Zechariah 9:9-10 * April 4-5, 2009 * Palm Sunday * Senior Vicar Gawel

Theme: Your King Comes!

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Zechariah 9:9-10

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, 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. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

What would you do if you were king for a day? I imagine that’s a question you’ve been asked before or thought about. We all have a mental picture of what royalty is supposed look and act like. We’ve read about kings and queens in our history books. We’ve seen them illustrated in paintings or brought to life in movies. Lavish crowns and jewelry. The richest clothes. Heads held high and proud. Mounted on tall stately horses. A host of attendants waiting on them. Subjects bowing before them and kissing their hands. Often the king wields supreme power, and all in the land must obey him. He can have whatever he wants, whenever he wants it…. Even if what he does is not morally right, no one dare question his commands.

So in the vein of earthly kings like this, what would you do if you were king for a day? I’d probably clear all of my debts, buy a huge mansion and a few luxury cars, indulge all my desires, and ride around showing off my newfound wealth, power, and status to everyone. I would pattern myself after our modern-day royalty… the glitzy and the glamorous, the red-carpet crowd, for whom the highest attainments in life are to have the biggest houses, the most expensive cars, the best clothes, the richest food… all in a competition to prove who is the best and most successful.

But in contrast to all those ideas we have about the majesty and splendor of kings and powerful people of this world, Jesus, the King of kings, comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Not clothed in rich purple robes like the kings of his day. Not mounted on a high horse or riding in a chariot. Not with a mighty procession or an honor guard of soldiers in uniform. Not with a herald to go before him and formally announce his arrival. But simply-dressed. Riding on a donkey. On a dusty road covered with peasants’ cloaks and palm branches rather than a red carpet. With a crowd of commoners as his heralds, and twelve disciples, mostly fisherman, as his only honor guard.

Some in the crowd sang his praises, because they had seen the miracles he had done. But others in Jerusalem wondered, “Who is this?” (Matthew 21:10) “Why are you making such a big deal about this one man, who doesn’t look like much of anything at all?” The answer they received from the people in the crowd would hardly have convinced them of Jesus’ importance: “The crowds answered, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee’” (Matthew 21:11). “Yeah right!” the others must have thought, just as Nathaniel reacted when Philip told him about Jesus: “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46).

What would your reaction have been if you had been there that day? We like to think we’d be among those who believed and heralded Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with shouts of praise and waving of palm branches. But would we have been? “He looks so ordinary… so absolutely common. Is he really the glorious Messiah promised long ago? I thought the Messiah was supposed to bring glory back to our people, to restore our homeland and bring glory to Jerusalem. Why are the Romans still here? Why do they still occupy our land and oppress us? The Messiah is supposed to get rid of them and set us free. But this Jesus doesn’t appear to care too much about politics. And he looks like just another ordinary guy.” Would the humble appearance of Jesus have tripped you up and led you to doubt?

Or, maybe you would have been among those who believed in him and welcomed his coming with shouts of praise, with loud Hosannas: Lord save! “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:9-10). But would your opinion have changed as you watched Jesus during the week? He was there in Jerusalem, but he wasn’t setting up a kingdom. Instead he got arrested. He was put on trial. He was mocked and beaten and whipped and bloodied and spat upon. He got a different crown than the royal gold one you were hoping he would wear. This crown was made of thorns that pierced his skin as the soldiers pressed it down onto his head. And to top it all, you saw him there crucified – a criminal’s death – the most humiliating, shameful, and accursed way to die. Would you still have been proudly shouting his praises? – or would you have been among those in the crowd shouting for his death? Would you have walked past him as he hung upon the cross and hurled insults at him along with the rest of the crowd?

Well, enough make believe about the past…. What about now? Are you ever a little bit ashamed of your king who came in such weakness? Are you ever a little bit embarrassed to talk about how your king made his triumphal entry riding on a donkey? – about how he let himself suffer and die in such a humiliating way? Are you embarrassed when you talk about your faith and share these things? Are you embarrassed when you have to explain that even though your king Jesus is all-powerful, he will not fulfill all your desires for health, wealth, and success here and now? Do you ever begin to wonder yourself whether he really is the King, when you just can’t seem to catch a break in life and things just keep getting worse and worse? “He was so weak when he was here on earth. Is he really able to help me now?”

The prophet Zechariah spoke words of comfort from God to people who were in the midst of just such doubts. The city of Jerusalem had been utterly destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. The walls were torn down. All the treasures were looted from the king’s palace and from the LORD’s temple, and those and many other buildings were all burned to the ground. Nebuchadnezzar took the last king of Judah off into captivity in Babylon, along with all the soldiers and important people of the land. Finally after decades in exile in Babylon, a new king, Cyrus, allowed the exiles of Judah to go back to their homeland. They tried to rebuild out of the ruins of Jerusalem, but the people in the lands around them kept giving them trouble. The small group in Jerusalem managed to rebuild the foundation of the temple, but they just couldn’t seem to make any more progress. They were without a leader, without a king.

Then Zechariah prophesied to them about a glorious king who would come and reign over his people once again. But this king would not be like the kings they had had before the exile. He would be righteous and reign with justice, according to the will of the Lord – unlike so many of the wicked kings of Judah’s past. He would come with salvation, victorious over the enemies of his people. He himself will never be conquered, and he will see to it that no one ever harms his people. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His kingdom of peace will not just be for the Jews, those of Abraham’s bloodline, but will extend over the whole world. It will be more than just a political peace. It will be a lasting peace of body and soul, that reigns for all eternity!

Undoubtedly those people living in the ruins of Jerusalem who heard this prophecy of Zechariah longed for that day to come. But they did not see it fulfilled in their lifetimes – nor did their children or grandchildren. This prophecy would wait for more than 500 years to be fulfilled. 500 years later, another prophet-priest named Zechariah rejoiced when God revealed to him that the former Zechariah’s prophecy would soon be fulfilled. The father of John the Baptizer, forerunner of Jesus, proclaimed about Jesus, who was still in Mary’s womb:

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us – to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” (Luke 1:68-75)

John the Baptizer went before Jesus, pointing the people to Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The people saw Jesus’ many miracles and heard his wise and powerful teaching. They saw him raise Lazarus from the dead. They heard his message of repentance, forgiveness, and salvation. And so they came out in large crowds on the day he rode into Jerusalem. They hailed him as the Savior King, who was promised long ago…. The Son of David… The true and rightful heir of David’s throne, who would save his people and establish his kingdom of peace over all peoples, throughout all the earth, for all eternity!

Brothers and sisters, join with those crowds in shouting loud Hosannas to the king! Jesus – yes, this Jesus riding on a donkey – is the Savior whom God had promised! This Jesus, whom we will see suffering and dying this Holy Week, is the Lord and King of heaven and earth! Though he dies in lowest humility, he rises in most exalted glory! The salvation he came to bring has washed us free from our sins of doubting his power and grace. Though at times we are ashamed of him and his weakness, and the trouble he permits in our lives, he was not ashamed of us! He has covered us with his righteousness! He has credited his perfection to us in the sight of God!

He has conquered all of our enemies and has established a kingdom of peace for us, in which he reigns over all things for our good. We may not always feel it or be aware of it, since things are not completely peaceful in this life. But the peace that Jesus has established for us is more important than earthly peace and security… He has given us peace with God through the forgiveness of sins… Peace that will last for all eternity!

So raise your voices today in loud Hosannas! Your king comes! Watch your king this Holy Week as he conquers our enemies of sin, death, and the devil, and as he establishes his eternal kingdom of peace for us! … Lord save! “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” Amen!

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.