Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + 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. (Amen.)
University of Connecticut fans will celebrate last Sunday’s college women’s basketball national championship with a parade and rally starting at the state capitol in Hartford this afternoon; University of Florida fans already celebrated last Monday’s college men’s basketball national championship with a rally on campus on Tuesday. We may be familiar with such parades and rallies after a team’s title-game victory—such as after the World Series, Super Bowl, N‑B‑A Championship, and Stanley Cup. We may be so familiar with such parades and rallies whether or not we have ever attended such a parade or rally. We may be more familiar with the “meeting” of today’s Processional Gospel, especially as we to some extent imitate the meeting each year with our own Procession with Palms. Of course, at the time of that “meeting”, Jesus had not yet won the victory over sin and death for us; He was only on His way to win that victory. Yet, people must have at least sensed that He would win that victory. As we heard in the Processional Gospel, the crowd that had been with Jesus when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and so raised him from the dead was bearing witness, and thus the large crowd that had come to the Passover Feast that year heard that Jesus had done that sign. And so, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, crying out “Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” The Jewish leaders said “the world” had gone out after Jesus, and, indeed, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, among those who went up to worship at the Feast were some Greeks, who, whether or not they went “to meet” Jesus in the procession, later came to one of Jesus’s disciples and began to, or repeatedly, asked him “to see” Jesus.
As Greeks, they certainly were not ethnic Jews, though they apparently were religious Jews, to at least some extent, since they had gone up to worship at the Feast. We are not told why they wished “to see” Jesus, although they are usually thought to have become believers (compare Luke 8:20; 23:8). We also are not told whether or not they did see Jesus, although they are often thought to have been present, as Jesus used the occasion of their coming to see Him in order to talk about His death and the fruit that His death would bear, at least with some people (TLSB, ad loc John 12:20-26, p.1806). Jesus may have been suggesting that “to see” Him is to look at Him “lifted‑up” on the cross, and the Greeks may simply have faded into the background of St. John’s Divinely‑inspired narrative, as Nicodemus had faded into the background chapters earlier, when Jesus first mentioned His being “lifted‑up”, so that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life (John 3:14).
As I was studying today’s Gospel Reading in preparing to preach about it this morning, the Greeks’ wishing to see Jesus made me think of visitors who come through the doors of our Sanctuary (as they have this morning). As Jesus seems to have been glad that the Greeks had come, so also we are always glad that visitors have come! Sometimes we know little about them, and sometimes we know more about them (as we do this morning). At a minimum, we always know that they are sinful by nature, as we are sinful by nature, and so we all deserve temporal and eternal punishment, apart from God’s leading us to be sorry for our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep sinning. By nature our wills are turned against God, and, even after God brings us to repent, our sinful nature continues to resist God at least to some extent. God certainly wants all people to be saved; as we heard, Jesus taught and did many signs, but, nevertheless, some people did not then—and some people do not today—believe in Him. Those who do not repent resist God (Formula of Concord Solid Declaration XI:78), and they can resist God so much that, like the pharaoh at the time of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, God hardens them in their resistance, or, in the words of today’s Gospel Reading, as it quotes from what God told Isaiah, He blinds their eyes so that they do not see, do not turn in repentance, and are not healed (Isaiah 6:10). When we do see and do turn in repentance, then we are healed.
Like the large crowd in Jesus’s pre‑victory parade, as it were, we cry out “Hosanna”, Hebrew essentially for “save us”. By doing so, we confess that we are in need of salvation, and we confess that Jesus is able to save us. He is the One Who comes in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel, the long‑promised Messiah, the Christ, the Savior, the Son of God in human flesh. Through Isaiah God prophesied that Jesus would be lifted up (Isaiah 52:13). Jesus told Nicodemus that Jesus’s lifting up was Divinely necessary (John 3:14). Jesus told the Jews that they would lift Him up (John 8:28). And, in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus said that, when He was lifted up, He would draw all people to Himself, including each one of us. Out of God’s great love even for fallen humanity—including each one of us—Jesus died on the cross, for us, in our place. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 2:5-11), Jesus so humbled Himself, and then He was exalted: descending into hell to declare victory, rising on the third day, ascending into heaven, and sitting on the right hand of the Father. Whether we say that the Father draws (John 6:44), the Son draws, or the Holy Spirit draws, God alone draws us to Him and then forgives us. God draws us and also forgives us through His Means of Grace, His Word and His Sacraments.
As the Jews and others should have seen Jesus in His Word and miraculous signs, we do see Him there with our God‑given eyes of faith. We see Jesus in His Word read and preached to groups such as this group. And, we see Jesus most-concretely as His Gospel is applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread that is His Body given for us and wine that is His Blood shed for us in the Holy Supper. His Word and these miraculous signs create and to sustain our faith (John 2:11; 20:30-31), and thus through them we receive forgiveness of sins and so also life and salvation. With our human eyes we may see only a few people so drawn to Jesus at this time and in this place, but with our eyes of faith we see countless believers of all times and of all places—not just Greeks but people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages (Revelation 7:9).
What our human eyes see can lead us to be frustrated, as Isaiah seemed to be frustrated, as quoted in today’s Gospel Reading, asking, “Who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1; confer Romans 10:6). We invite others saying, “Come and see” (John 1:39, 46), and they may or may not come and see. We may question our congregation’s teaching, practice, or priorities; or, we may question our own faith. When all of those are correct, then God calls us to repent of our doubts and of all our other failures. And, when we repent, then God freely forgives us for Jesus’s sake. As we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading, none can deliver out of God’s hand (Deuteronomy 32:36-39; confer John 10:29). We can rest in His peace and joy! In the Gospel Reading, Jesus promised that where He is, there His servants will be also (confer John 14:3; 17:24), and we know from elsewhere in Holy Scripture that, unless He comes in glory before we die, where we will be together is at first in heaven and then on a new or restored earth. On the Last Day, even though it will be too late for many, as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
The Greek’s request “to see” Jesus is sometimes carved or engraved or printed in pulpits in order to remind the preachers that the preachers are there in order for those assembled “to see” Jesus. Sometimes those preachers may mention things such as college basketball and other victory parades in order to help those assembled “to see” Jesus. In our own way today we have both repeated the first Palm Sunday’s pre‑victory parade and rehearsed the Last Day’s post‑victory parade, when those already with the Lord will come with Him and those alive on earth will go out to meet them and all together will return to earth (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Clothed in white robes, with palm branches in our hands, we will cry with a loud voice then as now, “Salvation belongs to our God Who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +