Palm Sunday (C) 2013

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

Text: Luke 19:38
Theme: Ill-Fated or Divinely Directed

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. That first Palm Sunday was the start of Passover, the week in which Jesus was arrested, tried, sentenced, and crucified. Christ’s entry into Jerusalem began with great fanfare and expectation. The crowds welcomed Him with shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”1 By Friday things got ugly. They were more than disappointed with His mission. They let themselves be ruled by mob mentality. But, “The One enthroned in heaven laughs.”2

Serious consideration of who Jesus Christ is, what He did and what it means has been steadily declining in our culture of apathy and relativism. There isn’t much of an appetite for a plan of divine intervention. To some skeptics the crucifixion of Jesus was not divinely-directed but rather ill-fated. The ministry of the healer of Nazareth came to a tragic end and His mission had to be resuscitated later by His followers. This view relegates Jesus Christ to the annals of history affording subsequent generations only the opportunity to ponder His accomplishments. Of course this is not the perspective of faith. And it exercises little restraint in criticizing the Almighty. The most foolish are often the most bold.

But we should be reticent in making excuses for ourselves. How easily we too can be led astray when things aren’t going our way; when God doesn’t fit into our box? We are tempted to join the crowds and condemn Christ (though often secretly and with great piety) for failing to meet our needs. This can quickly lead to a loss of perspective. Prosperous independence from Him is an illusion. It is Satan’s deception. The devil would have it that we always underestimate the gravity of sin.

Can you stand up under the scrutiny of the Almighty? Can you endure His gaze? Can you give account for your transgressions? Will you put yourself up against the heroes of the faith who still required forgiveness? Moses was not allowed to cross into the promised land3. David was not allowed to build the temple4. St. Paul was kept humble by a thorn in the flesh5. Are we more virtuous? Dare we harbor secret thoughts that our own righteousness is sufficient?

Sin is not just a therapeutic problem. It is an existential crisis. The dimensions and consequences of sin are beyond our comprehension, let alone our control. Yes, the struggle against temptation and sin’s fruit- self-centeredness- is daily, hourly, even ‘minutely’. Such wrestling characterizes the Christian life. The Holy Spirit leads us in this tussle. Willful sin does not reign unchecked in the believer. The believer, resists, regrets, repents and seeks forgiveness for each failure. This way of the Christian life never ceases because the guilt of sin is not ‘manageable’. We can never be satisfied that we’ve ‘gotten on top of it’. We never reach perfection in this life. Nor can we concede to ignorance and apathy.

Christ came to resolve the very real, relevant, and eternal consequences of sin. The antipathy of indifference, His passion was the defining revelation of the heart of God. His sacrifice was a deliberate and unconditional substitution on our behalf. This is the ultimate Good News. Though the Gospel is pure in its simplicity- Christ died for sins and makes us beneficiaries by grace- it cannot be grasped by any natural aptitude or faculties that we possess. The apostle says, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 6 This remains true today. The Holy Spirit gathers His church. He does it through the authoritative application of the forgiveness of sins.

When you receive the declaration “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, you are absolved before God in heaven because of the death and resurrection of Christ. We can say with confidence that the sins of Jessica Anne have been forgiven and she has been welcomed into the kingdom of God. Our basis for confessing this is not some religious sentimentality but the clear words of Holy Scripture. “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”7 His death is the source of our forgiveness. “All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”8

Pray for Jessica, all the newly baptized, and all who have recently been converted to the truth. Apathy, indifference and false security seek to gain the upper hand in the heart and mind. Satan wants nothing more than for us to think that after baptism or confirmation everything is ‘done and dusted’ and we can just sit back and relax. In this way he seeks to slowly suffocate the life of the faithful. Tomorrow marks the Annunciation of our Lord. The angel Gabriel was sent to Mary to announce the conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. His incarnation continues to be the event that sanctifies the life in every womb even as through His word He conceives spiritual life.

Dear friends, Christ died for all. It matters not who you are or what you have done. Pharisees, prostitutes, tax-collectors; murderers, idolaters, adulterers; deceivers, offenders, slanderers are forgiven, one and all. Washed clean in baptismal waters, purified by the blood of the Lamb, clothed with the righteous garments of Christ, cherished by the Bridegroom, tended by the Shepherd, fed with sacrificial fare, we are His treasured possession. Such is the all-sufficiency of His grace! Such is the magnitude of His sacrifice! It is not measurable, not decipherable, not comprehensible. It far excels our grandest imaginations of altruism or compassion.

Then it propels us into the fray with the strength to shed light in our little corner of the world. We live, work, and brush shoulders with people who are full of anxiety and doubt. According to one study, the average person's anxiety is focused 40% on things that will never happen, 30% on things about the past that can't be changed, 12% on things relating to criticism by others, mostly untrue, 10% on health concerns, which gets worse with stress, and 8% on real problems that will be faced. So the average person needlessly wastes a lot of energy that could be used addressing the eight percent.

Though Christians are not immune to worry we see things from a different perspective. We have different allegiances and different motivations. The Lord gave this reminder to Isaiah that applies to us also, “Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, He is the one you are to fear.”9 GK Chesterton reminds us that “Those who marry the spirit of the age will find themselves widows in the next.”

But believers will not be found widows. In Christ there is always hope. In Christ there is calmness. In Christ there is peace. Today the Prince of Peace rode into Jerusalem with humility. Palm branches were waved in excitement but then abandoned in disappointment. There will be no such reversal for those before the throne in heaven who hold palm branches in their hands.10 We look forward to the time we will join them and raise our hosannas. Amen.


+ In nomine Jesu +

Palm Sunday
24 March 2013
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 See John 12:13; Luke 19:38
2 Psalm 2:4
3 See Deuteronomy 34:4
4 See 2 Samuel 7:13
5 See 2 Corinthians 12:7
6 1 Corinthians 1:18
7 Romans 6:3
8 Galatians 3:27
9 Isaiah 8:12-13
10 See Revelation 7:9