Palm/Passion Sunday

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft Zech 9:9–12; Phil 2:5–11; Jn 12:12–19; Ps 31:9–16; antiphon: v. 5   –     3/29/26

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Once Christ became man, He took on human flesh from the Virgin’s womb, becoming meek and mild. Rev. Petersen says, “When resistance to His ministry mounted, He withdrew. Five times in Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord runs away. When Joseph heard what Herod planned, the Lord fled, out of Bethlehem to Egypt. When He heard that John had been arrested, He fled to Galilee. When He heard that the Pharisees were conspiring to kill Him, He fled. When He heard that John had been killed, He fled into the desert. And after the Pharisees again challenged Him in Gennesaret, He fled to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Finally, when they came to get Him in the garden, He submits like a sheep to the slaughter.” (1.7–8).

But today, Palm Sunday, when Jesus comes, He comes humble like David before Him, riding on a donkey, and yet He is also forceful, His face set toward the cross. Luke tells us that when the people begin to cry out, Hosanna, some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” But Jesus replies, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out (19:39–41). The Pharisees seek to defuse Jesus’ power, turn the people away from Him, and more importantly turn Jesus away from Jerusalem because they fear He will take away their power over the people. They are but another attempt of the devil to tempt Jesus away from the path. But Jesus will not be moved, nor will His purpose be thwarted. He may not defend Himself verbally, nor allow His disciples to fight on His behalf, yet neither the Pharisees nor the devil have power or authority to hinder His work.

If Jerusalem did not hail Him king, if the crowd listened to the Pharisees and stayed silent, then creation itself would cry out for the Savior to come and save it. St. Paul shows as much in Romans 8, For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now (19–22). So long has the world waited for the revelation of the Christ, so long for the redemption of man that she could not stay silent if the chosen people did. Salvation is necessary, the cross inevitable; even the rocks know this. The true King alone can redeem her from her bondage.

The people don’t know the outcome, that in just over five days’ time Jesus will be dead, they do know they need the Savior. They come spontaneously along the way. Some have followed Him from Galilee, staying overnight in Bethany, others happen along Jesus’ entourage as they too walk toward Jerusalem for the Passover, others still dwell in or have already reached Jerusalem. They hear that Jesus is coming, the miracle worker, the great teacher; and without any organized plan all these people meet together along the way. Without anyone telling them they spontaneously take their cloaks or cut palm branches and pave the road to Jerusalem, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem (Lk 13:33). Though that is not on their minds it is on His.

The people shout, Hosanna to the Son of David! They know Jesus is the king, for they have heard Zechariah say, 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. But they are ignorant as to what God means by that. Their expectations and God’s intent do not align. Still, they know something is off. While they praise Him and pave the way to Jerusalem, fear and uncertainty wait in the back of their minds. They see that “He is humble, but there is power in Him, power that is being stirred up against the devil, to rescue us. He is coming. But we, like they, are not so sure we want to be rescued. We don’t like the old boss, but Jesus can be a bit bossy Himself. How can we stand in His presence and not be destroyed? How can we stand in His presence and keep our selfish ways? A proverb of men reads, ‘Better the devil known than unknown.’” (7–8)

When Jesus withdrew, yielded ground before it was not because He was afraid for Himself, but rather that He is the great High Priest and King. The Jews on numerous occasions tried to kill Him, but His life was not theirs to take. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. (Jn 10:14–18) Only He takes His life, and only He lays it down, and He does so in His own time and way, not theirs. As He rides upon this donkey as His forefather David had before Him, He like David goes to the Throne For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel (Jer 33:17). But Jesus rides to more than David did. David foreshadowed Christ as a wise and just ruler, of whom God said, I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will. (Acts 13:22) But he could not face the path Jesus now ascends for Jesus also rides to His glory and His power. He rides to the cross to bring the eternal Kingdom, and yet not with violence and force. Rather, He is the one who endures the violence and force to bring back the people to His kingdom and He pays for them with His blood: upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Is 53:5) He will not relent this time, but demands the confrontation with the devil.

The people shout Hosanna, meaning “Save us” in Hebrew. They do not realize it, but they are begging Him with that word that He go and die for them. Unwittingly they are praying that He save them, not from the Romans as they suppose, but from the condemnation of the Law, from their own sinful flesh, and from the devil. Had they known this, they might not have wanted the rescue, but rescue them He will whether they like it or not. “They might be terrified of what this costs, of what this will mean, but His Father wants them rescued and He fulfills His Father’s will. He is the Lord who will not leave things alone. He is the Lord who comes, and He will not be stopped simply because they, and we, are not worthy or smart enough.” (9) Jesus comes to seek and to save the lost.

What must the people do then? John the Baptist had told them years before, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand…. Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight (Mt 3:2–3). Why? Because their hearts were not humble and their deeds were not righteous. They and we were children of Adam, sinners one and all, who stood guilty before God and in need of purification, none of us worthy of salvation. Zechariah likewise urged them, 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. Why, even though they and we were unwilling to be saved, not smart enough even to want to be saved, the King has come to save us. He will be relentless in His quest. He will neither leave us no forsake us. He will not lie to us as the devil has by saying everything is okay, but Jesus will show us the truth and make us free.

Thus Jesus comes to earth, not in power and might, not in fear and terror as before when He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, or Elijah if the roaring wind. Jesus came humbly through a virgin, became a weak and crying baby. And now He comes humbly but relentlessly on a donkey. He appears weak. He allows Himself to be taken by the enemies whom He would save, so that He may offer His life up for many upon the cross, as the great High Priest to offer His own life as the ransom for sins. He knows full well what He is doing, He comes alive out of death that He might raise all from the dead.

He leaves death to go to the disciples, not angry with them though they fled and denied Him. All He endured and did He has done for them and for you. He comes gently and with comforting words: “‘Peace be with you’”. Zechariah is right: Your king is coming to you. “And what a king He is! You do not go to Him. You do not know the way and you do not have the strength”, anymore than the people who cried out Hosanna on the way did. “He comes to you. He seeks. He saves. He does what you could never do. He makes you His own. Soon He will come again, not humble, not riding a donkey, not hidden in bread and wine, not fleeing to the mountains, but in glory. Hosanna, Son of David! Hosanna! Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!” (9) Amen.