The world has gone after the King

Sermon for Palm Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11  +  John 12:1-19

All four Gospel writers describe Holy Week. Many of their accounts overlap, but each one also includes certain details that the others leave out. Some years, we hear a combined account, a harmony of the four Evangelists. Other years we focus on just one. This year, we’re going to turn to St. John, every day this week (except for Wednesday, our one day off), to view the events of Holy Week and the Passion, that is, the Suffering of the Lord Jesus, from the inspired perspective of the apostle who often referred to himself simply as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” May the Lord grant us His Holy Spirit to guide and to bless our meditation.

John, like the other three Evangelists, includes an account of Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, sitting on a donkey. We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, John records what happened the day before, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, in the little town of Bethany, at the house of a man named Simon the Leper.

Matthew and Mark include this account, too, but it’s John who tells us when it happened, the day before Palm Sunday. It’s also John who names Martha as a servant at the dinner, and Martha’s sister Mary as the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with that expensive perfume, and who wiped His feet with her hair. Their brother Lazarus was also there—an important detail added by John, because Lazarus is the one who had recently been raised from the dead by Jesus after he had spent three days in the tomb. That’s where we get that beautiful discourse between Jesus and Martha, where Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

Well, some who were in attendance at that supper were there especially to see the resurrected Lazarus, and the Jesus who had raised him up. Word was spreading quickly that this Jesus was truly the Son of God, the promised Christ, and it was the resurrection of Lazarus that sealed the deal for many of them—which added to the Palm Sunday multitude, and which also convinced the chief priests that they not only had to kill Jesus, but Lazarus, too, to regain their iron grip on the people of Israel and to keep them from following Jesus any longer.

We learn from this encounter that Judas was a thief even before he was a traitor. That’s why, John says, he was upset with the “waste” of this expensive perfume that Mary poured out on Jesus’ feet. But we also learn that Jesus accepts the humble service of His saints, both men and women, as well as the costly gifts they give to honor Him, because they love Him, and because they’ve been listening to His word, as Mary had been listening to Jesus talk about the crucifixion He would soon endure—something that had gone right over the heads of all the apostles. Leave her alone, Jesus said. She has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not always have.

And with that, the tone is set for Palm Sunday.

The next day, Jesus came with His disciples to the Mount of Olives, just up the road from Bethany, to the east of Jerusalem, with the Kidron Valley running in between. Jesus sent two of His disciples to go fetch a donkey and her colt, knowing exactly where they would be, and that the owner would gladly send them in the Lord’s service for this special day. He needed the donkeys, because He had a prophecy to fulfill, from the book of prophet Zechariah: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The donkey was there to identify Jesus as the Christ, the promised King of the Jews, riding into Jerusalem as foretold, without Him having to say a word. And, it was also there to remind the people what the Christ would be like, and what He was coming to do: Lowly, humble, righteous, He was coming to bring them salvation—to bring it in a lowly way, not by destroying sinners, not by making war with their earthly enemies, not by raising Israel up to rule over the other nations. How, then? How would He bring them salvation? For that, they needed to turn to the prophet Isaiah (as we’ll do again on Friday): He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. The King would bring salvation by suffering and dying for the sins of His people, so that, by His blood, He might make peace between God and sinners, so that all who believe might be saved.

No one there that day understood what Jesus was coming to do during that Passover week. No one knew on Sunday that He would be dead by Friday evening. No one could have imagined the turmoil and the drama of the coming week. No one, except for Jesus, who faced it willingly, who faced it “gladly,” in the sense that He knew the salvation His suffering would accomplish for millions of people, past, present, and future. And so He kept going, all the way into the city, all the way to the cross.

But the crowds, in spite of their ignorance, were glad to welcome their King that day. “Hosanna!, they cried. ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ They weren’t just making up their own song of praise. The whole thing, including the Hebrew word “Hosanna” is a quotation from Psalm 118, a song of praise and thanks to the LORD, the God of Israel, who brings salvation to His people, who acts on His people’s behalf—a Messianic Psalm that speaks of the suffering of the Christ and of His eventual deliverance from His suffering. That part they didn’t connect to Jesus.

But we do! And when they acclaimed Him as the The King of Israel, not really knowing what kind of King He was, we acclaim Him as King in the fullest sense, because we know Him as the King who suffered and died for us, as the righteous King who shares His righteousness with all who believe in Him, as the King who now sits at the right hand of God the Father, reigning over all for the good of His holy Church.

Still, not everyone acclaimed Him as King that day. The Pharisees were livid at this “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem, appalled that their fellow Jews were welcoming Jesus with their palm branches and their praises, and with these Messianic verses. They said to one another, “See? You are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”

It must have felt like that to them, at that moment, as it seemed like their power was slipping away through their fingers. The world has gone after Jesus. Everyone’s following Jesus, listening to Jesus, believing in Jesus, talking about Jesus! They couldn’t stand it. So they made plans to kill Him, so that no one else could go after Him ever again.

It would have worked, except that He rose from the dead after they killed Him, and He has kept on calling out to the world, through the ministers whom He has sent, “Repent and believe the good news! Your King has come to save you!” And ever since the Day of Pentecost, the world has been “going after Him”—many going after Him to kill His religion, to persecute His Church, or, even worse, to corrupt it, and to persuade Christians to abandon Him, to abandon His word, to fit in with the world, to focus on an earthly life where Jesus is little more than an afterthought. Such enemies of Jesus have been around as long as the Pharisees have, and they’ve had far too much success in the world.

But some, a few, a remnant have gone after Jesus, and go after Him still, to seek Him, to worship Him, and to receive the salvation He came to bring. A few still believe in Jesus as their Lord, their Savior, and their King. A few still gather together in His name, every Sunday if possible, and then every year for Holy Week, to spend the week hearing the word of their King and meditating on His teaching and on His Passion. For this we, too, have gathered, by the grace of God, having been chosen by God to hear His Gospel and to believe in His Son, and to receive life in His name. May His Holy Spirit accompany us in our worship and in our devotion as our King comes to us again this week in Word and Sacrament. And let us always be found among those who go after Him! Amen.