Palm Sunday – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Matthew 21:1-9 “Blessed Is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord”
March 29, 2026 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Almighty and everlasting God, who led Your dear Son Jesus Christ through sufferings and death to Your eternal glory, and exalted Him at Your right hand to be Lord of Lords and King of Kings, we humbly ask You, grant us Your good Spirit that with willing hearts we may receive Him as our King and follow His example of true humility, that, being made perfect through sufferings, we may enter into eternal glory; through Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, now and forever. Amen. (The Lutheran Liturgy, companion altar book for The Lutheran Hymnal, p. 94)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 21st chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and He sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, dear fellow redeemed:
It is easy to tell when you have arrived at the end? I would say that it is. You can see when you are almost done making food because the food is almost cooked. You can see when you are at the end of the book because your book mark is sticking out in the back of the book. Jesus and St. Paul have told us we are at the end of days because we are witnessing the signs that were to come in the end. Even though we are at the beginning of the greatest week in history, we are witnessing the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. How can we tell it is the end? Jesus told the people and His disciples when it was time, He would have to make one more trip to Jerusalem. This work trip wouldn’t be any old work trip. This would be His last trip to the city, a trip that would see His death and resurrection. And this wouldn’t be any type of trip, this trip was foretold. Just as He comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, pronouncing His kingship, He continues to come to us and will come again. Because He does this, we continue to sing, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
If only they knew what this blessing would entail. This final journey, this final procession, is filled with much joy. The crowds are cheering and the disciples are cheering. It looks as though all of their problems are going to go away. Jesus is going to take the seat on a glorious throne! The crowds have wanted this for a long time and now we are at the boiling point. Their cries of “Hosanna,” “save us now,” are filling the streets. If it possible for this Man to save them, then He must fill the role Scripture has revealed to the people of David’s never ending reign. So, they cry out, calling Him the Son of David, a Messianic title. What started off as individuals being told not to utter His name, and now the crowds are proclaiming they believe Jesus is the Messiah. For them, this does not look like the end. To continue their appreciation, Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
If only they believed the whole story, if only they believed how it would end. The problem is they didn’t know and for some, not fully understand what the ramifications are for this great procession. They don’t know what David is writing about in the song where he sings, Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD (Psalm 118:25-26). If this is the King, as David sang about, then a royal inauguration seems appropriate if Jesus is who He says He is. St. John writes they continue to admit to themselves this fact in their cries. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (John 12:13) They are cheering this even as Herod Antipas the Tetrarch is in Jerusalem for the same holiday. Is Jesus about to replace Herod? Prophets and Patriarchs waited for this promised King with faith, and this King was not going to remove Herod Antipas. In fact, Jesus’ visit with Herod would not go so well.
With a worldly perspective on what is going to happen, none of this is going to go well for Jesus. As Palm Sunday is a high point with the crowds openly confessing Jesus as the Messiah, when it starts to turn south, they begin to fall back on what they previously believed. Jesus asked at one point, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matthew 16:13b-14). When the crowd finally gets to Peter’s reaction and proclaims Jesus’ name of God, this is also a turning point as it supercharges His enemies. Jesus will further provoke the Jewish leaders by driving merchants and money-changers out of the temple. With a prophecy of their own, but given by God, from that day on they made plans to put him to death (John 11:53). What should be a great ending with the title of King, and this title certainly would be put over His head, but not in the way the world would like.
Once Jesus is arrested, now it looks as though He has some serious flaws. The people understood that He didn’t quite look like a king as He rode on the donkey, He didn’t have a His crown yet, and He didn’t have a grand army, but what happens next seems a little embarrassing for the King to experience. As He looks like any ordinary man, this Messiah is not the Messiah the people wanted, yet this is the Messiah that was needed. This will always be hard for us to grasp. There are going to be days where we start like this crowd. We sing praises, knowing firmly in our hearts, believing, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the King of kings and the Lord of Lord’s. We believe He will destroy our enemies. It is here the devil will throw us off, it is here that he wants us to forget who the enemy is. He wants us to pass all of the Psalms where we admit that the people who don’t believe like we do are so much better off than we are. He wants to push the ending farther out to convince us we have plenty of time to make changes. He wants us to forget about the meaning of the chants and hymns and why the Messiah that is on His way to die is the Messiah we desperately need.
Even when our guidance is shifted in the wrong direction, the song asking for the blessing of the One to come stays the correct course. The One riding on a donkey knows the word “Hosanna” and that it signifies the redemption of the house of David. This is a celebration of the inheritance of the eternal kingdom. The kingdom that will have no end, ruled by the King who has no end as stated long ago for the salvation of the world to King David. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7:12-13). While the upcoming King Solomon would be great, he would not be perfect like the One who was marching to Jerusalem to sit on the throne forever. The offspring who would answer the call to the hymns of Hosanna.
He answered this call because He knew He was Messiah, not the Messiah the people wanted, yet He was the Messiah that was needed. He understood what the ending was going to entail. He understood the will of the Father when the people did not. He understood why the singing was coming from a Psalm they were going to sing later in the week. They would soon sing Psalm 118, in its entirety. A Psalm used in the Passover and a Psalm that comes to fulfillment on Friday. The people were about to be saved. They weren’t going to be saved with the rule over their rivals with an earthly kingdom. The saving the people desperately needed wouldn’t come from rule but it would come from death. This redemptive work required the King to make a sacrifice. A sacrifice He was already making by being in the place of man as a man. By being the King even as He is already not making use of the most precious treasure of His heavenly throne and Almighty power.
So, He rides on, knowing what He will face to save His people. Jesus knew to save you would mean carrying your sins on Himself. He knew it meant riding on toward your worst punishment imaginable. As He answers the cries of Hosanna, as comes in the name of the Lord, He gives you a new focal point so you can continue to witness this great event. In the rejoicing of this week, you will continue to see Him ride on to the cross for your salvation, ride on to you to bring you peace through the faithful teaching of the Word and administering of the Sacraments. And even when there can be mistakes with the handling of them, Jesus doesn’t yank them away, but rather by correcting and calling you receive them worthily, unto faith and salvation. Though faithlessness rightly deserves God’s wrath, God Himself works faithfulness in you and grants you a rich reward of blessings. The blessing that He will come to you and save you until He brings you into His heavenly kingdom. You have this taste when you cry out every day you celebrate the Lord’s Supper in the liturgy. Today you will sing, Hosanna in the Highest, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
The world would rather see the power in the end. They would rather see the glory, and would rather see a king. The King will come, and by His gracious reign, in His kingdom, no repentant sinner is ever turned away. This is witnessed today in His gracious work. He could have come with armies and armies of angels to judge the world to condemnation and instead He lowly rides a donkey, answering the calls to “save now.” A call answered with His three-fold office is on display. He rides in, fulfilling the prophets of long ago that the King would come on a donkey. He rides on as the high priest toward the one atoning sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of all your sins and the sins of the world. He rides on as the King of kings as He is the Son of David, He is the Son of God who is capable of not only dying, but giving you new life in His life. A life that dies to save and a life that lives again to prove you have indeed been saved. The true happy ending, as you are blessed when you go out in the name of the Lord. The name you have been marked with here in Word and sacraments. The name that blesses you with His coming and going, from this time forth, and even forevermore. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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