Sixth Sunday in Lent Palm Sunday
March 24, 2013
Dear friends in Christ.
Imagine with me, for a moment, what it must have
been like to be one of Jesus’ disciples.
Imagine what it must have been like to have Jesus come to you and
personally call you to follow him; personally choosing you as a disciple. For the past 2 ½ - 3 years you’ve been
following him, listening to him preach and teach, watching him as he performed
miraculous signs and wonders, being amazed as he drove out demons and brought
the dead back to life. For the past 2 ½
- 3 years you’ve been learning from him as he’s taught you about the kingdom of
heaven and about himself, the Son of God—the Messiah for whom you had been
waiting all your life. Every day that
you followed him you learned more and more about the kingdom of heaven. Every day that you followed him you grew
stronger and stronger in your faith.
Every day that you followed him you were prepared all the better to take
the message of salvation to those who needed to hear it the most. Then, suddenly, Jesus pairs you up with a
partner and the two of you go out preaching and teaching the message about
Jesus in the towns and villages where he was about to go. You are given the authority to heal the sick
and drive out demons. You taste the
success of sharing the message of salvation with your fellow countrymen, and
you can’t wait to come back and tell Jesus all the experiences that you’ve had
preaching and teaching in his name.
But lately something has been different. Jesus has been traveling more and more as of
late, and it is clear that he is making his way back to Jerusalem. Even though the Chief Priests and the
teachers of the Law have made it their mission to do away with Jesus, it is
clear that you will make it back to Jerusalem for the Passover. On Friday, you passed through Jericho, where
Jesus suddenly stopped to tell a man named Zacchaeus that he had to stay and
Zacchaeus’ house that day. On Saturday
you celebrated the Sabbath with your Savior, and later that evening you were
part of a banquet given in Jesus’ honor.
It was a banquet at the house of Simon the Leper. It was a banquet that Lazarus was at, the
same Lazarus whom you had seen raised from the dead by Jesus. It was a banquet that Martha served, and it
was a banquet where Mary brought a bottle of expensive perfume and used it to
anoint Jesus’ head and feet, drying her feet with her hair. Though you grew indignant with Judas who
thought that it was such a waste, you quickly changed your thoughts as Jesus’
rebuke echoed through the room, ““Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was
intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.” (John
12:7, NIV84)
On Sunday, you were part of the great procession of
people traveling from Bethany to Jerusalem for the upcoming Passover. As you approached Bethphage, you were one of
the two disciples to whom Jesus turned and said, “Go to the village ahead of
you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has
ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you
untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’ (Luke 19:30-31, NIV84) When you went, you found everything just as
Jesus had described it. You said what he
told you to say, and they let you take the animals with you. When you came back to Jesus, you placed your
cloak on the donkey for Jesus to sit on and you went along with him, amazed by
the celebration of the crowds with you.
Amazed at the people taking off their cloaks and laying them and palm
branches in the road for him to ride over.
Amazed at the people shouting out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” Amazed as you suddenly began to remember the
words of the Prophet Zechariah “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout,
Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having
salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a
donkey." (Zechariah 9:9, NIV84)
On Monday, you were with Jesus when he went to look
for fruit on a fig tree, found none and cursed it. You were with Jesus as he entered the temple
area “and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He
overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling
doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple
courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: “‘My house will
be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of
robbers.’” (Mark 11:15–17, NIV84)
Now it was Tuesday, and you saw the tree that Jesus
had cursed, the tree that had shriveled because Jesus had simply said, “May you
never bear fruit again.” It was Tuesday
and you had been in the temple with Jesus all day. You heard him teaching and preaching to the
people there. You heard him answer all
the questions and challenges that the religious leaders brought to him either
directly or indirectly. You heard Jesus
delivering warnings against the Scribes and proclaiming woes upon the
Pharisees, look directly at them and say, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill
the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather
your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you
were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell
you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord.’”" (Matthew 23:37–39, NIV84)
You went with him as he left the temple one last
time, when suddenly Andrew and Philip came to Jesus and told him about some
Greeks who were asking for the opportunity to meet with Jesus, see him and
learn from him. To which Jesus replied,
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 I tell you the truth,
unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single
seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 The man who loves his life
will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for
eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant
also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. 27 “Now my heart is
troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was
for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” Then a
voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29
The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an
angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not
mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this
world will be driven out. 32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going
to die." (John 12:23–33, NIV84)
How many times hadn’t you heard Jesus speak about
his coming sufferings and death? How
many times hadn’t you heard him talk about it and not wanted to believe
it? How many times hadn’t you heard him
talk about his impending sufferings only to hear him say, that the hour was not
yet upon him? But now, this time, Jesus
says that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified!
Though you did not know it, the hour of his glory
was closer at hand than you would have realized. Yet, if we take a moment to look at it we can
see how Jesus was indeed glorified throughout his life, even as he humbled
himself to keep God’s Law for us. Yet,
now, as Jesus speaks, he is looking forward to the glory of his suffering, the
glory of his crucifixion, the glory, even of his death. Though for us these may not seem like very
glorious events, each one of these events meant that Jesus was fulfilling God’s
plan of our salvation and bringing an end to satan’s power over us. This was the glory that Jesus revealed in the
Garden of Gethsemane as he clearly showed the soldiers that he was the one in
charge. This was the glory that Jesus
revealed in his trials as he answered very few questions moving the trials
along so that he would be found guilty and be put to death. This is the glory that Jesus revealed before
Pilate as it became very clear to him that Jesus had done nothing deserving of
death. This is the glory that Jesus
revealed on the cross as he prayed for those who crucified him, as he fulfilled
the scriptures, as he cried out for all the world to hear, “It is finished!”,
and as he willingly bowed his head and gave up his life.
This is the glory that Jesus revealed in his
resurrection from the dead to assure us that we have been set free from all our
sins. This is the glory that Jesus
revealed to the women on Easter morning, to the disciples locked together in
their room, to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and to all those to whom he
revealed himself in those 40 days after his resurrection. This is also the glory that the Lord
continues to reveal each time his word is proclaimed. For whenever the word of God is taught and we
are convicted of our sins and moved to turn to our Savior for forgiveness,
Jesus is glorified. Whenever the Word is
taught and people are called to faith in Jesus as Savior, Jesus is
glorified. Whenever we share our faith
with those around us and tell others about the confidence that we have, our
Savior is glorified. Even today, as our
children brought palm branches to the front of our church and laid them on the
altar, Jesus, our Savior was glorified.
Though Jesus did willingly humble himself for us so
that he might live in our place and keep God’s law perfectly for us, by his
death and resurrection, he has indeed been glorified forever. Let us give thanks to the Lord our Savior by
growing in our faith through worship and the Word. Though we must leave this joyful day and walk
through the dark and sorrowful days of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we do
so, looking forward to the joy of Easter.
We do so, knowing that through everything our Savior did for us, the
hour has truly come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace EvangelicalLutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
