Hebrews 11,1-2; 12,1-3. Palmarum

 Hebrews 11,1-2; 12,1-3           2121 

Palmarum 029

Malchus and his companions, Martyrs 260

28. März 2021

1. O Almighty Everlasting God, who has caused Your beloved Son to take our nature upon Himself, so that He might give all mankind the example of humility and suffer death upon the cross for our sins: Mercifully grant us a believing knowledge of this, and that, following the example of His patience, we may be made partakers of the benefits of His sacred passion and death.  Amen. (Veit Dietrich) 

2. »Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.«  

3. The season of Lent prepares us for the events of Holy Week that begin today. On Palm Sunday we hear once again of Jesus’ joyous and triumphant entry into Jerusalem where His disciples and the crowd acclaim Him as the royal Messiah. So powerful is Jesus’ popularity on Palm Sunday that the Pharisees said to one another: »You see that you are gaining nothing. Behold, the world has gone after him« (John 12,19).  

4. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us: »Looking to Jesus … who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.« While His disciples and the crowd adore Jesus, the Pharisees, most of them, despise Jesus; they considered him a blasphemer and a false teacher. The chief priests and the elders also wanted Jesus arrested and executed (Matthew 26,3-4). The events of Holy Week are packed full with Jesus’ teachings and parables; events move quickly from Sunday to Friday: on Palm Sunday Jesus is praised as the King of Israel and by Friday morning He is executed as an insurrection against the Romans State. 

5. By Palm Sunday there are the disciples and the crowd of average Jews praising Jesus and there, and in contrast there are the Jewish scholars and religious leaders protesting His popularity. It was a perfect storm that had been brewing for at least a year, but on Palm Sunday the storm is about to rage. The tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Jesus does not relieve this tension but He deliberately ratchets it up even more. He drives out the money changers and those who sold sacrificial animals from the temple courtyard, thereby angering the priests even further. He told parables that charged the priests and the Pharisees as enemies of Yahweh. Every time the Pharisees try to trap Jesus with a question, He deftly answer it and in doing so made the Pharisees look foolish. He then called these Pharisees hypocrites, blind guides and unclean whitewashed tombs. This is harsh criticism to the men who were the religious scholars and teachers of Jesus’ day. And to cap it all off, Jesus says the unbelief of the priests and Pharisees is so bad, that God is going to punish their lack of faith in Jesus the Messiah by destroying Jerusalem and the temple. Now Jesus’ adversaries are enraged and they double down on their plot to kill Him.  

6. Caiaphas, the high priest that year, tells the priests and Pharisees: »„It is better that one man die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.“ So from that day on they made plans to put Him to death« (John 11,50.53). This had been prophesied in the Holy Scriptures (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53). »„It is too light a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make You as a Light for the nations, so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.“ Thus says the Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the Servant of rulers: „Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of Yahweh, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You« (Isaiah 49,6-7). 

7. Jesus’ triumphant entry on Palm Sunday sets all the various pieces of God’s Heilsgeschichte (salvation history) into motion. Jesus is revealed publicly as the Messiah, the king of Israel, and disciples and the crowd confess Him to be the Son of David. But as Jesus taught His disciples: the Messiah will not rule a reconstituted Jewish kingdom as a Second David, but rather the Messiah has arrived to be a Second Adam who will suffer, die at the hands of the Jewish rulers as a Suffering Servant, and then He will rise again on the 3. day. This activity that happens at the end of Holy Week is the ministry and reign of the Messiah. He did not conquer physical adversaries but spiritual ones: Jesus rides triumphantly on Palm Sunday to defeat sin, death, the Devil and hell. »Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who arrives in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!« (Matthew 21,9). 

8. Our Hymn of the Day majestically captures this ideal: „Ride on, ride on in Majesty! / In lowly pomp ride on to die. / Oh Christ, Thy triumphs now begin / O’er captive death and conquered sin. / Ride on, ride on in majesty! / In lowly pomp ride on to die. / Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain. / Then take, O God, Thy power and reign“ (LSB 441,2.5). Christ rides on to the cross at the end of the week where He is truly triumphant and we are redeemed.  Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Jesus Christ, the Son of Man who was lifted up; as we travel with You this week to the cross, we are confident that all who believe in You now have eternal life.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Milman, Henry H. „Ride On, Ride On, in Majesty“. Lutheran Service Book. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.