Author: Higher Things

by The Rev. Richard Heinz

Matthew 21:1-9

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” This morning we hear the chants of praise echoing from the streets of Jerusalem, welcoming Jesus. Voices raised singing psalms to the Savior King as He humbly entered the Holy City, riding on a donkey.

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” These words from Psalm 118 were chanted to Jesus then, and they are sung to Him even now. Throughout the centuries the Church has continued to praise the Lord with this beautiful confession of faith.

This morning we hear a confession of faith from nine young people in our midst. They have been baptized. They have been catechized in the faith, as taught by the Church of the Augsburg Confession. Today, they acknowledge that gift and make a serious promise. This morning, they vow that they will endure life’s hardships and society’s persecutions; they will even die, if they must, rather than fall from the faith as taught by the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

But what about this confession of faith in the Entrance Gospel for this day? What do these words confess? “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna!” “Hosanna” is a Hebrew word that means, “Save us now, we pray.” It is what David sang in Psalm 118:25 – “Ana’ YHWH hosiah-na’ – Save us, we pray, O LORD!” The crowds gathering around Jesus, trying to get a glimpse of Him, singing for joy, did not take this word lightly. This single word was confessing faith in Christ! The One they shouted to was the One whom they believed could save them!

Granted, even five days before His death, the people still did not understand how Jesus was going to save them. Was He going to incite riots against the Roman garrison in Jerusalem? Was He going to work some miracle that caused the Roman occupation to get up and leave? No one knew. They just knew they were expecting great power and majesty, like one would expect from royalty!

Pastor Tannahill from Gloria Dei in Elizabethtown, Kentucky told a story this week. He was born and raised in Canada. Once as a child, Queen Elizabeth II came to his hometown and Pastor’s mother wanted to be sure he got to see her. They went to the event, and since the queen is not very tall, Mrs. Tannahill lifted her little boy so he could see above the crowd. “Can you see the Queen?” she asked. “No,” he sadly replied.

That evening, they watched the news. “There!” said Mrs. Tannahill, “Didn’t you see the Queen?” she said, pointing to a lady on the television who had a simple spring dress, a pill box hat, and handbag. “Well yeah, I saw her!” he said,… “That’s the queen?”

The portraits in his school, and other pictures he had seen diplayed the Queen in her regal robes, with crown and scepter, opening parliament, or posing for formal occasions. But this woman simply looked like someone’s mother! A regular person. Seeing her in person was not what he expected. She did not look powerful or regal or queenly.

Likewise, as Jesus entered Jerusalem, He did not look powerful, or regal, or kingly. The type of King that He is, is far different from what the common people expected. They wanted the miracle worker who fed thousands, who healed many. They wanted a man who could show great power and get their land back to the glories of David and Solomon.

We follow that pattern too. We want a powerful Jesus. We want the Jesus who can snap His fingers and produce all that we want or desire. We want a Jesus who will make life easy and trouble-free. We want a Jesus who will simply take away any illnesses or accidents or hardships from us and our loved ones. We want a Jesus who will bless our parish, school, and day care with lots of money, business saavy, and the envy of all the other churches around. We want a Jesus who will answer our self-centered prayers with a big house, expensive cars, HD TV’s, and all the latest things that our friends have. We want a Jesus who will place us in an easy job that we love, and surround us with others who appreciate the work we are doing. We want a Jesus who – plain and simple – is not Jesus!

Repent, dear friends. The people of Jerusalem may not have known any better. But you do. Lusting after the power, and glory of God in the image that we want Him to be, and trying to make that power and glory our own, has been a favorite sin ever since the Fall in the Garden of Eden. And imitating the ways of the world, as if its wisdom and ways were desired more than God’s, only leads to pain and judgment for the church.

Yet the Lord does not manipulate and remove trials from you. He does not wave a royal scepter like a wand and make you a force to be reckoned with, in the ways of the world. Instead, He surrounds you with His love and grace and forgiveness, as He bears your burdens and carries you through every trial and valley.

The wrong idea of Jesus? Even so, in this single word, “Hosanna,” we know that they looked to Jesus as Savior. We join them in this desire to adore our God and King. The people of Jerusalem needed a Savior. Adam and Eve needed a Savior. Those of us gathered here this morning, both now, and every day of our lives, need our Savior!

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” With these words, the people of Jerusalem also confessed that Jesus is the Son of David. Not only is He Savior, but He is King! This Descendant of King David was recognized for who He was, again, even if not completely understood. He is a Savior. And as a descendant of David, He is One who could claim the throne. He is Messiah – the Anointed One – the Christ who is the Promised King. This Royal Heir had Divine right to rule over them, and they welcomed the Anointed One!

Yes, Jesus is King. He does rule over all. But His kingdom is not of this world. He is, as many Hebrew prayers state, “King of the Universe.” Yet He has no geographic realm. His rule is spiritual, godly, and eternal – far surpassing any worldly ideas or ideals of what a king is to be or do. He goes beyond any limits of our imaginations for our ultimate King.

Why? Because the Son of David is also the Son of God! He IS the LORD, God Almighty in the flesh. Jesus Christ, our Savior and King is our God!

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” With the Name of God invoked, He brings His presence to His people. When two or three are gathered in His Name – “The Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” – God blesses and bestows His presence.

Jesus, being God, brought the presence of the Lord wherever He was. Riding into Jerusalem, Jesus was (and is) God in the flesh! They were blessed to behold their King and to see and hear God – Jesus – coming in the Name of the Lord! But they were not alone!

Every Lord’s Day, we are blessed to behold and hear Him too. We hear Jesus Christ as He speaks through the lips of our pastors, reading and proclaiming His Word. We recall His promise to the apostles and pastors “He who hears you, hears Me.” We behold and hear Him as He uses the pastors’ hands to pour water on people “in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” transforming them into new creatures and rescuing them from death and the devil. We behold and hear Him as we approach His altar, tasting Christ and the forgiveness, life, and salvation that He gives. Miraculously, our Savior-King enters our bodies with His own Body and Blood, feeding our bodies and souls to give us life!

These nine youth have a lot on their minds this morning. My fervent prayer is that they are ever-mindful of one thing: Jesus bringing His presence in the Divine Service. We hear Him and receive Him week after week in His Word and in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Jesus DOES come to us. And every Sunday – every Lord’s Day – is a celebration of that presence.

That is why the Divine Service is the most important thing in any Christian’s life, whether they realize it or not. It is central to our faith. It is where God comes and gives Himself as a Gift! It is where the Lord feeds us so we have the strength and nourishment to continue in life. When people truly understand this, they desire to come to the Divine Service.

Dear youth, this morning you are swearing to the Lord God Almighty that you will be faithful and regular in coming to His House, receiving His preaching, confessing your sin, and partaking of His Holy Eucharist. This is a solemn vow that there is nothing more important to you than coming to the Divine Service in Christ’s Church!

The devil and the world will tempt you. They will try to convince you how boring it is to come to the Divine Service. Your friends and even family may try to persuade you that it is better to sleep in, play sports, watch a movie, or to go somewhere else that is supposedly more fun. It is a tough battle, and Satan will try hard to harass you. Even when you do come, the devil will try to convince you to let your heart and mind drift from the Holy Gifts that our Savior gives.

But our dear and blessed Savior is there. The same Jesus who hears our “Hosannas” and “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” is still there. He continues to forgive us, even as we drift during the Divine Service. When we confess to our pastor and hear Holy Absolution, He forgives us. When we hear His Gospel preached, He forgives us. When we receive His Holy Body and Blood, He forgives us.

Forgiven and strengthened, Jesus our Savior-King makes you bold to confront His enemies, and unapologetic for your need of and dedication to His Divine Service. He brings you to cherish the very Gifts that have delivered His forgiveness; and gives you the wisdom to know the wonder and amazement of receiving more and more of Jesus!

And with joy, we respond to that forgiveness, singing as His redeemed saints, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

The Rev. Rich Heinz is senior pastor of St. John’s Ev. Lutheran Church & School in Lanesville, IN, and the Front Page editor for Higher Things Internet Services.

St. John 8:42-49

“Um, Dad?” “Yes, Isaac?” “Well, we’ve got wood here. And we’ve got some fire. But, um, where’s the lamb for the burnt offering?” And what do you suppose Isaac was thinking as Dad tied him up and laid him upon the altar and raised the knife? Do you think Isaac at that moment remembered Abraham’s words, “God will see to the Lamb for Himself!”

Abraham kept God’s Word. And “keeping God’s Word” doesn’t mean what we probably think it means. When we hear that Abraham kept God’s word we usually think it means he “obeyed” God’s Word. True, he did; he was ready to sacrifice his son at God’s command. But why could Abraham do that? What was there that could let him go through with such an awful request? Simply this: Abraham was keeping the Word of God. Holding on to it. Trusting it. Believing it. But trusting what?

Keeping God’s Word is about far more than mechanically doing what it says. Keeping God’s Word means having a lively faith and trust and confidence in God’s promises. The Book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham believed that even if he went ahead and killed Isaac, God would have raised Isaac from the dead in order to keep His promise to Abraham to have a Descendant. In other words, Abraham kept God’s Word not simply by obeying its outward command, but by holding fast to the Word and promises of God. It is why he could drag his own son to an altar on a mountain and still confidently proclaim, “God will take care of the lamb for Himself.” And Isaac did not die that day. But the promise of God was fulfilled: Abraham had offspring. All the way down the ages to Jesus, the Lamb that God provided for Himself for an offering.

Now fast forward to Jesus’ day. We catch up to Him in a heated argument with the scribes and Pharisees. They’re the experts in the Bible. They know all about the Scriptures. But they don’t keep God’s Word. What drives them is not a sure confidence in the promises of God but a boastful attitude that they know the Bible and most other people don’t. What runs their thinking is not the joyous Good News that their sins are forgiven in Christ but that they are special to God because they are so holy and can keep the Law and Commandments. This is how Jesus knows they don’t know the Father.

But Jesus knows the Father. He keeps the Father’s Word. Jesus has a sure and certain and perfect trust in His Father’s Word and Promises. So much so that He can be the Lamb that Abraham spoke of. If Abraham believed God could give him his son back, how much more so the Son of God believed that He could give His life for sinners and not be destroyed. So much so that the Son came down from heaven and was born of the Virgin’s womb. So much faith and hope did Jesus have in His Father’s word that He could be baptized with sinners. So much trust in His Father’s Word Jesus had that He could battle the devil after even more than a month’s fasting. So much did Jesus keep His Father’s Word, that is, trust in His Father, that He could resolve even while covered in bloody sweat to go ahead and be that Lamb. Far more than Abraham who raised the knife but was kept from killing Isaac, Jesus goes the way of the cross knowing full well the Father is NOT going to spare Him but will instead lay upon Him the sins of the world and forsake Him. All done on behalf of sinners. But Jesus keeps the Father’s Word. He holds fast to it. He prays, “Into you hands, I commit my spirit” trusting that the Father will raise Him up on the Third Day. Christ, with perfect fear, love and trust in God the Father has kept God’s Word, held on to it, held fast to it, kept it as His comfort and hope even amidst the darkness of His death to save sinners. Above all, Jesus keeps the Father’s Word, by being the Lamb that Abraham promised Isaac God would provide for Himself.

But these Jews, these Pharisees and scribes and other religious folk, they don’t keep God’s Word. What runs them is not a happy and glad trust in their Savior but a small and shallow trust in their own goodness and ability to please God. And when Jesus dares to threaten their religion by calling them to trust in Him instead of themselves, they mock Him, call Him names, and say He has a devil. Rather than hear and learn what Jesus is actually teaching, what the Scriptures actually say, and how the Lord would rescue them from trusting in themselves, they circle the wagons and pick up the stones and are ready to throw!

This because they don’t KEEP God’s Word. They know the words of God’s word. They may even look like they outwardly OBEY most of it. But they don’t KEEP it. Treasure it. Live by it. Trust in it. This is our repentance, brothers and sisters in Christ. That we hear God’s Word. That we may even try to obey God’s Word once in a while. But that we don’t KEEP His Word. That we don’t hold fast to it as our greatest treasure. That the promises of God go in one ear and out the other. That there is so much more exciting and interesting stuff in our lives besides God’s Word. That there are so many more pressing problems in our lives to worry about that learning and believing God’s Word. And so what runs us is not the lively hope and confidence and trust in a Father who loves us by sending His Son to be the sacrificial lamb for our sins. No, what runs us is our own notions and ideas and fears and worries. And if anyone questions that or calls us to repent, then we pick up stones to throw at them! Repent, brothers and sisters, of not keeping, holding fast, cherishing, living by the Words and promises of Jesus.

Jesus says “Whoever is God’s hears God’s Word. If anyone keeps My Word, he will never see death.” These words of Jesus are not a whip-up-some-religion-in-yourself command. They are words that rescue us by calling us away from trusting in anything else in this world than Christ and His Word. To KEEP Christ’s Word means to live like Abraham: no matter what you see with your eyes, you know by faith what God has in store for you. No matter what you suffer, you live with the glad confidence that you can truly suffer no evil in Christ. To KEEP God’s Word means to cling to HIS Word and promises which rescue you from having to save yourself! And what promises are those? Everything that the Lamb has accomplished for you on the cross of Calvary delivered in His holy gifts. To KEEP Christ’s Word is to live from the waters of your Baptism, believing that you are a child of God and your sins have been washed away. To KEEP Christ’s Word means to live in the sure and certain knowledge that because you pastor has forgiven your sins, they are forgiven before God in heaven. To KEEP Christ’s Word is to run to His Supper to receive Jesus’ own body and blood, your certain promise that your sins are forgiven and that you will rise on the Last Day. In short, to KEEP God’s Word means far more than just obeying it. We do try to live according to God’s Word. But to KEEP God’s Word as Jesus is talking about is to live from Him and His forgiveness, not trying to save ourselves, not trusting in our own efforts, but believing that He has saved us.

And what is the good of keeping Christ’s Word in this way? Simply this: those who didn’t keep Christ’s Word got so worked up when they were threatened that they picked up rocks to kill Jesus! How’s THAT for obeying God’s Word! So you and I, unless we KEEP God’s Word, unless we live by faith and trust in God’s promises to us in Christ, will be only to ready at the drop of a hat to have to defend ourselves and our religion and our way of thinking by picking up stones to kill our neighbor! And that does no one else any good! But the person who lives by God’s Word, who KEEPS Christ’s promises held fast, doesn’t worry about what others think. The Christian who KEEPS Christ’s Word and lives by this confidence of eternal life can do good deeds and kind works for their neighbors and even the people they DON’T like, whether they get any thanks or recognition or just spit in the face.

Think what joy you would bring to your husband or wife or kids or parents or family or friends or anyone around you if you had such a trust in Christ and what your Baptism and Absolution and the Supper give you! Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ day and saw it by faith! So you have seen Jesus by faith. He comes to you in His holy Word and Sacraments. He gives you His Word and by His Holy Spirit keeps that Word in you. God has provided Christ the Lamb for Himself as the sacrifice. And Christ has given us His Word to forgive and save us. God grant that we hear and believe His holy Word and KEEP it that we never see Death forever! Amen.

The Rev. Mark Buetow is pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in DuQuoin, IL, and the Internet Services Executive for Higher Things. He edits the Daily Reflections. He is married and father of three.