Palm Sunday A (2023)

Palm Sunday (Year A) RCL

St. Matthew’s Lutheran, Cornwall

Psalm 118, Matthew 21:1-11, & Matthew 27

The Lord Made Lamb

Today, as we celebrate the feast of Palm Sunday, also known now in these latter days as “Palm Sunday of Our Lord’s Passion. What we see is a few things that might strike us as being a little odd. A little peculiar maybe. I mean yes, obviously we see all the pomp and the circumstance and the branches and the red and all the festal happenings. We see that our Liturgy was a little bit different. We see that today is not quite like other days. That it’s a bit special, a bit different, a bit unique. And that’s all true but if you look closely at the readings that we heard today what you’ll also notice, is that it seems as though two things are happening today. Not just one. And it seems perhaps also, as those those two things might be unrelated, or might even be opposites. Might even be mutually exclusive.

Because on one hand, we have Palm Sunday, that's the whole thing with the branches and the Hosanna stuff and the procession. That’s where we celebrate the triumphal entry of our Lord, seated on a donkey, the foal (the baby) of a donkey. Where His disciples welcome Him into Jerusalem as the Son of David, the long awaited Messianic King who had finally come.

Yet on the other hand, we have also, what is perhaps the longest Gospel reading of the entire church year, and that is the entire passion of Our Lord. Which encompasses and gives you a full overview of everything that happens in the second half of Holy Week, from Maundy Thursday, and almost just quite through to Holy Saturday. With Jesus’ betrayal, crucifixion, death, and, if we were to just read a couple more paragraphs, even His burial.

And maybe these two things seem to be at odds with each other to you. Why is it that on this one day we celebrate the welcome of Christ as the King of the Jews, the Messiah and Savior of Israel, and yet then immediately after we read an exceptionally long and excruciatingly brutal detailing of His betrayal, abandonment, crucifixion, and death? I thought today was a happy day. Today was about Jesus as King, Jesus as Lord, Jesus as triumphant, accepted, and welcomed...

So today, let us focus in upon these readings. Upon the mysterious connection between His welcome, and His betrayal and bitter suffering and death. And in order to do that I would ask you to turn with me back to Psalm 118, where this whole concept of Palm Sunday comes from,and let’s see what exactly it is that’s happening on this day of all days. On this Palm Sunday – OF OUR LORD’S PASSION.

Psalm 118 see, is and was actually, for the O.T. Jews, (such as Jesus and the disicples and all people there in Jerusalem), what’s called a “processional” hymn, for the Jewish feast of tabernacles. Also called the feast of Booths. Also called the Feast of Sukkot. And that feast, without saying too much about it (you can ask me more about it later if you want), was a feast where they made little huts with Palm branches and slept in those instead of their houses in preparation for Passover. And what is Passover? - does anyone know? Passover – is the Jewish feast commemorating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, THROUGH THE SUBSTITUTION DEATH of the Passover Lamb, killed, cooked, and eaten. And so, this Psalm, sung as a processional hymn IN PREPARATION for the substitutionary and sacrificial death of the lamb, and the eating of its flesh by which the Israelites were liberated from slavery, they sung THIS;

Give thanks to the Lord.For His mercy endures forever. Let Israel now say that the Lord is Good.For His mercy endures forever. Let the house of Aron now say that He is good. For His mercy endures forever. Let all who fear the Lord now say that HE is good. ForHis mercy endures forever.

You see, as they prepared themselves for Passover, and ushered in the death of the Passover lamb, they usheredthat Lamb in with songs of the mercy of God. With songs of forgiveness. And we sing, He (the Lord) has become my salvation. For He is my strength and my song. And has become my salvation. We will give thanks to Him, becauseHe has become our salvation. For He has heard us, and has become our salvation. We sing this not once, not twice, but three times. For His mercy endures forever. And all of this is focused upon and is shaped around the central piece of this Psalm, which is the sacrificial Lamb.Open the gate of righteousness, let all who are righteous enter there in. Lord save us. Save now. Process toward the altar, branches in hand, bind up the sacrifice. For the Lord has come. He has come to give us salvation. He has come, to become our salvation, He has come to BE our salvation, He has come to BE the Lamb who was slain... for our salvation. This is the mercy of God.

You see, this Psalmand the Feast of Passover itself, ARE ABOUT WHAT? This Psalm, and the feast of passovr, THESE ARE ABOUT WHO? This Psalm – and this Feast of Passover that they were preparing for , were about none other than Christ – and particularly, these are about Christ as He was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins. These are about Christ – as the Lamb of God, being sacrificed for you, dying for you, and giving His flesh for you to eat that YOU might receive the mercy of God, the liberation from slavery to sin, death, and hell, and so be saved in Him, by Him, through Him, and because of Him.

And as we sing this song of MERCY and of salvation and of sacrifice, we sing also in verse 17 and 18 of this Psalmthat becauseof this, WE WILL NOT DIE, BUT LIVE. That indeed the Lord will not give us up into the hands of death.Why? How? Because in His mercy HE has gone to die our death for us, and in our place. And by doing so He has become our salvation.

And so we sing of this good news of resurrection, and of the renunciation of death because in His death we have life. Because, as the ancient church has sung for 2 thousand years, He (the Lamb of God who was slain for YOU) has trampled down DEATH BY DEATH, AND on those in the tombs, HE HAS BESTOWED LIFE.

And so, turning back then to Matthew 21 (V. 1-11), we see all the more clearly exactly what it is that’s unfolding before our eyes. They’re singing, and they’re DOING Psalm 118.

Hosannah – Hossanah – Hossanah, cried the crowd of disciples as they quoted Psalm 118 while ushering Jesus into the city of Jerusalem; the city that stones the prophets and kills those who are sent to her. Hosanna they cried, as they laid their cloaks on the road before the feet of his humble donkey. Hosanna they cried, as they with branches in hand ushered in the sacrificial victim, and bound him to the horns of the altar. Hosanna they cried, asthey ushered in the one to be fastened to the cross. Quoting Psalm 118 – and DOING Psalm 118.

Hosanna. Hosanna. Hosanna. What does that mean?

It means; “save us, we pray.” Save us, they cried.

Save – us. That is, by your death. Not by your life. Not by a long-lived reign in political power and might. Not bygiving us 10 or 12 steps to a better life. Not by encouraging or empoweringbehavioural change or moral revival in society. Not even by stirring up spiritual revival in the Jewish Synagogue or in thetemple worship.No., but as a sacrifice. Save us. As a substitute to suffer and die in our place,save us. By your holy and precious blood, save us. By your innocent suffering and death, save us. By your passion and crucifixion, save us.

This right here is the wholemeaning of Palm Sunday. It is the triumphal entry of theLord made lamb. Of the sovereign made sacrifice. And of the King who had come to be crucified.

For this reason, we celebrate Palm Sunday and the Passion of Our Lord together as one. Because as we usher Him in as our King, as the saviour of humanity, we do so toward the altar where He becomes that saviour by His passionatesuffering and death. Because as we welcome Him as our King, we do so by seating Him upon the cross, where He is enthroned in the glory of Hishumiliation. His cross is His throne. The ripped flesh draped off His back is His robe of royalty. The thorns piercing His brow, His crown of glory. His crucifixion is His coronation as the Lord of all. As His life ends, His reign as the King of life begins.

His death, ourLife. His sacrifice, our salvation.

And that’s just what we hear in our Long Passion reading too, isn’t it? For what happens as He dies? Look with meif you will, at Matthew 27, v. 50.as He died, in that very moment, SOMETHING HAPPENED. For as He died, in that very moment the veil in the temple was torn in two. And the earth shook, and the rocks split, and the TOMBS broke open. For His death had given them life. And many of the saints who had died rose from the dead.

And all of that, from His death. His death was not some merely sentimental thing that we quietly believe in our hearts or hold close to our chest as quaint little personal opinions. The crucifixion of Christ and His subsequent resurrection is not a private matter. But is one that SHOOK THE EARTH, THAT BLACKEDOUT THE SUN, THAT SPLIT ROCKS, AND THAT ROSE THE DEAD. LITERALLY.

That is what we celebrate here today. And that is what happens here every single Sunday.For as the crowd of disciples ushered Jesus into Jerusalem as the sacrifice to die that life-giving death on palm sunday, so now the church does the very same thing every single time that we prepare for the Lord’s Supper

Singing as they did, HOSANNA, IN , THE HIGHEST, BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD – HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST. SAVEUS!

And we do that and we sing that, becauseas we do that, we do exactly what the disciples did on Palm Sunday. Becauseas we sing this we, like them, are ushering in the Mercy of God, and the salvation of God, in the person and the death of Christ, God in flesh.who for us,is was, and will forever be, our perfect sacrifice. Because as we sing hosanna, save us, we usher Him toward the altar, where He promised to be for us, that there as He presents us with His flesh given and His blood shed unto death, that we might have the forgiveness of sins, the mercy of God, eternal salvation, and everlasting life THROUGH HIS DEATH. That is the promise of the Gospel. That is the point of Palm Sunday. That is the mission that was accomplished in our Lord’s Passion. And that is the reality of the sacrament of Holy Communion.

For here too, just as upon that cross is the sacrificed lamb, who died once for all for the forgiveness of your sins. Here, just as upon that cross, in this very moment, and in this very place, SOMETHING IS HAPPENING. Anditsthe kind of thing that shakes the earth, that splits rocks, that tears veils, and that raises the dead from out of their tombs.

Right here and right now in that sacrament of our Lord’s death– is given to youeternal lifethrough the eating and drinking of Hisbody given and the blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins.

That is what we have ushered into our midst this day, and every single other Sunday.

For Christ has trampled down death by death. And on those in the tombs He has bestowed life.

IN the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.