did promises do for Peter and the other disciples? “Even if all fall away, Jesus, I never will!” Has any promise been more quickly broken than when Peter and the other disciples broke those promises? But that’s what happens when you put your faith in your promises instead of in Jesus and his Word.
So don’t remember your promises. Remember Jesus, riding in humbly on a donkey, riding in to suffer and die for sinful haters and for runaway followers. Remember Jesus and the word of peace he spoke to his disciples after his resurrection. Remember Jesus and where sinners find him after they fall – in the same place where all of us find him today – riding humbly in to us through the preaching of his Holy Week Gospel, in the absolution of a pastor, in the Sacrament of the Altar.
Whatever you do with your life, wherever you go, remember Jesus riding on a donkey, bringing salvation to sinners. Even if you forget everything else about today, don’t ever forget him. Amen.
