March 25, 2015 Palm Sunday Text: Mark 11:1-10 1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? say, The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately. 4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5 And some of those standing there said to them, What are you doing, untying the colt? 6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! A six-year-old came home from Palm Sunday services proudly carrying his palm branch in his hand. Mom and Dad asked him what he learned at church. He responded enthusiastically, Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey. And the happy people waved their palm branches and sang, O Suzanna. Well, no, they were not singing O Suzanna, They were singing Hosanna.... Hosanna in the highest. 1 Hosanna is a Hebrew expression that originally meant save I pray. But let s look at our text. We pick up the story on the night before Palm Sunday. Jesus, his disciples, and thousands of other pilgrims were making the annual trip to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Many of them had been traveling alongside Jesus. And quite a few had come to know him as their Savior. On the eve of Palm Sunday, we find that the multitude had bedded down in the village of Bethany. 2 When morning arrived, Jesus and the multitude prepared to make the last two-mile trip to Jerusalem. But shortly after they left Bethany, Jesus made everyone stop at the tiny village of Bethphage. To two of his disciples Jesus said, Go into the village lying before you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? say, The Lord has need of it and he will send it back here immediately. 3 So the two went. They found the donkey and its colt and began to untie them. When the owner asked what they were doing, they replied as the Lord had instructed them. And immediately he gave them permission and the animals were brought to Jesus. Why did Jesus have need of this animal? 4 The apostles don t know. The pilgrim multitude doesn t know. But Jesus knows. He knows that he must now fulfill Zechariah s 550 year-old Page 1 of 5
prophecy. And it is by means of a common donkey that he fulfills it. The ancient prophecy reads, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zech. 9:9) If, for whatever reason, this prophecy had not been fulfilled, Jesus would have been disqualified from being the Messiah! Thus, every Christian should utter a heartfelt prayer, saying, Thank you Lord Jesus for knowing our needs, for fulfilling this prophecy, and doing everything necessary for our salvation. We move on. The march to Jerusalem continues. Jesus was now riding on the colt. Our text reads, And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest! 5 Over and over again, they sang the beautiful word hosanna. Hosanna is a Hebrew expression that comes from Psalm 118:25. When it was first written, it meant what someone would say if he couldn t swim and fell off a high-dive platform. Panic overtakes him. He hits the water and cries out at the top of his lungs, saying, Help me! Save me! Somebody save me! The key thought here is panic. But by Jesus day it had come to mean something a little different. Suppose the same non-swimmer fell off the same diving platform. But now he is not panicky. He has no fear. When he hits the water he doesn t scream, Somebody save me! Why? It s because on the way down, he sees that the lifeguard is already swimming toward him to save him. 6 He doesn t need to fear because his lifeguard is near! So when the multitude in our text, shouts Hosanna they are saying Our Lifeguard has come! They are saying that Jesus is their saving Lifeguard! They are saying, Jesus is all we need and all we shall ever need! How wonderful! Jesus is hailed as the One who saves and who saves them and all mankind eternally! See the King of Salvation! Behold He comes not as an earthly king with an army of warriors and chariots. No he comes as the lowly Savior mounted on the most unkingly of animals. Even when mounted on a lowly donkey, the multitudes hail him as their saving Messianic Lifeguard! Page 2 of 5
And even when he is nailed to the cross, his death is our salvation. Indeed, his death is our life! From the world s perspective the whole thing is downright laughable. The world says, Jesus, if you are really a king, get off that donkey of yours and take possession of your kingdom if you can. But Jesus says to them, I ride on a donkey because, as I said to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. 7 My glory is not to rule with power but to die for sinners. My glory is to suffer and die to reconcile them to my Father. My glory is to die for sinners so that I can give them life, spiritual and eternal life! But the world can neither take it in nor understand it. But we do. So Jesus rides on. His triumphant death march continues. Just five days later he will hang on a cross to atone for your sins and mine. Yes, he paid in full the debt of human sin. His resurrection proves this this is so. Do you trust in him for your salvation? Then you possess saving faith. And you are a child of the living God! But do not presume that you are a Christian if you live a life of impenitence or let sin rule in your body. No, Christians live lives of constant repentance. They fight against their sins. And where there is repentance, there is life and salvation! My friends, God has entrusted his saving power to his Church. He seeks lost sinners through the proclamation of the Law and the Gospel. He finds them through his Word. St. Paul final instructions to Timothy, his successor, were these: Preach the word. 8 And God says to his Church today, Preach and teach that impenitence damns. Preach and teach the saving work of my Son! Preach and teach the Gospel. Preach and teach that the Holy Spirit makes disciples by baptism and teaching. Lord, we ask, is that all there is? Don t we have to do something? Never, says Jesus, for all is done. When I said from the cross, It is finished! I have done it all for you. And it can never be undone. My death is your life. My death is your forgiveness. My death is your salvation. I have come only for sinners. All that I have earned for you is yours by trusting in me. What a victory! And, behold, all of heaven sings a new song: Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and blessing and glory! 9 And the Lord reminds pastors to occupy themselves by continuing to learn more and more of God s Word. The Lord says to all pastors, Preach and teach from the overflow of your learning. Only then can you preach and teach with integrity and authority. Only then can you administer the Sacraments with joy as you distribute God s gifts to God s people. Page 3 of 5
To all believers, he says, Occupy yourselves with learning my Word. Be present in Divine Service, for it is there that I shall feed your faith through Word, water, bread, and wine. So it is that today our focus has been on Christ s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. With the multitudes on that first Palm Sunday, we praise God with joy. And to Jesus we also sing Hosanna! With them we say, Our Lifeguard has come! Our Lifeguard dove into the cesspool of our sins and put us safely on firm ground! Indeed, our Savior has come. He gives us life by laying down his! His death march is our triumphant march to eternal life. Therefore, with them and with the Church throughout the ages, we sing, Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Yes, in the saving name of Jesus we rest our souls. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria! Page 4 of 5
Endnotes 1 See Mark 11:9-10. 2 On Bethany, see John 12:2. 3 See Mark 11:2-3, author s translation. 4 I have used the plural animals even though Mark and Luke do not mention two. But Matthew uses the plural. For this reason, I have retained Matthew s plural. Perhaps, this is a minor point, but critics will point out a seeming contradiction between Mark/Luke and Matthew. But we should mention that neither Mark nor Luke say that there was only one. Mark and Luke focus on the one that Jesus used. 5 See Mark 11:8-10. 6 The Word hosanna is a transliteration of the Hebrew words hoshiya na found in Psalm 118:25. John Piper gives a helpful explanation of what the people of Jesus day were saying about him on Palm Sunday. About hosanna, he writes, Save, please! It is a cry to God for help. Like when somebody pushes out off the diving board before you can swim and you come up hollering: Help, save me Hoshiya na! But something happened to that phrase, hoshiya na. The meaning changed over the years. In the psalm it was immediately followed by the exclamation: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! The cry for help, hoshiya na, was answered almost before it came out of the psalmist's mouth. And over the centuries the phrase hoshiya na stopped being a cry for help in the ordinary language of the Jews. Instead it became a shout of hope and exultation. It used to mean, Save, please! But gradually it came to mean, Salvation! Salvation! Salvation has come! It used to be what you would say when you fell off the diving board. But it came to be what you would say when you see the lifeguard coming to save you! It is the bubbling over of a heart that sees hope and joy and salvation on the way and can't keep it in. So Hosanna! means, Hooray for salvation! It's coming! It's here! Salvation! Salvation! And Hosanna to the Son of David! means, The Son of David is our salvation! Hooray for the king! Salvation belongs to the king! See http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper83/032783e.htm. 7 Jesus says this on Good Friday when Pilate is interviewing him. To Pontius Pilate, Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world (ESV). 8 In 2 Timothy 4:1-2, Paul says to Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching (ESV). 9 See Revelation 5:12, NKJV. Page 5 of 5