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Sermon for Palm Sunday
Philippians 2:5-11 + Matthew 21:1-9
And so that Holy Week began, with Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, with garments draped over the donkeys and carpeting the road, with palm branches waving and the crowds singing their praises to Jesus. And though Jesus didn’t speak a word to the crowds as He rode down the Mount of Olives and then up again toward the gates of the Holy City, He did communicate a powerful message to everyone by His choice of transportation. The prophet Zechariah had written centuries earlier: Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.
It seems that Jesus rode the colt. The colt’s mother was there for emphasis, so that no one could miss Zechariah’s prophecy, which mentions both the colt and his mother. These two donkeys cried out to Jerusalem, “Jesus is the Christ!”, without Him having to say a word.
As Zechariah informs us, Jesus is the King of Zion, the King of Jerusalem, the King of all God’s people, the Son of David, the Son of God. And now that He has suffered for us, God the Father has exalted Him to the highest place. There is no other true King. Every knee must bow to this One. Every tongue must confess this One as Lord. And all of humanity is divided in two by this King. There are those who are on the inside of His kingdom, and those who are on the outside; the blessed subjects of this King, and the cursed enemies of Him.
But who is who? Which is which? And how do people find themselves on the inside or on this outside of His kingdom? The donkeys tell us. There is a line from Zechariah’s prophecy that St. Matthew assumes we know: Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation. This King doesn’t come on Palm Sunday to wipe out His enemies, or to acknowledge how good and righteous some people are. This King comes as the only one who is just, the only one who is righteous, the one who comes to bring righteousness to an unrighteous world, who comes to bring salvation to a world that needs saving, who comes to turn His enemies into His friends, to turn the children of wrath into the children of God.
He comes on a donkey to tell the world that He is “lowly.” Not the kind of “lowly” who is powerless before His enemies, but the kind of “lowly” who sets His power aside in order to allow Himself to be mistreated by His enemies, so that they might be saved. Not the kind of “lowly” who is inferior to others, but the kind of “lowly” who looks to the interests of others rather than to His own interests, who, as Paul said in today’s Epistle, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
People will sometimes depict Jesus as some kind of snobbish, snooty, looking-down-on-all-those-sinners kind of religious leader. But nothing could be further from the truth. He is lowly. He didn’t come on Palm Sunday to condemn sinners, but to show already-condemned sinners how they might change their status from condemned to justified, from lost to found, from perishing to saved.
For that, two things are required. One, that there be a sacrifice for sin, and not just any sacrifice, but a human sacrifice, and not just any human, but one who is sinless, one who is righteous, one who is innocent, one whose blood is so valuable that it’s worth more than all the blood and all the works and all the sins of all mankind. For condemned sinners to be saved, their salvation must be earned and paid for, not by them, but by the King. For condemned sinners to be saved, an atoning sacrifice must be offered: the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
And two, the sacrifice of the King must be applied to the sinner, counted to the sinner’s account. That happens through faith alone. Faith alone justifies, not because faith is some great work, but because through faith, Christ’s sacrifice is applied to sinful people. Faith is the conduit, the channel through which His righteousness flows to us and covers us. And we are brought into His kingdom. And there we are safe.
This week, we will continue to follow Jesus through that Holy Week when Christ our King earned salvation for us all. And through the Word that you hear and meditate on this week, and through the Sacrament that you receive, His saving work will be applied to you again, and God will strengthen your faith more and more. May God grant you a penitent heart and a sincere devotion throughout this Holy Week, so that you may raise your voices with joy, together the voices of the whole Church, Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest! Amen.
