Peace Lutheran Church
Posts Tagged "Palm Sunday"
Palm Sunday
March 24, 2024
Text: Zechariah 9:9-12
Outline
1. Your King comes to save you
2. A King of Peace because of blood
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament Lesson of Zechariah chapter nine verses nine through twelve.
Boys and Girls, I pray that you are doing well today. What do I have here? I have a pencil. Do you think this pencil is working well? Nope, not at all. Why? Because the tip is broken off. It will not longer work. In a similar way, God describes the enemies of the people of Israel in our text. They are broken. They can no longer hurt His people. Because God has come to save Israel with His salvation. How does God save Israel? How does He save us today? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
1. Your King comes to save you
Zechariah opens our text with a very familiar refrain which Saint Paul uses in Philippians. He calls on the people of Israel to rejoice. They are told to shout aloud, to rejoice so much that they shout themselves hoarse. They are so excited that their king is coming to them. Shouting is impressive, and in our day and age we do much of it. Shouting thrives at sporting events. Imagine any kind of athletic game played without shouting. Would the effort even be any fun at all if there was no shouting? People often shout themselves hoarse. From their living rooms they even shout at a glass television screen that mirrors an event taking place hundreds of miles away!
If we are that excited over a sporting event, how much more should we shout at our King coming to us? Jesus comes as our king. He comes as our Savior to give us the ultimate peace because of His eternal authority. He dispenses the sweetness and the mercy of God. He is just, because He justifies. He is Savior, because He saves. These are qualities which no king could ever bring to his throne. They are qualities far greater than those which befit a man. Moreover, all of these properties are spiritual and depict a spiritual kingdom, which the coming and accession of this just King reveal. He comes to give peace. He comes to “cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” There shall be no more war. Nothing but peace around the world.
Many times, we desire this kind of earthly peace. It is something that many people around the world desire and seek after. How can we get it? Many think that we can get it if we just work hard enough. Take for example the song Love Train by The O’Jays. It was so popular that it made people desire love shown in peace by holding hands around the world. Even if two groups are diametrically opposed to each other, people think that they can have peace with enough work, with enough talks. If we just sit down and talk things out, surely, we can find something that we can agree on. If Hamas and Israel can just talk things out, we will have peace. If the Democrats and Republicans can just talk, we will be a happier and more prosperous nation. If Russia and Ukraine just talk, then they will have peace instead of constant warfare. Well, how is all that working out? We can desire peace and strive for it as much as we want, but because of our fallen natures and fallen world. It is not something that we can bring about by ourselves.
A King of Peace because of blood
So how do we get true lasting peace? We get true peace because Jesus gives us His peace signed in blood. It is a peace given, not because of anything we have done, but given because of the new covenant that God makes with us. “As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. 13For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword.
This is a covenant that God makes with His people. One that is signed with His blood, blood greater than bulls and goats, the blood of Jesus shed upon the cross of Calvary. Jesus’ holy, innocent, and precious blood covers every single one of our sins. He takes the punishment of our sins, reconciles us to God, and gives us His peace now and forever.
We have peace forever with God because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have it now, even though it has yet to be fully realized. As we live in this fallen world, with our sinful natures, we rightly strive for peace with everyone. As Saint Paul writes, So long as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. We do this, realizing that it will not always happen upon this earth. Thus we look forward to the day when true peace will be fully realized. The day when Jesus will come again in power and glory and give everlasting peace. We long for the day when world-wide peace will be a reality.
Until that day comes, strive for peace, knowing that in and through Jesus Christ, His death, and resurrection from the dead you have peace with God now and forever.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Third Sunday in Lent Midweek
March 07, 2024
On donkey colt He rides to town
The people cheer, the foes plot on.
But soon we jeer, shout Crucify!
This sudden change just mystifies.
O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.
Jesus enters Jerusalem in the most unlikely of ways. We would expect Him to enter in the most miraculous of ways, a shout, shining in power and glory coming down from the heavens. At the very least riding in on a majestic charger of a stallion showing His authority and might. Yet, what does He enter on? A donkey, specifically a colt upon which no one had ever sat. Why? The same reason that David had Solomon do so, to show that he comes as King in peace rather than in the midst of war, conquering, and bloodshed.
This reason is why our Lord enters on a donkey as the ultimate Prince of Peace. He comes to make peace between men and men, but ultimately to make peace between sinful humanity and a righteous, just, and holy God by forgiving all of our sins by His death and resurrection from the dead.
What is the crowd’s reaction to this? They line the streets in a joyful procession. They wave palm branches. These were often used in military parades as symbols of victory over a conquered foe. Even today some funerals will have people buried hold palm branches as symbols of Jesus’ victory over death itself. The crowds line the street and shout Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna is a Hebrew word that means save us now. The phrase Son of David is used of the Messiah, as the One from the line of David whom the Lord had promised would reign forever upon David’s throne. They rejoice in the expectation that their King has come in order to save them.
They think Jesus has come to save them from the hated Romans. Jesus has come to establish an earthly kingdom greater than David or Solomon ever could have imagined. They will have peace forever and never need for anything upon this earth again.
Yet, as the week goes on, the crowds reaction changes. A joyous crowd on Palm Sunday turn into a hateful, spiteful, murderous crowd on Friday. As they saw that Jesus was not the warrior king they had expected, enthusiasm waned. The religious leaders were plotting Jesus’ death even as He enters Jerusalem. They spread lies about Jesus and slowly, public opinion turned. Many false messiahs had come and gone, leaving devastation in their wake. Because of the lies of the leaders, public opinion in Jerusalem had turned on Jesus. He was no longer the promised one, but another charlatan come to deceive. He was not who they thought he would be. So, when offered Barabbas or Jesus, they chose Barabbas, a convicted murderer and revolutionary, and called for Jesus’ blood.
Pilate gives into their demands for fear of another riot, because then he would have lost the favor of the Emperor and possibly his own head, but more on that in two weeks. He releases Barabbas and sentences Jesus to be crucified. Jesus is humiliated, shamed, mocked, and crucified. Why? To fulfill the plan of the Father. To be our Prince of Peace and reconcile sinful humanity by bearing the punishment of our sins with a just and holy God. Jesus does come as a Savior. Not a savior from only the Romans, but from Sin, death, and the power of the devil. He saves us from all of our foes by His death and resurrection from the dead.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.