"The True Glory of God" Palm Sunday Palmarum Sunday of the Passion April 13, 2014 John 12:12–19
Palm Sunday is all about the glory of God. Jesus comes into Jerusalem with the crowd haling Him as King. Jesus rides in in majesty, palm branches waving, people praising. The Hymn of the Day reflects the spirit of Palm Sunday: “All glory, laud, and honor, to Thee, redeemer, king.” Jesus did indeed ride into Jerusalem as king. He did indeed ride in accepting the praises and the glory heaped on Him by the crowds. His entrance was a glorious entrance. But there’s something else going on that we can sense. Perhaps the people on that day sensed it as well. Jesus rides in in glory and rides on in majesty. But He rides in on a donkey. Even as He accepts the glory extolled to Him, He comes in in humility. And only He truly knows this. The crowds expected nothing like what would happen toward the end of the week. We come to this day of the Church Year every year knowing that Palm Sunday begins the week we call Holy Week. Holy Week is no ordinary week. Nothing compares to the solemn week of Holy Week. That we praise Christ on this day doesn’t show that we praise Him as the crowds did on that day. Rather it shows that we see what they didn’t. We know that as He rode into Jerusalem on that day His riding in as King He was a riding into the city in order to lay down His life. Our praising Him isn’t in spite of that, it is because of it. The true glory of God wasn’t the crowds lifting up their praises to the one they thought was riding in as their victorious king and deliverer. They didn’t really get what was going on, but it’s significant that that doesn’t prevent Jesus from accepting their praises. Just because they didn’t realize exactly what was going on, that Jesus was entering into Jerusalem in order to die, doesn’t mean that their hailing Him as king and the one who would deliver them was incorrect. It was very correct. They just didn’t realize how. As usual, Jesus’ disciples didn’t really understand what was going on. John says that “Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just 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 had been written about Him and had been done to Him.” John has pegged it. The true glory of God. “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him.” What John is referring to is a glory greater than what the crowds thought Jesus had. It is a greater glory than what we often think of as glory when we praise our God and give Him all glory, laud, and honor. Certainly the crowds were right to hail Him as king. They were right in crying out, “Hosanna,” Save us, now! Certainly we are right to praise our God and give Him glory. Could it be, though, that we are so much more like those crowds than we’d like to think? Could it be that we don’t really give God glory for the true reason of His glory? Are we, perhaps, much more like the disciples than we’d care to admit, when John tells us that they “did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him”? It’s too easy to jump straight to the resurrection to find out that point when, as John says, Jesus was glorified. It’s too easy for us to know, as the crowds and the disciples didn’t, that Jesus ended up dying on the cross, lying in a tomb, and then rising victoriously from that tomb. It’s too easy, and that’s usually a good sign that it’s wrong. It’s one thing to know that Jesus suffered, died, and rose. It’s an entirely different thing to know what this means. In this we find the true glory of God. When we think of God’s true glory we think of His majesty, His incomparable power, His reigning over the universe. There’s nothing to compare with this glory. There is no king that can compare to God’s glory. But if it’s just sheer lordship and power that makes God’s glory incomparable then we haven’t really seen what He has shown us about Himself. Imagine if God were to display His sheer glory to you. What would happen? It sounds like a great thing, but really think about it. As one of my professors at the seminary said, if you were before God in all His glory you would be vaporized. You cannot comprehend His glory, but even more, you cannot tolerate it. You would be undone by it. Even the glimpse of His glory at the Transfiguration was frightening to the disciples. If the plain fact of God’s sheer glory is His true glory then what kind of God is God, really? What has God actually done? What truly is amazing about God? His omniscience? His omnipresence? His omnipotence? Or is it something even more amazing? Something we would never consider, because, well, to us glory is about glory. It is about being the greatest, incomparable, above all. For God, it is not about that at all. For God it is the opposite of being Lord. It is being servant. We get a hint of that with Jesus when He rides in on a donkey. He rides in as king, but He rides in in humility. He is Lord, but He comes as servant. The true glory of God is not that He is God. It is that He is Savior. He is Savior not by showing His majesty but by being a servant. In the Epistle reading Paul says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” You will never know glory if that is what you seek. You will have glory if you have this mind among yourself which is yours in Christ Jesus, who made Himself nothing, who took the form of a servant, who humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. You cannot do this if you try to do it. You can only do it if you have your mind on Christ, not on yourself. You can only serve if you are serving others and not seeking your own glory. You cannot do this if you are thinking of glory according to your own mindset of glory. You can only do it if you have your mind set on Christ. He had His mind set on the cross. What do you have your mind set on? Christ entered into Jerusalem hailed as king but His ego didn’t swell with the rising praises of the crowd. His heart swelled with compassion for those crowds and all people and that led Him to continue on into the city. To continue on to the arrest, to the flogging, to the scorn, and finally to the crucifixion. He knew there the glory that awaited Him. Glory that comes in true love, in true sacrifice, in ultimate giving. His life for yours. His perfect sacrifice so that you may enter into the eternal realms of glory. When He was stricken by the Father on the cross it cut the Father to the core, but it was God’s glory shining through, Jesus counted guilty and Jesus condemned and the world counted as spotless and given everlasting life. We know what sacrifice is. It is when you give up something that is rightly yours so that someone else may benefit. It is placing someone else before yourself. It is loving someone else at your own expense. We know what this is even as we can’t comprehend the true greatness of Jesus’ sacrifice. All that is given to us is what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to give to us to do: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” We don’t strive for glory, we have this mind among ourselves that is ours in Christ Jesus. We seek to serve as our Lord has served us. Right now you look at heaven and you think that is the pinnacle of glory. You think that it is where you will see the true glory of God. That is because on this side of heaven you will always see things through the grossly sinful flesh you dwell in. Your flesh seeks glory and there are ample pictures of glory in this world. But in heaven you will not see God as you think you will. You will not look at Him and see Him in magisterial glory and think, “Now there is the true glory of God! I finally get to see it.” No, you will finally realize that it was right there before you all along. It was right there in the person of Jesus Christ, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself a servant and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. You will finally realize that the true glory of God is not that God has glory, which, of course, He does. You will finally see that He shines forth in His ultimate glory not because there is none that can compare to Him, which, of course, there isn't. No, you will see in utter clarity what Paul says next: “Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Think about that for a moment, because it will be what is your eternal joy and amazement for eternity. Jesus does not stand before creation because He owns, by nature and by virtue of being God, all glory, but because, as Paul says, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name. Jesus reigns in His eternal glory because His Father has given Him that glory. Jesus has it of Himself and doesn’t need it to be given to Him, and yet, He has chosen to submit to His Father to receive it from Him. Maybe that’s why He doesn’t want you to see Him as the king of majesty but the one riding in on a donkey. Maybe that’s why He doesn’t want you to think of Him as the one who rode in in glory but rather the one who later was glorified. Maybe that’s why He doesn’t want you to hail Him as the one worthy of all glory so much as He wants you to rejoice in His coming to you in proclamation and simple water and simple bread and wine where He gives you His glorious forgiveness of all of your sins and eternal salvation. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
