This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In our sermon today, I’d like us to meditate on the history of this event firstly, but then also on the kingdom of Christ, and how he is enthroned and crowned as the king of the Jews and of the Gentiles.
We read first of all: The next day the large crowd that has come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. Here we read that the crowd was coming to the feast. The feast that the text is talking about is the Passover, because during the week that was coming up ahead, the Jewish people would celebrate the Passover.
We read: So 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!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
Now, in the other Gospels we read that Jesus was coming down the Mount of Olives, and approached the towns of Bethany and Bethphage that were nearby. And he sends his disciples into Bethphage, and tells them: Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. You can see that Jesus doesn’t go and get the animals himself, but sends his disciples to get them. This is very important, because Jesus actually tells them in advance how everything is going to be. We read that Jesus says to them: If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once. In Mark and Luke, we read that this happened exactly like this. The owners weren’t expecting this, Jesus hadn’t arranged it with them previously. And so they did ask them: Why are you untying the colt? And they said: The Lord has need of it.
Another thing that we read about in the Gospels about this donkey, from Mark, is that this is a donkey on which no one has ever sat. It hasn’t been tamed or ridden in yet. It’s not an experienced and trained donkey. And so we see here a number of wonderful things, and the way in which Jesus arranges all of this, and tells his disciples, and it happens just as he says it will. He knows where the donkey is, he knows where it is tied up, he tells them what to say when someone comes along and asks them about it. In actual fact, someone does ask them about it, and then allows them to take it without any fuss or difficulty. And in fact, Jesus has no need for someone to tame the donkey first, because he is the Lord of all creation, and the creator of the donkey, and he knows how to put the donkey at ease, without it being frightened or upset. Right at the beginning of the Bible, we read where God says to the humans he has created: Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Here we see Jesus—who is both God and a true man—take his dominion over this donkey, as a creature of God’s good creation.
As Jesus was coming down from the Mount of Olives, and when this donkey was brought to him, the people were gathering around him and going ahead and behind him, spreading their cloaks on the road, and waving all kinds of branches and palm branches. We read in Luke: As he was drawing near—already on the way down from the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen. This would have been quite a long procession—a good couple of kilometres—from Bethphage near the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem.
We read that the crowd on this day was crying out: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. In Matthew’s Gospel, it says: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Mark writes: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest! In Luke, it says: Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!
We see these words, particularly: Hosanna! And Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! These two things comes from Psalm 118. “Hosanna” means “Save us”. All these things that the crowds were shouting and crying out were all words which were welcoming Jesus as their king, as their Messiah. He was the one anointed by God, which had happened at his Baptism, where he was anointed by the Holy Spirit. He was to rule the Jewish people and the Gentiles as their king.
Even today, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, every Sunday, we sing these words, as part of the song, called the Holy, Holy, Holy, or in Latin, it is called the Sanctus. The first part of this song, is from Isaiah’s vision, where he sees the Lord seated upon this throne, high and lifted up. In John’s Gospel, we read that Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it… John clearly says that Isaiah in his vision, where the angels were singing the words, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts”, saw the Lord Jesus Christ, in his divinity, before he entered the world in the womb of Virgin Mary and took on human flesh. So in the Lord’s Supper, we welcome Jesus as our God, when we call him the Lord of hosts, the same Lord of hosts that Isaiah saw. And then, in the second part of the song, we say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! Here we welcome Jesus as our Messiah, as our King, as the anointed Son of David, into our midst, into our little Zion, into our little Jerusalem gathered here today, just as the people did on Palm Sunday, welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem with palm branches, placing their clothes on the road, because they recognised the great holiness of Jesus, not wanting even the donkey’s feet to touch the road!
It's a wonderful custom that the church from ancient times has handed down to us over the centuries to sing this song, the “Holy, holy, holy”. If only today, we caught the slightest little glimpse of it.
So, we also read that all of the things that were happening on Palm Sunday took place because it was prophesied in advance. John writes: As it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt. In Matthew, it says: Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. It would be a wonderful thing to go through this prophesy and really study and learn it, but we might leave it for today, and come back to it next year, or on another occasion.
Now, I’d like to think for a moment on the fact that Jesus is our king, and that the people here welcome him as their king, and what that means for us. You know, of course, that Jesus, when he teaches his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, gives them the words: Your kingdom come. Now, in the Small Catechism, Luther explains this very well, when he says:
What does this mean? The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.
If we think about Palm Sunday, we see the crowds welcoming Jesus, but even if there were no crowds, Jesus would see still be the king, and he would still be there. The occasion is about the king, not about the people in the kingdom. Still, however, it is important that we do welcome Jesus as our king, just as the crowd really did. He is our Saviour, so we say “Hosanna”! And He is also our Lord and our King, and so we say “Blessed is He, or Blessed is the King, who comes in the name of the Lord!”
In the Small Catechism, we read further
How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.
This is a wonderful simple explanation. We see from here that the kingdom of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of Jesus, is a kingdom of the Holy Spirit. Now, it is very important for us to realise that without the Holy Spirit, there is no kingdom of God, and the church—whatever it calls itself and whatever it looks like—would be completely dead. It would be like the Valley of Dry Bones that the prophet Ezekiel writes about. However, we were all born into the world like this: dead in our trespasses and sins, and completely unable to fear, love and trust in God, and full of all kinds of evil and sinful thoughts and inclinations. And so, if we are to be converted to the Christian faith, we need the Holy Spirit to come and enter into us, and change our wills, to change our hearts, to give us a completely new heart, and new mind, so that we may believe the Gospel. And the Holy Spirit does this through the Word and the Sacraments: He works in people through the powerful of Word of God, he brings people into his Kingdom through Baptism, and feeds and sustains us through the Lord’s Supper. We also confess in the Small Catechism:
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.
So, as we gather together as Christians, in God’s kingdom, as people who have been renewed by the Holy Spirit, through the Word and the Sacraments, we come to Him, calling upon Him to convert people, to change people, to keep on changing us, to enlighten people with His gifts, to sanctify people, and keep people in the true faith. So this is what we’re talking about when we pray: Your kingdom come, in the Lord’s Prayer. We’re not building Jesus his kingdom ourselves, but we rely in everything totally and in every way and in every aspect for the Holy Spirit to build and establish his kingdom among us.
Now, one thing I’d like to mention is that there are many Christians today who are waiting for a kind of kingdom of Jesus, but it’s built on shaky foundations. And many Christians today are thinking about the end of the world, and many people are becoming interested in the Christian faith, because they are looking around at the world and wondering if there’s some great evil afoot, and what can be done about it. And so, I’ve heard in the last couple of years many people asking questions about whether this thing is the mark of the beast, or whether this war is prophesied in the Scriptures, and all kinds of things like that. Now, there are many Christians that I meet today who believe that Jesus will return before the end of the world and establish a 1000 year reign upon this earth. This is called, the “Millenium”, and this teaching is called “Millenialism”. There have been a few prominent Christians who believed in Millenialism, the most famous being Irenaeus, who was a bishop in the French city of Lyon.
Now, in the early days of the Lutheran church in Australia, this was the main reason why there was a split between the two churches in 1846 that eventually became the ELCA and the UELCA, until they were united in 1966, 120 years later.
Now, in the 19th century, when Lutherans first came to this country, these were times when many Christians were interested in these matters about the end of the world. We call this subject, “Eschatology”, which means “words or things to do with the end”. And there were many sects that began during the 19th century, in the 1800s, that were heavily based on these matters, like the Seventh Day Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Many Lutherans, and all kinds of Christians were caught up with these things. Unfortunately, many Christians in the larger churches don’t teach or even talk about the last things, or eschatology, at all, and so the only people who do, tend to be the Pentecostals, or other groups like the Adventists, or Christadelphians, or the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And this is part of the reason why people are attracted to these groups. And then, because of the liberal, modern, false spirit that has pervaded many churches, they don’t even treat these matters as the Word of God, and easily dismiss them and discard them.
The main passage about this is in Revelation 20, verse 4, where it says: I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Now, it would be good to have some kind of special bible study on this some time, but you can see that the people who reign with Christ for a thousand years are the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus. This is a passage which speaks of the separation of the body and the soul. The people who reign with Christ are souls of the ones who have been killed, beheaded. So, if we are talking about people’s souls after they have died, we’re not talking about something that happens on this earth, but rather in heaven. Also, it doesn’t say that Christ will reign for a thousand years, but rather than these souls will reign with him for a thousand years. So, for example, I might say: I lived with my parents at home for 20 years. But that doesn’t tell you how long my parents lived in that house. It only tells you how long I lived with them. So, the souls of the beheaded reign with Jesus for 1000 years, but Jesus reigns forever and ever. It doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ reign, only about how long they reign with him. Now, there’s many more things that we could say about this, and about the book of Revelation, but we’ll have to leave it for another time.
I have met people, who say, though, that when we pray, “Your kingdom come”, we’re simply asking Jesus to bring on the millennium. And this is wrong, and it’s not true.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus enters into Jerusalem, and is crowned and receives a physical coronation on this earth. But it’s a completely different from what we expect. Our reading from Philippians today tells us about it, where it speaks about how Christ became obedient to death, even death on a cross, and then speaks about his ascension into heaven, where he is crowned in glory, in heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father.
So, on Palm Sunday, we commemorate the fact that Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and is welcomed as its king. And then, during this Holy Week, he receives his coronation, but it is done in mockery. We read: Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. You see here, they put the royal robe on him, the scarlet robe… and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head… You see here, they give him a king’s crown… and they put a reed in his right hand. You see here, they give him a royal sceptre. In Psalm 110 it says: The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty sceptre. Rule in the midst of your enemies! You can see Jesus with his mock-sceptre, ruling in the midst of his enemies, submitting to the mockery and laying down his life for the sheep. And then we read: And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. Here we see true words, with wrong motives and wrong intentions, but in actual fact, here they kneel before Jesus and hail him. We preach Christ crucified—a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
And so, this gives us a picture of the Kingdom of Jesus on this earth. The earthly coronation is true, but done in mockery. Just as the king is mocked, the kingdom is also mocked. Just as the shepherd is mocked, the sheep are mocked. And so, it is the Holy Spirit who empowers and strengthens the church and the kingdom of Jesus, but under the cross. When he ascends to heaven, the mockery is done away with, and he is completely vindicated with all joy. And we look forward now to that time when we enter into heaven at our death or when Jesus returns if we are still alive at that time, and also to that time at the end of the world when Christ will return to judge the living and the dead, and glorify and redeem our bodies so that we will be like him.
In the meantime,
we—his baptised people, his beloved faithful—welcome Jesus, our humble and gentle
king, and we continue to gather around him to hear, and believe and keep his
Word, and to partake of his holy feed, his body and blood given to us in the
Lord’s Supper. And we pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to lead us and
strengthen us, and renew us in the new person, the new self, the new man, until
that time when Jesus welcomes us into his presence and we see him with our own
eyes. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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