I.N.I.

A sermon for Palm Sunday, 24 March 2002, based on the epistle for the day, Philippians 2:5-11, and using sermon notes by the Rev. Professor Richard Warneck, in the January 2002 Concordia Journal

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus, our Lord,

Dear Friends in Christ,

One man riding a donkey. Riding along a dusty and rocky road into the city of Jerusalem. A few friends accompany him. A crowd gathers around this one man on the donkey. They wave palm branches, shout “Hosanna to the Son of David!” and some place their outer garments on the road in front of his donkey to keep the dust down.

It’s not all that impressive, really. There were certainly people back then who were not impressed, as we find out later this week. And maybe we’re not all that impressed either. We have real problems facing us. Maybe it’s a job difficulty; or our retirement income isn’t covering expenses as we thought it should; or our children are still causing us sleepless nights after all these years. We might only want to interrupt our daily lives if there’s going to be a real King behind the image of this one, lonely man riding a donkey. We might only want to if there’s someone to respect on that donkey. And outward appearances don’t promise a whole lot.

One thing that September 11th did was to bring the word “hero” back into more common use. A few years ago I taught a course at the college based on the theme “heroic figures.” Many of the kids in our classes back then seemed to have trouble connecting with heroes in their lives. Today that would be different, as you know. In the post 9/11 world we have heroes to look up to.

We all still want to join together to honor them. We rise up out of our complacency and, despite the six months since that day, we work with other people on the development of a better outlook and mindset. In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul gave his readers some striking charges. He had looked for reports about their faith, that they were standing side by side for the Gospel. What he heard instead were that, just as in today’s church, some are living selfishly, lording it over others. Then just at the beginning of chapter 2, in the verses right before our text, he urged them to “do nothing from selfishness or conceit, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but look to the Interests of others, counting others better than yourselves.”

How were the Philippians, how are WE, supposed to make this kind of change? That isn’t exactly how Paul phrases the question or answer. He asks “Who.” Paul asks us to consider who it is whose mind we could adopt to effect this change. Not just any hero will do. Paul guides us to a very special one, to the one who once sat on a lonely donkey bumping along the road into Jerusalem. Have the same mind in you that Christ had. We can get at this amazing task by watching him in action. We see what he does. We see him riding down that hard, dusty roadway knowing full well what was ultimately waiting for him in the city.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem as a servant king. He is a king who lived a life of service. The crowds may have been expecting the Son of David to ride in with majesty and glory, but that is not how Jesus appeared. Yet appearances can be deceiving. St Paul teaches that whatever you may see on Palm Sunday, what you have is God coming into Jerusalem. What was the holy one doing on a donkey that day? Again Paul explains that he chose this humble means of transportation to show us what he was all about. He served others. He didn’t count the glory of God as something to bask in. He emptied himself. He took on the actual form of a servant for real. He became a true man, looking just like the rest of us, so that he could better serve us.

When he did this, he lost nothing. He did not lose track of his glory and power. Yet he became obedient unto death for us. We follow the Lord through Holy Week because he served us by suffering for us. And by doing so he accomplished more than we can imagine. He served us with the forgiveness of our sins. He humbled himself, emptied himself, was obedient unto death, all for us. What if we caught a little of that spirit of service? We’d probably need to be bumped down a couple notches on the humility scale.

There were storm clouds gathering as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. They were clouds of the hatred and viciousness of his enemies. They were waiting for him. Some actually watched, or at least heard, the Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem. They even contacted one of the Lord’s disciples to turn against him. Why in the world didn’t Jesus turn the donkey around and head back to the safe haven among friends at Bethany? He didn’t. He rode right into the storm. He did it as a humble servant. There was a task set before him. This is what we’re preparing for this morning.

How can we hold onto sins when Jesus humbled himself in this way to take those sins away? We can’t stop Jesus from his task. The disciples couldn’t stop him, though they tried. He would not listen. The cross was before him. He goes to meet it. He knows what his role is in this drama. He knows that death awaits him, though he did not deserve it. He knows that he must suffer and die so that the Father can lay on him the sins of us all. This humble Jesus rides into Jerusalem.

But as I said, appearances can be deceiving. Jesus is a humble servant, yes, but he is also a glorious servant. The people back then had been looking for a Messiah King, one anointed like King David of old. What did they get instead? A man on a donkey. Not one looking much like a king. Jesus did make a few moves against the ills of the world back then. He healed some incurable diseases. He even raised people from the dead. He fed hungry people. And the folks in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday sensed something of this when he arrived. So they raised their palm branches. They shouted their hosannas. They laid their garments on the ground before him. But they didn’t stick to it, did they?

It wasn’t long before the road in front of Jesus took some terrible twists and turns. It was only days later that they shouted for the death of Jesus as the Roman soldiers were dressing Jesus in a mock crown – one made of thorns – and mocking him, and draping a purplish robe over his shoulders.

Are we as confused as they were about Jesus this Palm Sunday? Is he the Lamb who is worthy of honor, and glory, and blessing? What really answers the question for us is what happens next Sunday. Then we learn that it isn’t the humbled Jesus we have before us, but the risen and victorious Lord, who is before us. This is our Lord who humbled himself and was obedient unto the cross, that cross that is a sign of shame and horror. On Easter all that humbling is behind him, and Paul can say here in Philippians “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name.” In glory and the highest majesty, Jesus is exalted over all in heaven and on earth and under the earth, in other words, in every place and time that there is. Jesus is honored so that he might receive praise and honor and blessing.

The Servant so lowly becomes the King most glorious. This is the reason we even take a second look at the lone figure on the donkey outside Jerusalem this Palm Sunday. We don’t want to turn away too soon. We want to stick with him long enough to see him exalted above all in heaven and earth. We don’t want to turn away until we submit ourselves to him and confess him as our Lord. The risen Lord Jesus, shining with the brilliant light of Heaven, vanquished the storm clouds and the darkness of death itself. This is why we even bother with Jesus as he rides slowly into Jerusalem. We know how his story turns out.

And we continue to bother about him. We bother enough to bend our knees and confess him as our Lord and Savior. We bother enough to introduce our friends to him. Today is the first day when we even think about looking beyond ourselves. What a change there has been. At first this man on the donkey was not much to look at as he rode into Jerusalem. Now, through the lens of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we see that this is an amazing thing happening here. This man on the donkey is heading down a road to pain and death for us. He is headed to certain death for us. We are drawn to him. And God has exalted him in the highest. We join with the voices of millions Christians this morning and sing our Hosannas to the Lord. Together we confess Christ our servant Lord Jesus. And we turn to help others in imitation of our Lord.

Taking time this Holy Week to join the procession outside Jerusalem, visiting the upper room and garden, stopping at the judgment hall, standing eventually at the foot of the cross, we complete our own pilgrimage. We launch into lives of service to others, modeling ourselves on the truest hero, our servant King, Jesus.

Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus our Lord.

S.D.G.