PASTOR'S MESSAGE

 

Our Savior King

Matthew 21:1-11 

Little Tommy was sitting at the kitchen table eating his after school snack, when he suddenly said, “Mom, the teacher was asking me today if I had any brothers or sisters who will be coming to school.”  The boy’s mother replied, “That’s nice of her to take such an interest, dear.  What did she say when you told her that you were the only child in our family?”  “She just said, ‘Thank Goodness!’”

            You know, that’s the kind of remark that can humble you real quickly and put you in your place.  You might even feel a little ashamed and embarrassed of yourself or of your child.  You are suddenly full of humility.  Well in a strange way, humility is what this day is all about, for humility is the hallmark of our Savior King, Jesus Christ.  The big difference is that Jesus’ humility was not a matter of embarrassment.  After all, as the Holy Son of God He had no sins or shortcomings to be ashamed or embarrassed about.  And in spite of our sins and shortcomings, He was not ashamed of us either, not ashamed to call us His children.  Quite the opposite – that final Holy Week of His life, He was heading straight for the cross, in order to make us His pure and forgiven children. 

That’s what Jesus’ humility was all about – He humbled Himself to become a man and take the shame of our sins upon Himself to save us from them.  We refer to it as His state of Humiliation, wherein He chose not to use His divine powers, so that He could be captured and beaten, suffer and die in our place.  And it began in earnest on that First Palm Sunday, when He came riding into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey. 

Now, in our text, St. Matthew tells us that Jesus approached Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a very prominent spot.  By entering that way, He made sure that everyone could see Him.  In other words, He didn’t sneak into Jerusalem by some back-door route.  Instead, He came in full view of the crowd, proclaiming Himself to be the Messiah.  That’s why He came riding in, mounted upon the colt, the foal of a donkey.  It was the fulfillment of our Old Testament Lesson, from Zechariah 9:9, which says:  “REJOICE GREATLY, O DAUGHTER OF ZION!  SHOUT, DAUGHTER OF JERUSALEM!  BEHOLD, YOUR KING COMES TO YOU, RIGHTEOUS AND HAVING SALVATION, GENTLE AND RIDING ON A DONKEY, ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A DONKEY.”  That prophecy from Zechariah clearly foretold that the Messiah would come as our Savior King, riding on a donkey in humility and gentleness.

            No wonder, then, that His arrival in Jerusalem caused such a stir among the people.  They knew the prophecy from Zechariah, and they knew that by fulfilling it in their presence, Jesus was proclaiming Himself to be their Messiah.  That’s why they hailed Him with the words:  “HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID.”  Of course, the phrase Son of David was a title reserved only for the Messiah, God’s Anointed one.  And by hailing Jesus with that title, they were honoring Him as their Savior King.  This was the day they had long been waiting for, from the moment Jesus performed His first miracle.  The Savior King had finally arrived in full force, which is why they were all stirred up. 

As a matter of fact, in our text the word ‘stirred’ is actually the word for an earthquake.  And to be sure, Jesus was about to shake things up.  In fact, He was going to turn their idea of the Messiah upside down.  You see, unfortunately the people, even the disciples had the wrong idea of the Messiah.  They had a different concept than the one Zechariah had spoken of.  They did not want a humble, gentle Savior.  They wanted a forceful, war-like one, who would bring an end to all their physical hardships and save them from the oppression of their enemies, the Romans.  In short, they wanted a King who would rule in wealth and bring them prosperity.

            Does that sound familiar?  I believe it’s similar to our own sinful human desires.  Aren’t there days when we wish Jesus would remove our physical hardships and bring us prosperity?  We want perfect health, perfect wealth, and perfect earthly joy.  And when it doesn’t come, we often get upset with Him.  We moan and groan, feeling sorry for ourselves.  We grumble and complain about our circumstances.  Worse yet, we even respond like the people of Jerusalem.  Just five days later, when they found out Jesus wasn’t the kind of Messiah they wanted, many of them turned on Him and shouted:  “CRUCIFY HIM!  CRUCIFY HIM!” 

Sadly my friends, we too crucify Jesus.  We crucify Him all over again by our unholy living.  Every dirty thought or vengeful attitude is like a blow of the hammer.  Every mean-spirited word or coarse remark is like a nail in His hands and feet.  Every unkind action we commit is like a lash of the whip, and every generous act we fail to perform is like a thorn in His crown.  Yes, by our original sinful nature as well as our actual sins of thought, word and deed we have murdered our Savior King, and brought the wrath and condemnation of God down upon our heads.

            The amazing grace of it all is that Jesus let us do it.  We would never have gotten away with it, if He had not humbled Himself and willingly taken it all to save us.  As He Himself proclaimed:  “I lay down My life for the sheep.”  No one forcibly took His life from Him.  Instead, He freely laid it down, in order to lift God’s wrath and condemnation off of our heads.  That’s specifically why He came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.  Not on a white stallion, the symbol of royalty, but on the pack animal of the common, ordinary working man.  It was His way of identifying with common, ordinary sinners like us in our sin, so that He could remove it from us. 

Which is why the Greek text calls the donkey a ‘beast of burden.’  Or more literally, ‘the one under the yoke.’  It’s a beautiful picture of Jesus Himself, our Savior King.  He humbled Himself to become, if you will, our beast of burden, bearing the burden of our guilt and shame to Calvary, where He dumped it off for good.  He gladly placed Himself under the yoke of our slavery to death and hell, so that He could remove that cruel bar off our necks and destroy it forever.  As our Savior King, He came to save us from our real enemy – Satan.  He came to rescue us from the oppression of our real task master – sin, so that we can be forgiven and free.   

Martin Luther once noted that the difference between Jesus, our Savior King, and all other earthly kings, is that earthly kings make their loyal subjects come to them, whereas Jesus came to His loyal subjects.  And thankfully, He still comes to us.  He comes to us in the Word and in the Sacraments to grant us pardon and peace.  For, unlike earthly kings, who tax their subjects, making them pay revenue, Jesus does just the opposite.  He freely gives to us of His love and mercy to pay for all our sins.

            In their own way, the people on Palm Sunday were acknowledging that.  Even though they didn’t realize it, by cutting down palm branches and laying them at His feet, they were giving us a glimpse of the real salvation that Jesus would bring.  You see, in the ancient Near East, the Palm Tree was a symbol of life, the premiere symbol of immortality and salvation.  It was a symbol of life, because its branches remain green and alive throughout the entire year.  It was a symbol of immortality, because it’s roots were so deep-set that the tree could live for more than two centuries.  And it was a symbol of salvation, because when a traveler in the wilderness saw a Palm Tree up ahead, he knew that there was an oasis where he could find relief. 

            Dear friends, that depicts for us the kind of Savior King Jesus truly is.  He is the only one, who can take our souls that are dead in sin and make them alive again.  He is the only one who can provide relief and refreshment for our fainting, failing spirits, by the remission of all our sins.  He is the only one who can give us true immortality with Him in heaven.  And the way that He achieved that was by entering into Jerusalem as the humble, gentle King, riding straight toward the cross.  Perhaps, the People’s Bible Commentary put it best, when it said:  “The throne he would ascend would be a crude wooden cross.  The crown he would wear would be a crown of thorns.  He would establish his kingdom, not by shedding the blood of his enemies, but by shedding his own blood.”  That’s how our Savior King saved us from our sin.

            The fascinating thing is that His triumphant entry on Palm Sunday was reminiscent of an earlier procession.  When Judas Maccabeus cleansed the temple of the abomination set up by Antiochus Epiphanes, he too was greeted with palm branches and songs.  In an even greater way, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem paved the way for the real Temple cleansing that took place on Good Friday; namely, the cleansing of our heart and soul of the abomination of our sin, by the shedding of His holy blood.  And it is out of thanks for all that, that we too should hail Him as our Savior King with our palm branches and our songs, with our worship and our praise!

            In a painting of the crucifixion by the famous Dutch artist Rembrandt, attention is first drawn to the cross and to Christ who died there as our ransom.  Then we notice the many people at Calvary and their various attitudes and actions.  Then as our eyes drift off to the edge of the painting, we see a little figure of a man in the shadows.  As it turns out, this is Rembrandt himself.  By including himself in the picture in that humble way, he was saying, “My sins nailed the Savior there, but He died for me and I believe it.”

            Dear friends, that ought to be our humble attitude as well – to bow before Jesus our Savior King in awe and reverence, in humility and adoration, thanking Him for all that He’s done to save us.  May God grant us the strength of His Holy Spirit to do that, not only with out lips, but also with our very lives, for His name’s sake.  Amen.

           

     

                              

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