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The March 24, 2013, Concordia Publishing House copyrighted bulletin cover refers to Deuteronomy 32:39 from the copyrighted English Standard Version and uses photos copyrighted by iStockphoto.com and Jill Fromer/istockphoto.com.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our procession earlier in this morning’s service sort of re-enacted part of the first Palm Sunday of nearly 2‑thousand years ago. We held palm branches and sang words similar to those of the people in the Processional Gospel that was read earlier in the service. We did not have Jesus Himself sitting on a young donkey, of course, but we had a pastor walking in Jesus’s place. Nor did we have two crowds, one following Jesus and one coming out to meet Jesus, but perhaps we are nevertheless “Coming to Meet Jesus”. The Processional Gospel six times uses related Greek words for “coming”: Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, specifically coming in the Name of the Lord, as the prophesied coming King; the second crowd came out from Jerusalem, and the Pharisees said the whole world had gone after Jesus. Likewise, the Processional Gospel two times uses related Greek words for “meeting”, one of which words can refer specifically to welcoming a newly arrived dignitary. So, this day our focus is on “Coming to Meet Jesus”.
The Processional Gospel as read from St. John’s account is the version of the events usually used on “Palm Sunday”, in part perhaps because St. John’s account alone directly tells us the people took “palm branches” of “palm trees”, and St. John’s account alone indirectly tells us the day was “Sunday”. St. John’s account also alone reports the motivation of the crowd coming out to meet Jesus, namely, that the crowd heard that Jesus, Who had raised Lazarus, was coming to Jerusalem.
Admittedly, we do not know what all the people in either crowd really believed about Jesus. Although, a verse before the Processional Gospel, St. John does report that the chief priests were making plans to put Lazarus to death, since, on account of Jesus’s raising him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus (John 12:9-10). But, others of the Jews in the crowds may have simply thought Jesus might finally liberate them from the Romans, and still others may have simply gone to see what all the fuss was about—perhaps like those driving on one side of a highway who cause a traffic jam by slowing done to gape (gawk or rubber-neck) at a collision or other distraction on the other side.
Just as we do not know what all the people in either crowd outside Jerusalem really believed about Jesus on that first Palm Sunday, we do not know what all the people in the crowd here really believe about Jesus on this Palm Sunday. Why are you and I here? Have you and I come to meet Jesus? If so, what are we expecting from Him? Those among the crowd that first Palm Sunday who did really believe in Jesus surely were crying out “Hosanna!” with its sense of asking for Jesus to save them from their sins. This Palm Sunday, do you and I cry out “Hosanna!” asking Jesus to save us from our sins? Do we realize just how sinful we are (by nature, sinning in thought, word, and deed)? Do we really realize just how desperate our situations are on account of our sins? Do we realize that by our own reason or strength we cannot believe in Jesus or even come to Him? Yet, God through His Word calls and enables us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better. When we so repent, then He forgives our sin. As we heard in the First Reading (Deuteronomy 32:36-39) and is highlighted with the text on your bulletin cover, the Lord kills us and makes us alive; He wounds us and heals us.
Alluding to—if not actually quoting from—one of the Passover pilgrimage psalms, the call “Hosanna!” or “Save us!” is addressed to the One coming in the Name of the Lord, and that One coming in the Name of the Lord answers the call to “Save us!”. That One coming in the Name of the Lord in St. John’s account alone is further identified as the King of Israel—further underlining the fact that the One coming in the Name of the Lord is the Messiah, God’s appointed Savior. As the original hearers of Zechariah’s prophecy about the Coming King could stop fearing, you and I can stop fearing, too. The God-man Jesus knew about the Jewish leaders’ hateful plots to kill Him, but, out of love for you and for me, He willingly gave Himself up to those plots in order to save us from our sins. We heard the historical details of His death in our extended Third Reading (Luke 23:1-56), but St. Paul summarizes the importance for us in the Second Reading (Philippians 2:5-11):
[Jesus] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
And, Jesus did not stay dead! He rose from the dead, surpassing Lazarus’s temporary revivification and assuring us that on the last day He will raise us all permanently.
St. John’s account alone tells us how Jesus’s disciples did not understand these things at first, but, when Jesus was glorified, then, as Jesus had prophesied, the Holy Spirit brought these things to their remembrance and guided them into all truth (John 14:26; 16:13). Likewise for us who by our own reason or strength cannot believe in Jesus or come to Him, the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel and enlightens us with His gifts. The Holy Spirit works through the preaching of the Gospel, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar. To some extent, the photos on today’s bulletin cover, like the historic liturgy of the Christian Church, make the connection between the crowd’s song of that first Palm Sunday and our song on communion Sundays. Jesus meets us in bread that is His body and wine that is His blood, and so as you and I meet Him at this rail we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. God may kill us with His law, but He also makes us alive through His Gospel in all its forms, sanctifying us and keeping us in the true faith.
My personal trainer Friday commented to me about how he thinks people do not want to put any effort into religion, and he referred to Jesus’s teaching about asking, seeking, and knocking (Matthew 7:7-8). To some extent my personal trainer is right, but, as I mentioned, we are not able to ask, seek, or knock on our own. Likewise, when St. James writes that we should “draw near to God and He will draw near to” us (James 4:8), we know that we can only “draw near to God” because He has drawn near to us first. The people in the Processional Gospel Reading were “Coming to Meet Jesus” only after He was already coming to Jerusalem and word of His coming reached their ears. In their internal debate reported at the end of the Processional Gospel Reading, the Pharisees’ saying that “the world has gone out after [Jesus]” may have emphasized their point by describing the situation as worse than it was, but their hyperbole was also somewhat prophetic: the world has gone out after Jesus. Though faith seems to be declining in our time, each new believer who comes to meet Jesus increases the Christian Church. Similarly, the Gospel has gone out to all the earth, to the ends of the world (Psalm 19:4; Romans 10:18; 1 Thessalonians 1:8), and so God justly judges between believers and unbelievers.
Jesus speaks about that judgment between believers and unbelievers in the parable about the ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom (Matthew 25:1-13), emphasizing our need to always be ready for His return to judge. As believers did that first Palm Sunday, as believers have done this Palm Sunday, so we do every Sunday, we who believe come to meet Jesus here, where He meets us with the forgiveness of sins that He won for us on the cross. Then, when He meet Him as our judge (1 Thessalonians 4:17), we will go with Him for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +