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+ + + 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.
Today, in one way or another, we all were part of a Palm Sunday Procession with Palms. We sang a Processional Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 442) that has a long association with Palm Sunday and roots back in the first millennium of Christian history. We re‑enacted what those, who went before and those who followed Jesus to Jerusalem, did and said at the time of the New Testament. We used God‑given parts of the Church’s liturgy that even predate the Savior Jesus and were already being used by God’s people centuries earlier. In short, today we were part of a Palm Sunday Procession with Palms that arguably originated in the Old Testament, and has extended through two millennia of Christian history, but centers on the New Testament event that lead to our salvation.
That New Testament event that lead to our salvation was the focus of today’s Processional Gospel Reading. St. Mark’s Divinely‑inspired account of Jesus’s entry to Jerusalem that Palm Sunday is similar to those of the other Divinely‑inspired Gospel writers. For example, like Saints Matthew and Luke, St. Mark tells of the providential provision of a colt for Jesus to ride, although only St. Mark tells both how the colt was tied at a door outside in the street and how those standing there let them go, seemingly eyewitness details, which perhaps Peter personally experienced and passed along to Mark. Yet, the essential narrative is the same in all four Gospel accounts: as prophesied and rehearsed in the Old Testament, the people, even with their limited understanding, called out for Jesus to save them, and Jesus was present to save them.
Crowds at athletic events frequently cheer back and forth: one half saying one thing, and the other half saying another thing (maybe one half cheers “Texas”, and the other half cheers “Fight”—or maybe not). In the Processional Gospel, as it was read from the English Standard Version, either at the beginning or end of their chant, both halves of the crowd use the word “Hosanna!”, originally a Hebrew word that most Bible versions leave un‑translated. Although not all Bible commentators agree, the word “Hosanna” arguably means “Save us now!”, and by Jesus’s time the word “Hosanna” apparently had become a sort of technical term used in the liturgy of the people, used as in the Processional Gospel from Psalm 118 (vv.25-26), used especially in processions going up to feasts such as Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, when leafy branches also would have been used. In parallel and synonymous expressions, both halves of the liturgically worshipping crowd were calling for salvation—one for salvation from Jesus, the other for salvation in the form of His Kingdom, but both for salvation from the greatest trouble they faced, that is, from their sins.
Whether or not you and I always realize and remember, the greatest trouble we by nature face also is from our sins. By nature we all are sinful from the moment of our conception, and for that original sin we deserve death here in time and punishment in hell for eternity. Even if we could set aside that original sin, we all commit countless actual sins, some arguably greater or lesser than others, but for any one of which we also deserve death in time and punishment in hell for eternity. Disobeying our parents or other authorities, not helping others in their physical needs or otherwise not honoring God’s gift of life, not living sexually pure and decent lives in what we say and do or not honoring our spouse if we have one, not helping others improve and protect their possessions and income, not speaking well of others, not being content with what we have—all such sins have the potential of keeping us apart from God for eternity, being tormented in hell. Unless, we heed God’s call to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sins, to trust Him to forgive our sins for Jesus’s sake, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning.
What the people who went before and those who followed Jesus to Jerusalem did and said showed their repentance and faith in Him: their spreading their cloaks on the road showed their submission to Him, and their calling out to Him for salvation confessed Him as the Messiah, the Christ. God had providentially provided a colt for Jesus to ride and so to fulfill the prophecy of today’s Old Testament Reading (Zechariah 9:9-12), about the people’s King coming, righteous andhaving salvation, humble and mounted on a colt. More importantly, God had providentially provided the King, as described in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 2:5-11), Who was in the form of God, but Who took the form of a servant, and Who humbled Himself to the point of death, even the shameful death on a cross. Those of us coming to our Midweek Lenten Vespers services have been reflecting on our Lord’s cross and Passion, we heard parts of it read again this morning, and we will hear more of it read as this Holy Week goes on. In every Reading, note well that all that Jesus ever did, does, and ever will do—from His birth to His return—is for us, in order to save us from our sins. As we re‑enact what the people of Jesus’s day did and said, we likewise subject ourselves to Him in repentance and confess our faith in Him unto forgiveness and so unto salvation.
For our forgiveness and so salvation, that Palm Sunday God providentially provided a colt, tied at a door outside in the street, for Jesus to ride, and He also commanded His disciples to do their parts: going, untying, bringing, saying. Later that week, as we heard in the Passion Gospel Reading, God again providentially provided, but that time a large upper room, furnished and ready for Jesus to eat the Passover with His disciples, and again His disciples had their parts: going, following a man with water, saying, and preparing (Mark 14:12-16). For our forgiveness and so salvation, here today God providentially provides Jesus present to save us: present not on a colt once tied at a door outside in the street, but present in bread and wine that are His Body and Blood, behind closed doors, to save us, us who are baptized with water and the Word, who sing “Hosanna!”, and whose part is “doing this”, for our forgiveness and so salvation.
Today’s Collect of the Day asks God to “Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of [Jesus’s] great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection”—all appropriate enough. However, we dare not think that Jesus is only an example or that by our following His example we somehow merit our partaking of His resurrection. More likely, even we who believe realize that we continue to fail to follow Jesus’s example, and we may doubt that, even with Jesus’s merit, we will partake of His resurrection to eternal life. So, even with limited understanding, we continue to do and say what the Christian Church does and says. We pray the simple prayer “Hosanna!”, and He answers with salvation. No matter how tired we are, we call out to Him “Hosanna!”, and He is present here. No matter how discouraged we are, we call out to Him “Hosanna!”, and we receive Him here. No matter how many times we have sinned, we call out to Him “Hosanna!”, and, He forgives all who repent and believe. Thus, not just Palm Sunday but every Sunday there is the Divine Service: God giving us salvation in the historic Christian liturgy of His Church.
Today we all were part of a Palm Sunday Procession with Palms. We recalled the event that led to our salvation, but, more than that, we liturgically received that salvation, as we called “Hosanna!”, and as He was present to save us. Rejoice greatly and shout aloud! Because of the blood of His covenant with us, we prisoners of hope have been set free by Him—the Lord Jesus Christ, Who now is exalted and bears the Name that is above every name, at Whose Name every knee should bow (and at the last day will bow), in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord, and blessed is the coming Kingdom of our father David!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +