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 Zechariah, the ninth chapter:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will 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. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Today, this wonderful festival day, we tend to think of what it may have looked like to see the prophecy fulfilled on that Palm Sunday nearly 2000 years ago. The crowds, the cries of Hosanna, the palms, the coats. What would it have looked like for the Jews to welcome in the man they thought would be their king, the one who would set all things right, the one who would cast out the Romans, and who would re-purify the Temple, the city, and even them?
They thought of this Jesus as the one who would rule for them out of an earthly palace. But, none understood. None saw. None comprehended. Jesus was the humble king, the lowly king, the king that no one saw. The crowds shouted as He came to them, they cried aloud, the screamed for Him to save them. And He would. But not as they imagine.
Their king, the king for whom they had been waiting for some 4000 years, had finally arrived. He alone is the righteous one. He alone is the good one. He alone is the one who will make all things new. But He does this not with a sword that has be honed to extreme sharpness, whose handle is covered over with gold, whose blade drives into the beating heart of man. He does this with a cross, shaped like a child’s sword, its blade driven into the ground. Instead of a hilt of gold, there is blood dripping from the guards on the side. Instead of another man, it turns and it has killed its wielder, the Christ.
This is not the king we were expecting, but it is the king we needed. For this reason, Christ entered into Jerusalem: to die. There is no other reason for Christ to come to His people but to die. There is no other reason for Him to come to this city but to die. If He were smart, smart but weak in His will, He would have stayed away. He would have travelled back on the path the wisemen took to visit Him so many years ago. He would have escaped persecution, He would have escaped the mockings, the beatings, the jeerings, the death. He could have. But, He didn’t.
His mission was to die, and so He did. This was always the plan, and He set His face like flint toward Jerusalem, His steely jaw determined to fulfill the prophecies of the dying Messiah. The prophet Zechariah saw this in His prophecy. He saw the great crowds of Palm Sunday. He saw the donkey. He saw the colt. He saw the battle that the people waged with sin, death, and the devil. He saw Christ fulfilling all that He had set out to do. He saw the Gospel of the death of Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of Christ for the promise of eternal life, all for you. He saw that Jesus would have the Gospel spread throughout all the nations. He saw the return of Christ, on the Last Day, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is the Lord of all. There, in Him all believers will be set free from sin, death, and the devil. This is what the prophet saw.
And what he wrote, what Zechariah put down for all of eternity, was misunderstood. This is not the fault of the prophet, but the fault of the people, sinful people whose need to interpret the Lord’s Word for their own desires is put ahead of the Lord’s purposes. This is what they got wrong. They wanted an earthly king, but they got Jesus. They wanted a king of this world, but they got one whose kingdom is not of this world, but of all things, seen and unseen.
The people were expecting the next Jewish Alexander the Great, the Jewish George Washington, the Jewish Caesar. But what they needed, and what they got was the Christ. The prophet Zechariah knew this, Jesus knew this, but the people missed it.
When Jesus entered into that city, it all changed for Him. He knew He was entering the city to die, though the people thought it was to rule in Pontius Pilate’s palace. And Jesus would rule in the city, He would rule in great glory, but He would rule while His feet were hammered into wood, while His hands were pierced through and tied, while His side was split open and blood and water flowed forth. This is the rule of God, this is the glory of Jesus.
This is not what we expect to see of a king, battered, broken, beaten, bloodied. But this is how Jesus wants to be seen. This is how He wants to rule. He will rise, yes, He will rise, and He has risen. His wounds no longer bring pain, but the wounds are still there. That is His glory. Those wounds are adored, they are honored, for those wounds of His scourging brought to all of humanity salvation for all of our sins.
But this is all contingent on Jesus riding into the city. And today, Casey, and Malorie, and Sara, this has meaning for you, too. It has meaning for all of us, but as we see you confirmed this day, as we see you make the profession of faith that the faith you were baptized into is what you indeed believe now and always, we see Jesus for you, too, just as we should see Jesus for us.
We certainly have seen Jesus, the crucified for you. We certainly have seen Jesus, the risen one for you. And we see Jesus, the humble king, riding upon a beast of burden, for you.
How? What am I talking about? In your Baptisms, your Lord came to you, humbly, to rule within you, to show you what your sin did to Him, but to comfort you that He went to the cross willingly for all of your sin. He killed you in that water, He drowned you, and there He made you His own. He entered into you, into your hearts we say, humbly, to rule through His cross. He came in with great pomp and circumstance to declare that death has no power over you.
And we’ve seen what this looks like throughout your lives. We have seen you struggle with your sin, even as toddlers, running around, shouting “No” at your parents and grandparents, even here in the pews. We have seen you struggle with the questions of life, what is right and what is wrong. We have seen you make the wrong choices, and sometimes, even the right choices. These are all the things we have struggled with, too; these are also everyone’s sins.
But, this Confirmation Day, haven’t we also seen you work to begin to understand the faith that was given to you in your Baptisms? Haven’t we seen you struggle with Jesus’ words for you? What does forgiveness mean? Did Baptism really save me like Jesus said? Do I trust in my Lord? Do I believe His words when He says that the bread is His body and the wine is His blood? Do I believe that He saved me from all of my sins? What does it mean to love and serve my neighbor?
I’ve seen this, and I know that all the congregation has watched you, and supported you, and prayed for you. I know that they have been waiting for this day when you make the public profession of your faith. But today, my friends, is a day like any other. There is no change in you today. Jesus has already come to you, and Jesus will not love you more today than yesterday. He will not be more proud of you than yesterday. He does not look at you today and say, “Congratulations, you have now graduated from Church and you never have to come back.” We know that Jesus gives to you very good gifts here, and those don’t change. It doesn’t change that this only is where you can receive His Word and Sacrament. We know that Jesus doesn’t change, and even the profession you are about to make, you have been making for years. It hasn’t changed. Only now, we see it, and you see it, and we rejoice with you.
And this is true for all of us, isn’t it? The Jesus who rode into our hearts in our Baptisms hasn’t changed. He loves us so completely that He laid down His life for us. He says of this that there is no greater love than a man can have than He who lays His life down for His friends. And if He has died for us, we are His friends. He is the King of the Universe, and He calls us “friend.”
He spoke peace to you, that day you were washed. He told you that you were no longer an enemy of God, but His children. He made you His own. And by His own blood, the blood of the covenant, the blood in your Baptisms, the blood that is in the Lord’s Supper, the blood which was shed upon the tree, He will set the prisoners of sin and death free. He has set the prisoners of sin and death free. You were such a prisoner of sin and death.
And He does so here, in His Church. He does so because He had made this place, not waterless, but full of water, full of bread, full of wine, full of His Word, and He shall always do so in His Church. But here is where we come. We are the daughter of Zion, we are the daughter of Jerusalem, and Christ comes here. He enters here. But, only here. Not in the world, not as an earthly king, but as a king who comes humbly, through humble means, through His humble Word, through His humble Sacraments. He comes to us in humble water, and humble bread, and humble wine. But, He comes to us here.
So, here we shall stay. Here we meet Him. Here our coats are strewn before Him, we lay down all that we have to welcome Him in this place. Here we find Him reigning, reigning unto eternity, reigning unto that Last Day, where we shall long for His return no more, for there, He shall be with us bodily, and we shall be alive forever with Him. We will be resurrected and with Him forever, for He preserves us in the one true faith, unto life everlasting, through His gifts, His Word, His Sacraments. He does this for you, Casey, and He does this for you, Malorie, and He does this for you, Sara, and He does this for all who are here. Be here in His gifts; He eagerly gives them to you in His Church. The King has entered you and made you His home. There is nothing He does not give you; He gives you more than you can ever imagine, double for all of your sins, greater than you can see, for He is a king far greater than you can perceive. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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