- Psalmody: Psalm 22:19, 21; 1a; Psalm 73:23b–24, 1–3; Psalm 22:1–8, 17b–18, 21, 23a, 31; Psalm 69:20–21; Matthew 26:42b
- Lection: Zechariah 9:9–12; Philippians 2:5–11; Matthew 26:1—27:66
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Man is quite confident about our desires. We are sure about what we want and when we want it and that we know best. History testifies against us. We live in earthly kingdoms, all subservient to the eternal Kingdom of God, yet we demand and impose earthly wisdom upon its existence. No Kings, We have no king but Caesar, God save the king, Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? Behold your King! Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone. Thanks be to God that He didn’t remain there, alone, separated from us by our own selfish ways and demands of Him to be the king that we want, the way that we want. Instead, He gives the good word, foretold through the prophet Zechariah, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Who is the king that you would have Him be? Or, rather, if you could have Him change anything for you, what would you have King Jesus do as your life enters into yet another Holy Week? Would it be that He mercifully grant that you may follow the example of His patience; that you would be made partaker of His resurrection; that He would multiply in your heart the gifts of His holy grace so that you fear Him more, love Him more, trust Him more; that you call upon His Name in relief and delight; that you would come to yearn for His Word and Holy Communion so much that nothing would keep you from them? Would it be for a Holy Week in which His Spirit stirs your soul by the Holy Word so that you have both greater sorrow over your evil desires and demands, and inexpressible joy over what Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection mean for you eternally? Or, would you spend the capital and ask Him for relief from the temporal things that you have worried about more than how you have offended Him? Would you demand that He stop being foolish and just finally vanquish all your political opponents? Would you have Him sweep away our meagre church building in place of something far more appealing and pleasing to attend? Would it be that He finally let you win the powerball? Would it be that He give you status, notoriety, and recognition? Likely, there is much that the King of Kings has chosen to allow to come upon you, or withheld, about which you disagree and think that He could do better, or at least that He could and should make it all easier for you. Rejoice greatly…Behold, your King is coming to you…lowly.
The true people of Israel, not the name-snatchers of the war-mongering political state of today, they, too, rejected God as king and demanded an earthly one in the days of Samuel the prophet, so that they could have a judge over them just like the nations around them. God often indulges the foolishness of our hearts’ desires so that we run our stubborn, bound-will course, smack dab into the reality wall headfirst (under His watchful eye), discover again, and more deeply than before, the magnitude of His love and wisdom, and, in turn, seek Him as King, as Lord, as God, as Savior and Friend, all-the-more. He understands us better than we understand ourselves. Oh, how often do we fail to heed the wisdom of God, seek our own ways, and learn lessons only by the hard way! And yet, He never gloats or condescendingly says, “I told you so.” In our repentance and growth in wisdom, He is glad to embrace us a Father receiving a prodigal son fleeing back to where we know to find grace and mercy.
The same outcome from Israel’s stubborn ways resulted in what we have now in the OT history books: far more evil kings than righteous ones and a nation divided and both parts eventually laid waste and taken into captivity by those other nations, that all led to Roman rule so strict that the Jews had to have their governor do their murder for them on Good Friday. They saw themselves with no real king and ruled over by goyim, by gentile scum. But Behold, your King is coming to you, yet they knew Him not. Behold, your King is coming to you and many gave shouts of Hosanna as He rode into Jerusalem on this day thousands of years ago. Behold, your King is coming to you remained not upon the mind and heart as the week digressed into shouts of “Let Him be crucified!” He was not the King that they had in mind. He is just and having salvation, yet with these treasures the sinful heart is not content. It wants what it wants and if Jesus is in charge of giving, then He must yield to the discontent heart’s desire. The devil’s lie was that we shall be like God, and in our sinful demands, we still believe it and thus seat ourselves upon the Almighty’s throne declaring that His ways are unjust, lacking, and that He should obey our orders of life.
Rejoice greatly…Behold, your King is coming to you…lowly. In contrast to our wayward hearts and our little faith, Jesus is the King for us to desire, even unto death, both His and ours. He told Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world,” the truth that we are to believe and seek, so that all things in this world are brought into submission to our King. He is the right King for us, for there is no other above Him. He is a King, not of easy life, but of eternal. He calls us to follow Him this week into the agony of His betrayal, anguish, scourging, and crucifixion. He calls us to follow Him into suffering, trusting Him in the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil, for Thou art with us. He calls us into suffering and to never give up faith while there.
Behold, your King is coming to you…lowly. Jesus is the King for you. You need no other nor for Him to do differently than He currently does for you. He comes lowly, for you. He comes, arrested in secret after prayerful agony and bloody sweat, for you. He comes, struck in the face and spit upon by hands and mouths He made, for you. He comes, submissive to deadly authority given from above for the sake of His mission for you. He comes, torn asunder by scourging, shedding His life-giving blood, for you. He comes, crucified, crucified as JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS, the King of Heaven and Earth, for you. Behold, your King is coming to you…lowly (in the Eucharist), and you need no other. Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. You have a King Whose Kingdom is not of this world. Pray that your once humble, now mighty King may ever lead you to realize and rejoice in this comforting and blessed truth both now and forevermore.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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