+ + + 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.)
Large crowds, thronging the thoroughfares of a capital city, chanting responsively as they go: news reports of yesterday’s “No Kings” protests all over the world in some ways compare and contrast with today’s Processional Gospel’s report of Jesus’s entering Jerusalem as the King of Israel. For example, the modern protestors want to “Dump Trump”, and the past Passover‑pilgrims similarly wanted to get out from under Roman rule. The modern protestors have an opportunity to change the president peacefully in about three years, while the past Passover‑pilgrims would have had to wage a war of rebellion violently, something that their ancestors had tried to do earlier and their descendants would try to do again later, both times largely unsuccessfully. The modern protestors claim to be a grass‑roots movement, though a report out yesterday suggests that the protests are a highly‑coordinated and well‑funded effort of about 500 groups, including socialist and communist groups calling for a rebellion (Fox News), but the past Passover‑Pilgrims arguably were brought together by God. What if anything the modern protestors might get remains to be seen, while at least some of the “Hosanna!”, that is, “Save us!”, chanting Passover‑pilgrims ultimately got the salvation for which they were crying out, even if they did not get that salvation quite the way that they might have expected. Regardless of our opinions about the modern protestors, as we join the past Passover‑pilgrims in crying out “Hosanna! Save us!” we also ultimately are saved.
Some of those past Passover‑pilgrims had been with Jesus when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, which we heard about in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading (John 11:1-53). Others apparently had heard about that miraculous sign and gone out from Jerusalem to Bethany the previous day in order to see both Jesus and Lazarus (John 12:9), and still others, who heard that Jesus had done that miraculous sign, went out from Jerusalem to meet Jesus as He was coming to Jerusalem. Whichever group they were in, since they cried out to Him “Hosanna! Save us!”, they arguably knew in some sense both that they were in need of salvation and that Jesus was the One Who could save them. Long before, their ancestors had thrown off God as their King and wanted and received human kings like all the other nations had (Deuteronomy 17:14-20; 1 Samuel 8:1‑22). Not surprisingly, like the people, those kings were unfaithful, and the people and the rulers suffered under other nations that God permitted to afflict them.
While we do not know the full extent to which God will permit other nations to afflict us in our country today, we certainly know that we are just as sinful by nature as both the past Passover‑pilgrims and the modern protestors, and so we are just as deserving of affliction, including death here and now and eternal torment in hell. Our sinful nature leads us to commit all kinds of actual sin, including sometimes in other ways wrongfully resisting the governing authorities that God has instituted, and so wrongfully resisting God, and so incurring judgment (Romans 13:1-2). We may cry out to Jesus more for our salvation from other things that we experience—such as social, family, or physical struggles—and we may cry out to Jesus less for our salvation from our sin, which salvation from our sin is what we need the most! Apart from God’s Word, we would not even realize just how sinful and in need of salvation from our sin that we are! But, the Holy Spirit through the preaching of God’s law shows us our sin and through the preaching of God’s Gospel shows us our Savior from sin, leading and enabling us to turn from our sin and to trust God the Father to forgive us our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus, the Christ.
As we heard in today’s Processional Gospel, in addition to crying out to Jesus “Hosanna! Save us!”, the Passover pilgrims recognized that Jesus came in the Name of the Lord—as the long‑promised “Messiah”, or “Christ”, or “Savior”—and they called Him the King of Israel. Fulfilling prophecy from Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9), Jesus sat on a donkey and came peacefully as Zion’s King, taking away their fear (confer Zephaniah 3:14-15). Much of the Jewish leadership clearly rejected Jesus as their spiritual King, and they turned Him over to the Romans on political charges (Luke 23:2), telling their Roman governor that they had no king but Caesar (John 19:15), and organizing and perhaps even paying protestors to cry out for Jesus’s crucifixion (Matthew 27:20). But, Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, out of God’s great love, suffered for us, as our substitute, what we deserved. As we heard prophesied in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 50:4-9a), Jesus gave His back to those who strike and did not hide His face from disgrace and spitting. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 2:5-11), Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, therefore God has exalted Him, including raising Him from the dead. As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading (John 12:20‑43), when Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cross, He drew all people to Himself, enabling and answering our calling out to Him “Hosanna! Save us!” When we repent, then God forgives us. God forgives our sinful nature and all our actual sin, our sinfully resisting His governing authorities, or whatever our sin might be. God forgives us, for Jesus’s sake, through His Word and Sacraments.
In today’s Processional Gospel, we heard that Jesus’s disciples at first did not understand what had happened, but, after Jesus was glorified in His crucifixion, then the Holy Spirit reminded them what Had been written about Jesus and everyone had done to Him (confer John 2:22). Likewise for us, the Holy Spirit uses God’s Word read and preached to groups such as this group, and the Holy Spirit uses God’s Gospel applied to us individually with water in Holy Baptism, with a pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Supper. “Hosanna! Save us!” in today’s Psalm (Psalm 118:19‑29; antiphon: v.26) was a part of the Old Testament Jewish Passover liturgy and naturally early-on became a part of the New Testament Christian Eucharistic liturgy. We cry out “Hosanna! Save us!” in the Sanctus, and then Jesus is present on this Altar, distributed by me, and received by you for the forgiveness of sins, and so also for life and the very salvation for which we cried.
In today’s Processional Gospel, we heard the Jewish leaders say that the world had gone after Jesus, and, in today’s Gospel Reading, which immediately follows in St. John’s Gospel account, we heard that some Greeks wished to see Jesus. The Jewish leaders nevertheless exaggerated, and we know that, even though God would like for the whole world to go after Jesus, the whole world will not go after Jesus, as we also heard in today’s Gospel Reading. Still, as the crowd that had been with Jesus when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised Him from the dead continued to bear witness, so we continue to confess: who we are as sinners, Who Jesus is as our Savior, and how He gives us the benefits of His death for us in His Means of Grace and so gives us peace and joy already here and now. And so God adds to His Church!
Jesus’s Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), but, as He worked through the Romans to advance His Kingdom, so even now Jesus can work through our secular government, whatever we might think about it, as He rules over all for the good of His Church (Ephesians 1:22-23). After our deaths or His coming in glory, whichever comes first, we who repent will be clothed in white robes, with palm branches in our hands, and cry out, not “Hosanna! Save us!”, requesting salvation, but, having received salvation, we will cry out “Salvation belongs to our God Who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:10).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
