2025-04-13 Palm Sunday

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

You drive around town these days and what do you see? Election signs. ’Tis that time again. All the federal candidates of various stripes are out there pushing their ideas and policies. Door knocking and flyers. Social media campaigns. Attack ads. Fear tactics. No matter who it is, it’s always the same old thing. They promise you the moon to get elected and then it’s a downward spiral. “If you vote for me all of your wildest dreams will come true!” We’ve seen it all before. But I came across the Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Index from 2023. They were looking at professions and which ones people thought were trustworthy. Doctors, Scientists, Teachers, and Armed Forces members were among the top. Lawyers, Pollsters and Clergy were in the middle. And at the very bottom of the pile? Yep. You guessed it. Politicians. The truth is obvious and couldn’t be more clear. Doctors, Scientists and Teachers paid Ipsos more money to publish these favourable statistics!

But politics is high on the agenda for Palm Sunday! In fact, that’s what the whole hullabaloo was about! Jesus is coming to Jerusalem at the very height of His popularity. The teachings. The sermons. The miracles. They all worked together to reveal to the world that the long-promised Messiah of old was finally here. But what did that mean? What was the mindset of those people 2000 years ago? What were they looking for? They were looking for a politician. A political ruler. A guy who would unite the Jewish people and overthrow the Roman tyrants militarily. You couldn’t have a limp-wristed, lilly-livered leader to do that! No, no. You needed a strong and mighty military leader. The veritable Schwarzenegger-Saviour who would challenge and kill Caesar in cold blood in the heart of the Roman coliseum! You needed a glorious King who would ride into town on chariots of gold with war horses and armies and power unlike the world had ever seen!

This is what the people wanted. This is who they were looking for. This is the reason they cut the palm branches and waved them with shouts of Hosanna! This is why they spread their cloaks on the ground. “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” God’s conquering King and military Messiah was coming. At long last, the people of Israel would be liberated from their oppressors once more! They would take their rightful place as rulers over the pagan, pig-eating gentiles! The nations would bow the knee to the Chosen People once again. Peace and glory would resound through the generations for thousands of years! The Dynasty of David would reign forever!

But the masses missed the mark. Jesus rides into Jerusalem, not on golden chariots and war horses but rather on a donkey. We tend to think, well ya, donkeys are cute and fun, with the “heein’” and the “hawin’”, just like in the movie Shrek! Who doesn’t love the antics of donkey! But there is actually a lot of meaning here with this method of transportation. There’s more to the donkey than meets the eye. There are two things happening in parallel. One of course is the Messianic reference back to Zechariah 9:9 “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.” No doubt the people were thinking of this prophecy. But the other is a cultural reference. In ancient times, kings would ride donkeys to announce that every enemy had been defeated and every threat of opposition had been vanquished. A warhorse was no longer needed because there was peace.

But this seems kind of backwards, doesn’t it? Jesus rides into town on the donkey, before defeating His enemies. He enters into the great city for battle, but He’s defenceless. He knows what those who oppose Him have resolved to do to Him. So we clearly see that our Lord comes to be the kind of King the world would never understand: one who conquers His enemies by surrendering to them, one who crushes His opposition by letting it crush Him, one whose Kingly exaltation includes lowly and willing humiliation. This is the kind of King we have marching into battle as one of us and for all of us this week, as He makes His journey to the cross.

But the battle truly is already won. That’s the reason for the donkey. The Prince of Peace rides on in triumph knowing that the battle for mankind is already in the bag. How do we know this? St. John told us, way back at Christmas. Do you remember? “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14). The lowly King, born in the Bethlehem manger was born to set us free. Not from political opposition. Not from world governments and tyrannical oppressors. But rather from sin, death and the devil. These are the true tyrants. These are the worst of the worst. These are the true puppet masters - evil politicians and corrupt regimes and earthly rulers are just the puppets. This is why we take such confidence in the Scriptures that tell us plainly “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes” (Psalm 118:8-9).

This is why our Lord Jesus can ride into town triumphantly. God became Man to redeem fallen humanity from our spiritual oppressors. Peace with God and people is the real goal. Healing the rift and bridging the gap. This is what our Lord Jesus has come to do for us. He opens our eyes to truth of God’s Kingdom. He wakes us from our spiritual slumber. Life with God is possible, and abundant life at that. Life that is more than just the earthly stuff we get so upset about. Politics and politicians and the absolute hysteria that the media tries to consume you with, day in and day out - will any of it matter in 50 years from now? 100 years from now?! Hardly.

The Kingdom of God, on the other hand, is actually what matters. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what lasts forever. This is the eternal focus that Palm Sunday and Holy Week bring to our eyes. The battle is truly already won. It’s exactly what St. Paul writes in Romans: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:31-39).

Through the eyes of faith you see that it was for you that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts of Hosannas! It was for you that Jesus sat at the table in the upper room and made the Passover meal of His own body and blood for the remembrance of His death that is our life. It was for you that Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane “Father, not my will but yours be done.” It was for you that Jesus was betrayed by His own hand-picked apostle. It was for you that Jesus was betrayed and rejected by the Pharisees and the chief priests. It was for you that Jesus was tried and convicted as an innocent man, sentenced to die. It was for you that Jesus’ life was exchanged for that of a convicted criminal. It was for you that Jesus hung on an old rugged cross showing beyond the shadow of a doubt the Love of God that is indeed for you!

This is the message that matters. This is the message that saves the world. This is the message that forgives sins and defeats the devil. This is the message that conquers death. The Passion story is more than just a history of Jesus Christ and His suffering and death. Rather it is the amazing story of your salvation! It is your history as a Baptized child of God in Christ! It was a story that began when the water touched your head and you believed that God’s Word was for you. So it is with wide open eyes of faith that we ourselves run out to greet this humble, righteous King with Palms and shouts of Hosannas! For in Him is our salvation and the life of the world. Hosanna! “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Amen!