+ + + 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.
People are not supposed to judge books by their covers, but people nevertheless do judge books by their covers. People also judge other people by such things as the jobs they have, the clothes they wear, and the cars they drive. (I am somewhat surprised at what people supposedly think about men who drive little red sports cars!) If someone pulled up in a police car, a fire truck, or an ambulance, we might safely assume that the people getting out were, respectively, a police officer, a firefighter, and a medic. On what we call “Palm Sunday”, the Lord Jesus apparently intended for people to judge Him by His “ride”, and, at least to some extent (compare John 12:16) the whole multitude of His disciples did so correctly judge Him. As we heard in this year’s Processional Gospel Reading, they acclaimed Him “the King Who comes in the Name of the Lord”, and they declared, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” This morning we reflect on that Processional Gospel Reading under the theme “The Lord’s King humbly brings peace”.
In some ways today’s Processional Gospel Reading is the climax of Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem, which journey St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account began narrating some ten chapters earlier (Luke 9:51). Along the way, Jesus had taught many things—most recently, St. Luke had recorded Jesus’s teaching the so-called “Parable of the Ten Minas”, because they were near to Jerusalem and the people supposed that the Kingdom of God was to appear immediately (Luke 19:11‑27). Along the way, Jesus also had done many mighty works—St. Luke records six, most recently, Jesus’s healing a blind beggar outside of Jericho (Luke 18:35-43). Finally, when Jesus was between Bethany and Bethphage, He, Who apparently almost always walked everywhere, suddenly made a big deal about riding a previously‑unridden colt of a donkey (Matthew 21:2), which because the colt was previously-unridden would be suitable for holy and royal use (Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3; 1 Samuel 6:7). Although St. Luke does not refer to any specific prophecy, by such a “ride”, Jesus showed Himself to be the Descendant of Judah (Genesis 49:11), King David’s Son (1 Kings 1:33,44), and the Lord’s promised King Who would humbly bring peace (Zechariah 9:9-10). Showing the honor due such a King, Jesus’s disciples set Him upon the colt, and He rode along. Bethphage was visible from Jerusalem, so people there could see Him riding to the Holy and Royal City, descending the Mount of Olives, which mountain the Old Testament associated with the Coming King (Zechariah 14:4; Ezekiel 11:23). As Jesus had prophesied earlier in St. Luke’s Gospel account (Luke 13:31-35), the whole multitude of His rejoicing disciples praised God acclaiming and receiving Jesus as the Lord’s King humbly bringing peace. Some Pharisees in their midst wanted Jesus to silence His disciples, but Jesus said that if the disciples were quiet, the very stones would cry out.
More than two dozen defendants are making their way through the court system in connection with that 41-day siege of a remote Oregon wildlife refuge earlier this year. As of this past week, some defendants are also charged in connection with an armed standoff in Nevada two years ago. Prosecutors are trying to keep at least several of them in jail, arguing that the defendants are an ongoing threat to law enforcement. In our time, people seem increasingly unwilling to honor and submit to the government, although no one ever should if asked to disobey God (Acts 4:19; 5:29), not that that was the case in Oregon or Nevada. In today’s Processional Gospel Reading, the disciples spread their cloaks on the road in front of Jesus as He rode on the colt, similar to how the people of Israel many years earlier had honored and symbolized their submission to Jehu, when he was anointed king over Israel (2 Kings 9:13). Do you and I honor and submit to our government? More broadly, do we honor and submit to the Lord as our King? Do we, as St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading encourages us to (Philippians 2:5-11), have Jesus’s humility in our minds, counting others more significant than ourselves, and looking not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others? Do we bring peace and are we at peace with all people? We sin in these and countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature, and, apart from faith in Jesus Christ, we deserve nothing but death here in time and torment in hell for eternity.
However, the Holy Spirit leads us to be sorry for both our sinful nature and our actual sin, and the Holy Spirit leads us to trust God the Father to forgive our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. As today’s Old Testament Reading put it (Deuteronomy 32:36-39), the Lord kills and makes alive. The throng accompanying Jesus to Jerusalem for the Passover with a loud voice sang to Jesus verses from Psalm 118, including, as the other Gospel writers tell us, the Hebrew word “Hosanna!”, a plea for salvation (Psalm 118:25; Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9-10; John 12:13). St. Luke may not have used that term because his original Gentile readers may not have understood it, but we do understand, and so, with repentance and faith, we call out to Jesus, “Hosanna!”, “Save us, we pray, O Lord!” And, the Lord God truly does save us, for the sake Jesus Christ.
Although he does not record the crowd’s saying “Hosanna”, St. Luke does record the crowd’s praising God by saying “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest”. Our sin puts us at war with God, but the Lord’s King humbly brings peace (confer Acts 10:36), and that peace glorifies God. At Jesus’s birth, a multitude of the heavenly host praised God saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace” (Luke 2:14). The peace between heaven and earth that glorifies God comes about from Jesus’s death that reconciles us to God (Romans 5:1). Jesus is no ordinary man but God in human flesh, Who could so prophecy and fulfill the provision of His “ride” into Jerusalem. Yet, Jesus did not always or fully use His powers as God but humbled Himself even to death on the cross, for you and for me. Our modern examples of rulers may not lead us to think of a humble King Who serves His people by giving up His life, but that is just what Jesus did, as we heard in the extended Gospel Reading (Luke 23:1-56). He Who rode a colt, on which no one had ever sat, also was laid in a tomb, where no one had ever yet been laid (Luke 23:53). But, He did not stay there; as even Psalm 118 anticipated (Psalm 118:17-18), Jesus rose from the dead. Then, He sent out His apostles and their successors that we might receive the benefits of His death for us.
Jesus’s sending two disciples to “untie”. or “loosen”, the colt certainly can point us forward to His sending the twelve to “loosen”, or “forgive”, repentant believers’ sins. God forgives our sins in Holy Baptism, where, with water and the Word, the Triune God puts His Name on us and drowns and kills our sinful nature and makes alive our redeemed nature. God forgives our sins in individual Holy Absolution, which is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself. And, God forgives our sins in the Sacrament of the Altar, where the Body of Christ in, with, and under the bread and the Blood of Christ in, with, and under the wine strengthen and preserve us, in body and soul, to life everlasting. The institution of the Sacrament of the Altar was so important to the Lord Jesus that He prophesies and fulfills the provision for it, as for the colt (Luke 22:10-13). Here we acclaim and receive the King Who comes in the Name of the Lord. Here heaven and earth come together, and we depart in peace.
We prayed in the Collect of the Day “that we may follow the example” of Jesus’s “great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection”. We should be clear that our following Jesus’s example of humility and patience, to whatever extent we might do so, is not what makes us partakers of His resurrection. The Lord’s King humbly brings us peace. He has done it all; we receive His peace by grace through faith in Him. As we correctly judge Him by His “ride”, daily repenting and believing, we confidently endure until, on the Last Day, God vindicates us and we share with Jesus in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +