Prayer of the Day: Lord Jesus Christ, our humble King, You rode into Jerusalem not for glory, but for the cross, to bear our sins and win our salvation. Forgive us for the times we have been blind to who You are, or ashamed to call You our King. By Your Holy Spirit, give us true faith to see Your beauty in humility, Your power in sacrifice, and Your glory in the cross, that we may gladly confess You before the world and cry with joy, “Hosanna, that is my King,” for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!” Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: “Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey’s colt.” His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”

Hosanna, That is My King!

Imagine you live in a kingdom where you get to pick the king. Who would you choose? The strong and brave? The wise? The rich? The one who promises you the most?

The people in our text are, by words and actions, proclaiming that they want Jesus to be their king. They gave Jesus the royal treatment: palm branches waved, cloaks laid down, shouts from Psalm 118 proclaiming, “This is our king!”

Yet our text also shows that they did not understand. The disciples did not understand what was happening on Palm Sunday until after Jesus’ resurrection. The crowds mostly came out, as the text indicates, because they had heard how Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. This was not the right reason to be declaring Jesus their king. The Pharisees were simply afraid. They were afraid Jesus would make Himself an earthly king. John shows us three groups of people: the disciples who did not understand that Jesus was declaring Himself to be Israel’s king, the crowds who wanted Jesus to be their king but for the wrong reasons, and the Pharisees who did not want Jesus to be their king at all.

The first Palm Sunday was a farce. Do not get me wrong. Jesus was not a farce. What Jesus was doing was not a farce, but noble and loving. The praise was a farce. It was misdirected and empty. Why did Jesus participate in this farce, and why did God the Father allow it? Because our King was riding to die for His people, and God the Father declared that such a sacrifice deserved a proper send-off, even if it was from ignorant hearts. Indeed, God would cause the stones to cry out if the foolish humans for whom Jesus rode to die would not.

But there was a second reason for this triumphant procession. This triumphant procession shows the homage that Jesus would eventually receive. Eventually, cries of “Hosanna” and “Blessed is the Son of David,” and palm branches would be waved before Jesus with understanding, faith, and joy that He is our King.

Jesus did not receive the praise He deserved on that first Palm Sunday, and you can do something about that this Palm Sunday. We can say, “Hosanna, that is my King,” and lay a palm branch before Him in faith.

How do we do that? First, by not being ignorant of what is going on like the disciples, or blind like the crowd, or jealous like the Pharisees, but by pointing at Jesus riding into Jerusalem, meek and lowly, riding on a donkey, and saying with joy and confidence, “That is my King.”

I asked you before if you could choose your king, who would you choose? What type of king would you point to and say, “That is my king”? Some people would point to someone who is tall and muscular, with impressive armor, and say, “That is my king.” Jesus was none of those things. Others might point at someone who is very smart and can do amazing things like raise people from the dead and say, “That is my king.” Jesus can do that, and that is why the crowd in our text chose Him, but that is not the reason to choose Jesus. Jesus would not be the earthly king they wanted, nor will He be the earthly, problem-solving king our sinful hearts want. Choose Jesus instead because He is humble and lowly, riding to die because you are a sinner.

We can give Jesus the hosannas He deserves this Palm Sunday by pointing at this lowly person riding on a donkey, riding to die, and saying, “That is my King.” Why is that so hard? Because our sinful nature does not want Him. Because our sinful nature will even be embarrassed by Him.

Ladies, imagine you are at your twenty-year class reunion. Your friends are all showing off their tall, dark, handsome husbands, successful, stylish, straight from a magazine cover. Then they ask about your husband, and he is short, balding, and standing in the corner picking his nose. Do you proudly say, “That is my guy”? Maybe, if you know what matters, but it would be tempting to duck your head. That is how the world sees Jesus, plain, unimpressive, even offensive, and yet He is our heavenly King.

The world dislikes Jesus because He tells us we are sinners who deserve hell. He tells us we are living our lives wrong. They would be happy to have Jesus as king if He were only here to do miracles for us, but that is not why He came.

Jesus came to fulfill what Zechariah had promised. He came to ride forth lowly to face death and hell for our sins. The very Psalm the people were quoting from pointed to this:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.
God is the LORD, and He has given us light;
Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will praise You;
You are my God, I will exalt You.
Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.” (Ps. 118:26–29)

Jesus came to be the sacrifice that would be bound with cords to the horns of the altar. The altar in the temple had horns on each corner. If a sacrifice needed to be tied to the altar, it would have been tied to those horns. Jesus was not bound to the altar in the temple, but to the cross. Zechariah and Psalm 118 call on us to bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord to be bound to the altar.

Psalm 118 continues to say of this One being killed on the altar, “You are my God, and I will praise You.” Then comes the verse you all know from your table prayers. These are the words the Holy Spirit calls on us to say at the sight of Jesus riding to be bound to the altar, to be killed instead of you: “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”

Do you want a king who looks glorious, or the One who will bind Himself to the altar to be killed for your sins? Do you want a king who can do impressive miracles, or the One who loves you enough to pay for your sins? Jesus can do both, but He did not come merely to perform miracles. The crowd that day should not have been cheering because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but because Jesus was going to His death for them all.

Oh, how humanity should have praised our Passover lamb, and oh, how badly we failed. We cannot change that. We cannot change that Jesus was riding to die for all of us sinners and was met with these empty hosannas. We cannot change that we are sinners. But because our God bound Himself to the altar to be killed for our sins, and because God has given us the Holy Spirit, we can give Jesus today the hosannas He deserves.

Hosanna is such a strange word. It is fun to say, and we, with childlike faith, should sing it, but it is still a strange word. Strictly speaking, it meant “help now” or “save.” Over time it became a cry of praise. It went from a cry for someone to save you to a cry of praise to the One who has saved you.

The One riding on a donkey, meek and lowly, and receiving false praise, is the One sent by the Lord to save us. The praise on that Palm Sunday was false praise. He knew it and continued on anyway. He rode that day toward the cross to be bound to it by nails and by even more painful things. All our sins, which Jesus in love took upon Himself, were the ropes that bound Him to that altar to pay for what you and I did. This is our God, and He did this for us.

It is some 2,000 years later, but can we not give Him a proper send-off? Can we not point at Jesus, lowly riding on a donkey, and say with joy and confidence, “Hosanna, that is my King”? He has no earthly beauty that would draw us to Him. He has no earthly riches to offer. He tells us we are not living our lives rightly. The world hates Him and would scoff at you for bowing to Him, but He is worthy of every hosanna that comes from our hearts.

He rides to die for us. That is our King. He rides to be bound to the altar so that you are not condemned for your sin. That is our King. He rode not to be lifted up to a throne, but onto the cross. That is your King. That is the King we need. That is the King we have. Raise your hearts, you people forgiven and saved by Jesus, and say: Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna to the One who comes in the name of the Lord! That One is my King. Amen.

—Pastor Aaron Ude

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Rapid City, SD

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