Palm Sunday

1  God’s Answer for Our Sinful Pride: Christ Jesus

Everyone likes a parade, right?

Everyone also likes to see royalty pass by.

We don’t have royalty in the United States,

but if the President came here,

there would be plenty of people trying to catch a glimpse.

Our text shows Jesus, a King entering His royal city.

but it’s strange.

Instead of trumpets, the voices of the crowds announce His entry. Instead of a fierce war-horse, He has a borrowed donkey’s colt. Instead of a gilded saddle, He sits upon His disciples’ coats. Instead of a red carpet of rose petals,

He rides upon the coats of the multitude, and tree branches.

With a claim upon the glory of heaven,

this King enters His city in humility.

The humility of this King

teaches us about Him and His purpose:

True God, yet also true Man;

He enters not to assume His reign in glory, but to ascend His throne through suffering and the cross.

His humility also shows us the opposite of our own nature.

Sin entered the world through the pride of Adam and Eve. They asserted their own will above that of God.

But Jesus humbly, patiently goes as He was sent.

Here we find God’s answer for our sinful pride

Because man’s answers all come out wrong in the end, but God’s answer is Jesus Christ.

2  Matthew 21:1–11

Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “Tell the daughter of Zion,

‘Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!”

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”

So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

2.1  Man’s way cannot unite us with God

Long before this scene, the prophet Zechariah had described it,

as mentioned by both Matthew and John.

Zechariah’s prophecy is important,

because it leaves the Jews who did not recognize their King

with no excuse.

Yet there are Jews who still look for Messiah coming in glory.

So also then:

Jesus’ disciples recognized their King, but many people did not, distracted or offended by His humility.

The reason people only want to see Him in glory

is because our nature longs for glory, but not in a good way.

We long to claim the glory that belongs to God.

It may seem strange

that someone fashions a figure out of wood, then bows down to worship it.

In Isaiah 44, God describes a man who cuts down a tree in the forest:

He burns half of it in the fire; With this half he eats meat; He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” And the rest of it he makes into a god, His carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, Prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”

This behavior may seem strange,

but it’s a clear picture of what sinful man does.

We choose from the things of Creation

and decide what we want to place our trust in.

Then we look to that thing as our savior,

even our way to glory.

Man has made saviors of many kinds:

wood, metal, stone, plastic, and paper; social and economic systems; the mighty power of government; the next payday, or the coming tax refund; the learning of knowledge and science; empires and nations like Rome, England, or Israel; the progress of the human race, or even the planet we live on.

All of these things are like the tree in the forest,

part of which cooks our food, but the other part we make into a savior and a god.

Consider the problems you carry with you each day.

It may be frustration with other people, or financial stress, or physical pain, or something else.

Do you understand what you’re hoping will solve those problems?

Where have you placed your trust? When you pray, who do you hope is listening?

Sometimes we think we’re not praying at all

— maybe because we forgot to.

But even without realizing it,

we always place our trust in something.

If we are not praying to our Father through Christ,

then we are praying to something else.

In typical human arrogance, we’d like to think humanity has improved.

We’d like to think we don’t bow down before gods of our own making.

But having a god is not a matter of bending the knees,

but bending the hope and trust of the heart.

What pride, to make gods for ourselves that are not gods! What wretched sinfulness, to place our trust in what will not save!

But worst of all,

we find that in our sinful pride,

we have broken the First Commandment.

God should let us see whether our new gods will save us.

Will the next paycheck take away our financial stress? Will modern medicine give us life

without suffering and death?

Will government or economics solve the crises of our time? Will bowing down before Mother Earth take away our guilt?

Of course not. These are not gods at all.

As Jeremiah wrote: Do not be afraid of them, For they cannot do evil, Nor can they do any good.

In our pride, we would replace God with something else,

but nothing will work.

Our answers all come out wrong in the end.

2.2  God’s answer is Christ Jesus

God’s answer is Christ Jesus.

He is a great and true King,

but His kingdom is spiritual in this world.

His triumphal entry was in humility, and led Him to suffering and the cross.

These things betide spiritual realities,

because He is an eternal savior.

The great statues of the Romans and Greeks,

though they were made of stone,

are now in decay, or even broken into pieces and long forgotten.

The great scientific principles are the same:

Isaac Newton is still useful,

but Einstein has discovered his limits.

Even Darwin’s theories have been replaced and updated,

and what is now theorized will some day be disproven or changed again.

The gigantic political ideas of Rousseau, Marx, Lenin, and Hitler

have been tested and found wanting, though they are still recycled.

Even the “American” principles of individual freedom and responsibility

are challenged and chipped away in our own time.

So the great saviors of mankind’s choosing come and go in glory and fanfare,

but the one Savior chosen by God came once in humility.

Unlike the passing glories of this world,

His glory is in heaven, and never fades.

A man, Jesus humbly obeyed the Father’s will.

In so doing, He removed the guilt of our sins forever,

and entered into His Kingship over all Creation.

For your suffering, He came to suffer. For your fearful death, He came to die.

He knows the stress in your life each day. He knows that you need something to trust, something to hope.

So God the Father sent Jesus to answer

suffering with suffering, death with death.

In Him, we have

a King who rules and protects us, a Priest who makes atonement for us, and a Prophet who guides us to eternal life.

It may seem as though Jesus can’t help us in our earthly troubles.

Can He pay our bills? Can He raise our children? Can He heal our diseases?

Actually, He can. He already does.

But usually, He doesn’t do this directly. He uses us all to do it,

and He does this in response to our prayers.

Sometimes He tests us,

the way a trainer pushes an athlete past his limits, to help him grow stronger and more capable.

But even then, Jesus remains our King and Savior,

and awaits our prayers.

One of our great frustrations

comes from thinking of this as our true life.

It’s not.

This is where moth and rust destroy,

and where thieves break in and steal.

Let your treasure be in heaven.

Remember that your home is there too, with Him.

Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem should remind us of this,

because we are now called to be His imitators,

to die with respect to this world, that we may live with Him.

Death is a hard thing.

We’ll hear more about it

— and God’s answer — on Maundy Thursday.

For now, let us put away our sinful pride,

for the answer God has given: Christ Jesus.

Know that in Him, your sins of pride are forgiven,

and your true home awaits you

because in His humility, He has won it for you.

Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!