Bible Text: Matthew 21:1-9 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
Jesus comes into Jerusalem on a beast of burden, because He is a burden, He is carrying our sins. Jesus told his disciples to fetch the donkey. It wasn’t their idea. They don’t know what’s going on. They are very obviously not in charge. Jesus is. He’s the only one who knows what’s going on. That’s the story of holy week, and that’s the story of your life.
No one knows the future, no one can be sure of himself – not of your own strength, because it can fail, not of your health, not of your job, not of your life, not even of your own ability to keep on believing – there is nothing but uncertainty when it comes to you, your plans, your ability to determine your future. Except when you join the hosts with palm branches in your hands and cry out, “Hosanna” to the Son of David. Then there is certainty. Because Jesus is certainty. Hosanna means Save us now. And what is certain is that Jesus saves you.
The passion week shows this in spades. The disciples insist, not just Peter, but all of them, they insist they will never forsake Jesus, they will die with Him if they have to. They promise it. And they are certain of themselves. But they all run away from Him. Human beings are famously bad at keeping promises. The most solemn promise most Americans make is the promise of marriage – till death us do part, and over half of them break it. Now most people just live together and don’t make the promise at all because they can’t trust each other to keep it! The most solemn promise we Christians can make is our confirmation promise, that we will suffer death rather than fall away from our Jesus and His Church, and most break it. Because they rely on themselves and you can’t do that – you’re not reliable. You’re a sinner. Only Jesus is reliable. John at the beginning of his Gospel tells us that Jesus refused to entrust himself to men, because he knew what was in them, and there was nothing to trust in that.
Then look at the rulers, the people in charge. “Trust not in princes,” the psalm says. The politicians and religious leaders in Jerusalem have no idea what they are doing on Holy Week. They think they do. They plan and accomplish their plan. They arrest Jesus, send Him to Pilate, get Him condemned, crucified, and dead. It worked out exactly as they planned. Except it didn’t. The Proverb says, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” Jesus says this on the cross, “Father forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.” Neither did Pilate. He had no idea his name would be in the creed confessed by children for thousands of years, as the one who crucified the Lord. St. Paul says of him, of Herod, of everyone “in charge” at Jesus’ crucifixion, “None of the rulers of this age knew God’s wisdom, because if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” No one knows what they’re doing.
Literally the only One who knew what was going on that week and that day was Jesus.
This is why what the disciples do on Palm Sunday is so beautiful. They listen to Jesus. They do what He says. They might not understand what’s going on, but they know this much – Jesus does, He is Lord, so do what he says.
What do the 12 disciples do? Exactly what Jesus says. They fetch the donkey. It makes no sense to them. Jesus is the Son of God. They know that. He should ride like the King He is, not simply on a horse like a normal king, but on the wings of seraphs. But they do what Jesus says. And that is the job of ministers of the Gospel. It is not for us to decide for ourselves how to present Jesus to you. He wants to come humble, that’s how He’ll come. Because Jesus knows that’s the only way we sinners can receive Him.
The so-called church growth movement has been an abject failure. Precisely because they thought we could take control. Grow the church by giving the people what they want, they told us. If people don’t want hymns about Jesus dying for poor sinners, give them songs that make them feel good about themselves. If they want “practical” life advice in line with the most recent sociologically acceptable fads instead of the doctrine Jesus teaches, give it. Then the church will grow. But no, even if in our modern delirium, we pampered Americans don’t understand how a Savior riding on a donkey to His death is “practical,” we do what Jesus tells us to do. He’s the only One who knows what’s going on. Still, today. He will grow His church, because it’s HIS church.
So Jesus gives us Baptism. He bestows the name of God on poor sinners, unites them to His death and resurrection, gives them new birth as sons of God. He says baptize all nations, so the ministers of Christ obey and baptize babies too. All babies know how to do is cry. That’s the sum and substance of Christian faith. All we sinners can do when Jesus comes to us is cry out, “Hosanna,” Save us now. And He does.
Jesus gives His body and blood to us in the Supper. He doesn’t say, Take eat, this is me, or Take drink, This is me, He doesn’t give some generic, “Receive me,” He says, “take eat, this is my body, drink of it all of you, this is my blood,” because this is the body that suffered for us on the cross and this is the blood that flowed from his hands and sides to pay our debt to God. And when we receive the Son of God, we receive Him in no other way than as the crucified One. Even in heaven, as the saints sing in Revelation, they sing to the Lamb – why the Lamb? because the Lamb is the sacrifice, He is the One slain for sinners. So we sing before we receive the Lamb’s body and blood, “Hosanna,” Save us now.
And the content of the preaching of ministers of Christ today is the same as He ordered His disciples – get me a donkey, I’m going to ride into Jerusalem, to My Church, humble, to die. Get your own clever religious ideas out of your mind. Here is the only content of true religion, what Paul, the greatest of Jesus’ ministers who calls himself the least, insists, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
And the people of God expect nothing less. They did not cry out on that day, “Why aren’t you coming with power, Jesus, why don’t you fill our bank accounts, why don’t you solve my practical problems, my family disasters, fulfill my expectations for the future, why are you riding on a donkey, what good is that to me?” They don’t try to assert control. They do the only thing we poor sinners can do when our God comes to us. They cry out, “Hosanna,” save us.
On the cross His crucifiers mock more than once, the verb there is imperfect, which means they were saying it over and over again, they kept saying, “If you are the Son of God, save yourself.” “He saved others, He cannot save Himself.” This is what people who think they’re in control think of Jesus. They want instant gratification. Do it. Help yourself and then we’ll know you can help us like we want you to. But Jesus is in control. He was the only one in control the whole time. Pilate washed His hands, because Jesus wanted Him to. The disciples fled, because Jesus had to do it alone. The chief priests got their way because Jesus was getting His way. They didn’t know what they were doing. Jesus did. The Father refused to take the cup of His wrath away from His beloved Son, because the only way was for Jesus to drink it up. He didn’t save Himself because He was saving us.
Your greatest need right now, and tomorrow, and on Easter, and next year, and when you have to breathe your last, is not what you’ve been planning, not what you’ve been dreaming, not what you think you have control over, it is what Jesus did on that cross, when He took control, purposefully, willingly, the almighty Creator, the holy and everlasting God, dying in agony, cursed for the sins of His people, mocked and tortured, bearing your sin. It is the reconciliation, the peace with God, the forgiveness of sins, the body and the blood, that He gives to you who cry from the heart, “Hosanna,” Save us now.
And then you don’t want to be in control. You don’t want it to depend on you. Faith sits at the foot of Jesus’ cross and sees in Spirit your Savior bleeding for you and hears Him breathing out His life for you. There is your God taking control of your life, and you give it to Him, entirely, knowing that the past, the present, the future, are all secure with Him, who shed His precious blood for you.
Let us pray:
In Jesus I find rest and peace
The world is full of sorrow.
His wounds are my abiding place
Let the unknown tomorrow
Bring what it may Here I can stay
My faith finds all I need today
I will not trouble borrow.
To me the preaching of the cross
Is wisdom everlasting.
Thy death alone redeems my loss,
On Thee my burden casting,
I in Thy name a refuge claim
From sin and death and from all shame.
Blessed be Thy name, O Jesus!