Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Prophet Isaiah, the 50th chapter:
The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty?
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
This Palm Sunday, as every Palm Sunday we celebrate, moves us closer, of course, to the crucifixion of the Christ. Every time we gather together this day with shouts of loud Hosannas, we also realize that in a few short days, the crowds will be screaming, “Crucify Him!”
Perhaps we lumber toward this week with a bit of trepidation. Perhaps we do not desire to have yet again one more Holy Week go by where we are to feel awful for our sins, to be depressed by the bloody corpse of Jesus, to be reminded how black and ugly our sin makes us by the colors and the music and the preaching and the lights. Perhaps we just want to sit here on Palm Sunday and sing Hosanna Loud Hosanna! Perhaps we just want to be joyful and wave palm branches. Perhaps we just want to be happy in Jesus Christ.
But that’s not reality. We can’t stop the passage of time. This day comes. Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday… time keeps on ticking away into the future. And you can’t stop it.
And moreover, that’s not what Jesus wanted for you anyway. He wants you on His journey. He wants you with Him. He wants you at the foot of the cross, and if you can’t be at the foot of the cross, He wants you at the altar, and if you can’t be at the altar, He wants you praying, and if you can’t pray, He wants to speak to you today through His Word. Jesus wants you with Him, for He has set His face like flint towards Jerusalem. He has resolved to carry out His Father’s will, He has resolved to go through His exodus from Jerusalem, and He has resolved to die for the sins of the world.
The Lord is not doing these things alone, however. He has his disciples at that time, and even as we, the Church, continue to reenact this time through our Church seasons and our liturgy, we know that we are on this journey, too. Of course, we know the goal is Easter Sunday, when Jesus Christ victoriously rises from the grave, having conquered sin, death, and the devil, and won for us forgiveness, eternal life, and deliverance over the devil. This is the goal, and we shall indeed celebrate this day wonderfully next week. But to think about this too much now is jumping ahead.
You cannot get to Easter Sunday without a Good Friday, and we cannot get there without realizing this day, this Palm Sunday, the day that Jesus rode as the victorious king into Jerusalem on a donkey, the symbol of peace, we cannot get there without realizing there is no return this day. This day, Jesus has entered Jerusalem. This day, Jesus will not leaves its bounds. This day, Jesus will continue to work and work at getting crucified. There is no return for Jesus; He’s going confidently to His death.
Jesus shall offer up no answer to false charges. The Father has awakened His ear to hear that this is the Father’s will and there is no way around it. The Father has commanded His Son, and His Son has gone willingly forth into the world to save it from its sin. An answer to false charges would only stop the crucifixion, and that cannot happen.
Jesus will offer no resistance to violence, not even those who would pull out His beard, strike Him in the face, and whip Him across His back, which indeed did happen. The violence of the soldiers against Jesus in His flogging is abominable, yet completely understandable, and completely normal for that time. To pluck out a man’s beard is no good or easy thing, yet to stop this violence, Jesus would stop the crucifixion, and that cannot be allowed. And though the ugly accusations ring, and Jesus will be sentenced to the cross, there is no conviction, no accusation that sticks to Him, only the awfulness of the false accusations and the desire to kill God, the Lord of All Creation. And so He is killed.
This crucifixion must go forward. There is no question. And Palm Sunday is the first stop on that journey. The king must be welcomed into His city. The king must do His duty. The king comes in peace; the world comes in violence.
There is to be no fighting against His Father’s will, no struggling against His captors. This day, Jesus is fully submissive, for He has loved you with an unending love. He has loved you since before you were even created in your mothers’ wombs. He has loved you when you were nothing more than a thought in His head. He has loved you since He spoke the word and you were created. He has loved you so much, that even if there were only one person in the world, ever, Jesus still would come to save you.
Yet, there is more than one person; there is the world. And out of this world comes Christ’s Church. For the Lord God has given to Jesus the teaching that will bring to us salvation. And Jesus desires to have this Word brought to the world by His bride, the Church. The Church is called out of the world, called out of the darkness, and she is sustained by the Word of Christ. When we are weary this season, when we are weary of the dread, and the depression, and the sin we have, when we are weary, Christ sustains us with a word, a word of hope, a word of forgiveness, a word that says to us, “Wait and see.”
For indeed, we do wait. We have been waiting for nearly 2000 years now. We are waiting and waiting. Yet, the Lord’s Word sustains us. It brings our children into the Church so that they may hear the Word of Sustenance. The sustaining Word baptizes men, women, and children into the one true faith. It brings them salvation. It brings them forgiveness. It brings them every good gift and inheritance in God. The sustaining Word makes for us a meal, where Jesus brings to us His sustenance unto everlasting life, the forgiveness of sins, and actual community within this fellowship of all believers. For in this meal, in His Supper, He is the host and the meal, He serves us and we literally eat His flesh and blood. And this sustaining Word also enters into our ears and our minds, where we can meditate on His Word, cherish it, hold it in our hands, learn from it, grow in it, and be surrounded by it.
The Lord Jesus is able to sustain us with a Word, we who are weary. And we are weary, are we not? I am. I am tired. Sometimes I am so sick and tired of everything that goes on in a week that one more thing piled on my table is going to break it in half. I am tired. I know you’re tired. And I know you’re weary. Yet the Lord can and does sustain you in His Word. He shall give you strength to endure, even this week, even this time, as we move toward His grisly crucifixion.
And how do we know that Christ will give us strength? Because the Father gave Him strength to endure. The Father gave Him strength to persevere. Even through sweating drops of blood in the garden, even through the agony of the scourging, even through the embarrassment of His nakedness upon the cross, even through the forsaking of Him by His Father, Christ was strengthened with the Word of God. Christ was strengthened with the Word that promised His resurrection. Christ was strengthened with the knowledge that He shall be raised from the dead. Christ was strengthened to know that He was doing this because He loved you. Christ was strengthened because you would have salvation won for you. And He even, because of His soon coming resurrection from the dead, He even gives this promise to you, that you, too, shall be strengthened.
How do we know that we shall be strengthened? How do we know we shall endure? Isn’t it easier to give up? Isn’t it easier to give up on God and give in to sin? Isn’t it easier to just not care? Isn’t it easier to just give in and die? Whence does my strength come?
Lift up your eyes to the hills, and see the hill of Calvary. Your help, your strength comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. See that Lord dying on the tree. He will not let your foot be moved from His salvation. He who keeps you with His Word shall not slumber. He shall not slumber, but He shall die, yet not die forever, but only for three days. He shall not then slumber nor shall He sleep. For this Lord, Jesus Christ, is your keeper. He is the shade on your right hand. The scorching sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night, for He is always with you, and He shall keep you in His Word. He shall keep you from evil. He shall keep your life in His hands always. The Lord will keep, because of His cross, because of His journey, because of His promises to you, for you, because of His love for you, the Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Trust in Him, my friends. For when you are weary, you have His Word. Endure this week with the Lord. See His glory upon the cross. See your black sins for what they are: covered in red by the blood of Christ. See the corpse of the Lord and see your salvation. Shout your hosannas, your, “Lord, save us please,” and see that He has. He has saved you on the cross. He has saved you in His resurrection. And He will see you through until the day of your resurrection from the dead. This is His promise to you, and to your children forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment