Download Luke 20:35 – 43 - Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran

Philippians 2:5 – 11
1 April, 2012
The Messiah rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, an animal of manual labor and servitude. From the crowd on both sides he received acclamation. They
shouted “Hosanna,” a word of praise from their ancient psalms, more specifically
from the group of Hallel psalms that celebrated Passover. (No coincidence.) Yet,
the crowd was literally crying out, “Save, I pray!” – )nf-(#$awOh, a plea for
deliver-ance.
Everything about that day meant to engrave the truth on people’s minds,
to remember afterwards what the Lord was accomplishing that week. You and I,
of course, did not witness this procession but each of the Gospels records it for us
so that we too may marvel at the sight: Jesus heading toward the cross to save us.
Or am I reading this wrong? Or am I getting ahead of myself? Is it for
the sake of convenience that the service today includes Jesus’ Passion from Mark
as a way to review what lies ahead, since we don’t have midweek Lenten services
and we gotta pack it all in this morning or skip it for some other time? “It’s Palm
Sunday – parade and praise! Truth triumphs and takes over the city; people embrace Jesus as Messiah! Leave the cross till Friday.” I have to admit, I get caught
up in the shouts of acceptance and the symbols of victory on Palm Sunday. (You
want Jesus to ride this wave right into heart of Jerusalem and up into heaven with
no rejection or suffering or death–those things remind us of our sin against God.)
But you can’t separate the cross from Christ, not for one moment. If you do, your
faith loses its grip on him and you’re left with an idol of your own making.
Take the cross out of the picture on Palm Sunday, and you don’t see the
truth in the donkey or in the Hosanna’s and your worship today is vain.
Why a donkey? Well, for one thing the prophet predicted that, and one
thing we know about Jesus’ life is he did not leave one Old Testament prophecy
unfulfilled, because then, if you can’t trust God to make and keep a promise, who
in the universe can you trust? But God never let that be an issue: “See, your king
comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zch 9:9). Why, though, choose a donkey over a
horse and chariot, the really regal wheels of ancient motorcades? Well, it showed
you were a different kind of king. Not one of war but of peace. Not an inaccessible lord of power but a humble leader of people, sitting not much higher than the
people standing around you in the procession.
But this humility went further, much further in God’s view. The Messiah on a donkey showed how Jesus saw himself, his earthly life: “Who, being in
very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in
human likeness” (Php 2:6, 7). The only reason the Son of God became human
was to humble himself, to put himself on our level as creatures – and that because
of you and me and what we are spiritually: sinful. To become human in and of itself is not a step down for the Lord, while it’s unnecessary for him to exist and to
create and sustain and rule all life; he’s still God with or without a soul and body.
But the Creator saw it necessary to become a creature, to live under his own rule
of perfection that guaranteed either heaven or hell based on the success or failure
to treasure/obey him, because only his life lived out as such could redeem ours.
The Holy Lord took on the nature of a humble servant so that his life too
could belong to God his Father and revere him as One without equal in heaven
above, on earth below, even as Jesus lived in this world, and thereby would give
God the praise his righteousness naturally deserves, his glory always beckons,
from those who are pure in spirit before God and one in mind with God.
Until our Savior, only the holy angels did that. But God didn’t create the
angels alone for that joy in fellowship and worship of God, but all people for it.
And on the day after the Sabbath before Passover people shouted at the
top of their lungs Hosanna! as their worship of the Christ, riding on a donkey.
How appropriate, even if the truth escaped their notice, that the Christ should be
heralded into the city of God’s sacred dwelling by the fervent prayer “Save us!”
For no one could approach God at his temple without the loss of life.
Imagine that. As Christians, we find it difficult to understand, because
we have never experienced the rituals and regulations of worship at the Jerusalem
temple as the Jews in long-ago history did: the white-robed priests, the animal
sacrifices, the stone walls – all there for not getting too close to the holy God. But
even for us as you read the Scriptures, the message God proclaimed at the temple
comes through loud and clear: I am here, I consecrate this soil as holy among you
solely at the price of death.
Because sin kills the life in the soul and sin’s presence in the soul cannot
share any room with the righteous God but is in fact extremely hostile to him, no
other way to deal with sin is possible, no other way for God to associate with sinners is possible, except for sin itself to die. Sin doesn’t go away eventually. Sin
can’t change on its own. Sin keeps on living and destroying whatever is of God,
until someone else stops its wicked heart from beating anymore in the soul. Essentially, all those animals slaughtered at the temple meant and offered nothing,
besides the truth that for things to be forever right between God and us someone
would have to lose their innocent life – a life that was not corrupted by sin and,
therefore, not already dead and under God’s moral judgment.
Here’s the conundrum: Who is that? God cannot die – impossible for the
ever-living Lord to be otherwise; we’re spiritually dead at birth, which catches up
in our bodies at some point, in some way, to cause physical death, too, that is all
just a prelude to eternal death. Where does that leave this desperate situation?!
Jesus. Jesus rode into Jerusalem with the cries of Hosanna ringing in his
ears. “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Php 2:8).
The Son of God, the Lord, became man to be servant and sacrifice. Jesus
approached the temple on Palm Sunday as the innocent Lamb to be slain on the
altar of God’s holiness, to atone our sin and offer his righteousness in our stead.
By taking on flesh and blood the Lord made reconciliation of the sinful world to
God reality, made himself our Savior thru whom we receive forgiveness and life.
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We celebrate Palm Sunday as the beginning of Holy Week, but really it
is the end – the fulfillment – of God’s prophecies that he would save us. The culmination of his eternal grace and holy will daily at work in this world to restore it
to its original perfection and bliss by reflecting his image, lost in our Fall, once
again in soul after soul. Or, to put it on a smaller and more personal scale, for us
no longer to be proud or defiant toward God but to be truly humble before him as
Redeemer by the way he comes first in every part of our life with an awareness
and conscientiousness that realizes you and I are the temple that bears his majestic name and serves as his sacred dwelling.
(Pride and disobedience lose their power and attraction for us when love
from God comes freely to us and remains faithful in spite of us. And that is God’s
love for us, because it has never depended on us but has always derived its power
and declared its goodness on account of Jesus as his Son and our Savior. In the
end, salvation even is not about you or me or anyone else – praise God we benefit
eternally from his grace! – but it’s about Jesus: the Lord loving with all his heart
and mind and strength and very life all the way to death on a cross.)
“Therefore God exalted [Jesus] to the highest place and gave him the
name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Php 2:9 – 11).
Names are identity associations. A name allows us to call to mind a person and make a mental connection between that person and what that person has
said and done. I say the apostle Paul. I say any of your names here this morning,
and facts from that name’s file type out across the screen of your memory. You
don’t consider yourself a total stranger who had no idea of that person’s existence
but to a greater or lesser degree you know that person by name. You have personal recognition.
The one person in all of world history God wants all people to recognize
by name is his Son Jesus. And to say his name not as an expletive or a joke but as
the object of faith, as the inspiration of devotion. Because during his earthly life
the highest height Jesus put himself above others for everyone to see was on the
cross. And he did that to make sure he became the lightning rod for God’s wrath
and no one else would.
You and I get to stand at the foot of Jesus’ cross, look up at him in worship of his life-giving mercy, and rejoice in the promise of his Easter resurrection
– a life God is pleased to give us. A life that is Christian in the fullest sense:
Alive in faith in Christ the ever-living God.
Pursuing his will as our life’s everyday goal.
Together with Christ for all glorious eternity.
Amen.
“Now may the Lord of peace himself
give you peace at all times and in every way”
(2 Th 3:16).
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