Palm Sunday

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +

Text: Luke 19:38
Theme: “In the Name of the Lord”

Dear baptized in the Lord Jesus,

As Jesus enters Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week people greet Him with hope and praise. They adorn His route with palm branches and lay down their garments indicating their high view of what He has done and might further do. The first Palm Sunday was about expectations- and they were high. The prophet from Nazareth had already changed the lives of many. He impressed people with His authoritative teaching and His miracles. Now maybe something could happen on a grander scale. Would He overturn the political and social institutions? Would he usher in a new era? The people were abuzz wondering about the possibilities.

It was a stark contrast to the mood five days later. There He hung dying tragically on a cross. What kind of hope could be realized in the pending death of this man? More than 2000 years later the debate still rages about the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Was it all in vain or did it really change the world? The Bible calls us to clear witness of what these events means and warns us about engaging in the sophistry of the world. When rebuked by the Pharisees for letting His followers publicly worship Him as God Jesus replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”1 The church’s cry must be unequivocal: Christ is crucified for sins!

The way an issue is “spun” is often critical for its public acceptance. For example, supporters of abortion are careful to say little or nothing about the victim or the procedure itself, focusing only on the alleged rights of the mother. Advocates know that if people saw the process of late-term abortion, many would be horrified. Even if people understood the emotional and spiritual trauma involved the matter would be much more strongly opposed: Out of sight out of mind. Christians recognize life as sacred. From conception to grave it is pure gift. Made in His image each person is endowed by Him with a soul. Sin throws the orientation, understanding, and appreciation of this God-given life into chaos and darkness. Like Cain wandering in exile2 we find no permanent resting place until we rest in God alone.

But human reason fights desperately against arriving at this destination. We’d rather construct a refuge of our own. People may be open to the idea of God facilitating their understanding of happiness, security and well-being; but to risk leaving all things to the wisdom of God is another matter. The bottom line is we don’t readily trust God to look after our well-being and we don’t naturally believe that the most important thing we need from Him is salvation. Like the first Palm Sunday worshippers were soon to discover, Jesus comes to address what we need not necessarily what we’d prefer. To clarify and come to terms with this is the unending work of the church.

Remember how Jesus taught His disciples to pray? “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.”3 Here is the heart of the matter. Yet this forgiveness often seems to people to be so irrelevant, so peripheral, even perhaps, so unnecessary. This type of thinking underpins the modern drive to change the church into primarily a social and therapeutic community. People don’t see the point in making a big issue about the forgiveness of sins. This is how the devil would have it. He desires to make the forgiveness of sins appear so mundane, uninteresting, and ineffective so as to almost be a waste of time. But without it we are crippled to one degree or another and finally we would be lost

Dear friends, we are all sinners. Believe that the greatest human need is always to be reconciled to the Father. This happens only through His Son. The Holy Spirit draws you here for that very purpose. The minister stands in the stead of Christ and declares in the name of the triune God that the sins of the repentant are forgiven. This assurance of absolution is valid before God in heaven. Your lapses into lust or selfishness or greed; your worry and doubt about your image among peers; your tactless indiscretions and mishandling of truth; your intentional unkindness and ingratitude towards co-workers, family, and friends; your cold-hearted lack of concern for those in need; the transgressions of your dark past and the failings of the present; these are washed away by the blood of the Lamb.

The gift of your baptism is the divine pledge that the punishment for your sins was laid upon Jesus at the cross. It involves entrance into new life because those who die with Him live with Him through the power of His resurrection. You bear that new life even in the midst of this world of decay. The struggle of baptismal living, of bearing the cross, is the struggle of confessing with your very life that which seems to contradict the evidence at hand. You may scarcely feel like you’re able to forgive yourself, let alone be reconciled to your spouse or others. But Christ bears this burden. What we desperately want to grasp with tangible reliability the Holy Spirit makes all the more certain through divine promise. The Spirit spares you from your own unstable assessment of whether the forgiveness offered to you is really true and piles all the accountability on Christ.

Then it is our privilege to make forgiveness tangible to others. Despite our intense feelings of hurt and anger we are called to accept those who seek to be reconciled to us in true repentance. Jesus said, “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”4 Not surprisingly the apostles responded by saying to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”5 Remember, the forgiveness you extend to others is a small reflection of divine absolution. Most crucially, in this aspect: The giving and receiving of grace. Forgiveness doesn’t settle all matters of fairness, justice, or who is in the right; in fact, it often overlooks these.

If you’ve become accustomed to thinking that forgiveness in your relationships is contingent upon first sorting out who is in the wrong, then you’ve completely misunderstood the gospel. You are operating under a human standard of justice that is necessary for the functioning of society but is not the basis upon which Christians imitate the reconciliation of Christ. We typically want others brought to justice, but do we understand what justice means for us spiritually! It would mean certain and unequivocal condemnation. Before God- our sins exposed and exposed as sinners- we are guilty, unholy, powerless, and spiritually naked. But divine love settled the matter of justice at the cross. Believers are freed from the sentence of condemnation. The gates to hell are slammed shut and locked. Christ has the only key.

What those first Palm Sunday worshippers wanted was a man who would overturn the institutions of society what they got was a Redeemer who overthrew much greater and sinister powers. They sought someone who would give them temporal provision and freedom from political tyranny, they received a Saviour that provided spiritual sustenance and freedom from the consequences of sin and death. But they didn’t understand this at the time. We might ask whether we understand it any better today. Christ doesn’t take you out of the world but He ultimately liberates you from its fallenness. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”6 Amen.

+ in nomine Jesu +

Palm/Passion Sunday
28 March 2010 Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 19:40
2 See Genesis 4:12
3 Luke 11:4
4 Luke 17:3-4
5 Luke 17:5
6 Luke 19:38