Palm Sunday, (4-1-07)
Sir, we would see JESUS!
Emmanuel, Asheville, NC

Philippians 2: 1-11
In the Name of JESUS!

“Having the Mind of Christ Jesus”

Beloved in the Lord, please pray with me:

O Christ, Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
O Christ, Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
O Christ, Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us Your peace. Amen.

In the name of Jesus, our humble Savior and glorious Redeemer, dear friends:

Do you hear that sound of great rejoicing? What is it? It’s the rustle of palm branches and people shouting, “Hosanna!” as they also throw their outer cloaks upon the road in front of that Man from Nazareth riding on the donkey. What’s happening? Ah, the King is coming! What an awesome event that was! It was so astounding that we try to replicate it each year as we celebrate Palm Sunday. So shout it out, dear friends, “Hosanna! Hosanna! The King is coming!” Yes, join me as we lift our praises to heaven, “Hosanna! Hosanna! The King is coming!”

As you shout your “Hosannas,” you are both lifting up a word of praise, as well as the cry to God that pleads, “Save, we pray!” And we join the first Palm Sunday crowd in adding, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” This joyous victory parade is even meant for us today, for it did not happen by mere chance on the whim of the people.

Five centuries before that day, God through Zechariah foretold this event when he wrote, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” [9: 9] Our heavenly Father had set this victory parade in place as one of His great saving acts by His Son, Jesus Christ. Incidentally, since it took 500 years finally to take place, this is a vivid reminder that God’s time-clock and our own are often not the same. Thus Scripture reminds us over and over to, “Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. Wait for the Lord.” [ Psalm 27:14]

But is Christ the King the crowd said He was? Look again at the scene. There’s no charging white stallion, the normal mode of transportation for kings of that day – only a lowly donkey, and then one that no one had ever ridden before, but subservient nevertheless to its rider. There’s no royal purple robe – only the unbleached linen cloak of a poor man. No jewels deck His garment, but there will be ruby red blood stains in just five days. There’s no crown, except a crown of thorns that awaits Him, too. No golden scepter does Jesus hold in His hand. Instead there would be a lowly reed placed in His hands by mocking soldiers. No earthly throne awaits Him except two rough hewn, notched wooden members forming a cross, the instrument of the cruelest form of execution devised by mankind.

Who is this Jesus of Nazareth that receives the crowd‚Äôs adoration? Hidden beneath of the fa?ßade of the lowly carpenter‚Äôs son is none other than the eternal God, come to rescue His people. Plainly He could tell His disciples, ‚ÄúI and the Father are One.‚Äù [John 10: 30] Years later, St. Paul, who started out in life as an enemy of Jesus, after his conversion could testify, ‚ÄúIn Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.‚Äù [Colossians 2:9} The Apostle reminds us in today‚Äôs Epistle that Jesus, ‚Äúbeing in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.‚Äù [2: 6] Thus, today on the basis of Holy Scripture‚Äôs witness, we confess concerning Jesus that He is ‚ÄúGod of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made.‚Äù Christ is our heavenly King.

However, to those living in His day, our Lord had no resemblance to an earthly king. In fact, Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But My kingdom is from another place.” [John 19: 36] Outwardly Christ’s realm has no likeness to worldly kingdoms. Thus our Epistle reading for the day reminds us that He “made Himself nothing,” i.e., He emptied Himself, “taking the very nature of a slave, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death – even death on a cross!” [2: 7-8] Days before the crucifixion our Savior told His friends, “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.”

The great paradox in God’s Kingdom is that humiliation is the path to glory. Jesus Himself saw that His shameful death on the cross was the very moment of His greatest glorification, when He told His disciples about His impending death and said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him.” [John 13: 31] Paul repeats that same truth in today’s text, Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” {2: 9-11}

If we meditate on all this prayerfully with the Lord‚Äôs help, there‚Äôs a powerful, pointed lesson in all we‚Äôve considered together. The path chosen by our fallen world and that by our loving God to glory and honor is radically different. The world‚Äôs path is in seeking status, prestige, accumulating the most riches and things and pleasures, and in having the most servants. One can gain the world‚Äôs applause that way for a time. One can almost hear the world shouting, ‚ÄúThere‚Äôs a great man! Let him be the one you imitate.‚Äù Tragically, our sinful nature is such that we all get easily caught in that mindset and deathtrap at times. 

But where is God in that picture and what will be the end of such a person without a radical change? Our Lord plaintively reminds us, ‚ÄúWhat shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?‚Äù [Mark 8: 38] 

It is just because we too often follow the pattern of the world that Christ entered Jerusalem that day with His eyes set firmly on His impending glorification in His death for our sins. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death – even death on a cross that in the shedding of His blood He might wash all our sin away and reclaim us as the forgiven children of our heavenly Father. The hymn writer correctly penned his words on the basis of Scripture concerning Jesus, “His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood avails for me!” Thank God! That’s true – eternally true!

However, in our text today, Paul is telling us that not at some future point, but even now, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: . . . who humbled Himself!” Beginning with today we are to have a very different mindset – the mindset of Christ. We are to have different motives than the world, a whole new outlook. That is to be our goal each and every day.

But how do I acquire this even if I see it as most desirable both for time and eternity? In asking that question, I’m in deep trouble. For notice where I’m looking! – At myself! That’s not humbling myself as Christ emptied Himself. That’s looking to the “BIG I” to bring about the change. No, this mindset will become ours more and more only as we flee to our Lord and plead with Him to create and nourish this new outlook within us and daily to purge us of the old way of looking at and doing our own thing. We can only flee to the Rock that is higher than ourselves, Jesus Christ, and to stand in wonder and awe at the vastness of Christ’s love which led Him to the cross. That immeasurable love caused our merciful God to empty Himself and become obedient unto death – even death on a cross, so that we are not only forgiven, but have His help, the guidance of His Word and Spirit, and the precious body and blood of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper to grow in being imitators of Jesus Himself to the glory of God the Father. And so we cry out with the Palm Sunday children and adults who were Jesus’ friends, “HOSANNA! Save, Lord, we pray!” Amen.

To GOD alone be glory!
© The Reverend Frederick A. Stiemke, Vacancy Pastor