- Apr 13, 2025
- 5 min read
[John 12:13] 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!”
[Luke 23:20-23] Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” … But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed.
The Palms and Passion of Our Lord
First waving palms, praising Him as their King. Then demanding nails, to crucify Him among thieves. First crying, “Hosanna!”, “Save Us!”, trusting their Savior with joy. Then accepting a murderer in His place; and yelling, “Crucify Him! Crucify Jesus!”, “Away with Him and crucify Him!”
Palm Sunday is a Sunday of contradiction. It even has two names. Today is called “Palm Sunday” and “Passion Sunday”, or “Sunday of the Passion”. (“Passion” meaning His “Suffering”; different than how we use that word today.)
Today begins with the Palm Procession, the “Triumphal Entry” gospel reading, a joyful “Hosanna” hymn – All glory, laud, and honor To You Redeemer, King, To whom the lips of children Made sweet hosannas ring…
Then the service transitions. The “Passion of Our Lord” gospel reading. And then singing, “…‘Crucify!’ Is all their breath, And for His death They thirst and cry.” [Lutheran Service Book, #430, My Song Is Love Unknown, stanza 3]
We see on Palm Sunday, Passion Sunday, the transition and contradiction that our Lord experienced in His people in that week when these events happened.
On that first day of the week, the Sunday before the Passover that year, Jesus rode into Jerusalem as the King of Peace. On a humble colt, the foal of a donkey – not on a chariot or a war horse – with disciples as followers, not an army – Jesus rode into the city for His kind of victory.
The crowd knew this humble servant-king as their true King. They made a carpet of their cloaks laid out on the road. They waved the palm branches, as they did in previous victories. They knew Him as their Savior, crying “Hosanna!” – “Save Us!”
And they knew, it seems, on that Sunday, what their humble servant-king came to save them from. They knew which enemy He was defeating. “The crowd that had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet Him was that they heard He had done this sign.” [John 12:17-18]
He came to save them from the true enemy – not men, not rulers, not nations – but from death. This was the one who raised Lazarus from the dead a few days earlier [John 11]. This was the one who could save us from our lifelong slavery to death and the fear of death [Hebrews 2:15].
And from sin, and original sin, the root causes of death. And from hell which would follow; and from the devil who brought this all upon us. This Jesus is the one who could conquer the grave.
The Pharisees said, “Look, the whole world has gone after Him!” Yet, so soon after, on the Friday after that Sunday, they choose the strong of this world in place of their servant-King. They choose Barabbas, a rebel and fighter against Rome, to be released instead of Jesus – while calling upon the Roman governor to do away with their servant-king and Savior, Jesus.
How quickly did they no longer need the Savior from sin, death, and hell. How quickly did Pilate and Herod, and Barabbas the rebel, all become more important than the King who came to save them.
As they began shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Jesus!”, they were also found yelling, “We have no king but Caesar!” [John 19:15]. How quickly did their needs and allegiances become about this world first.
How quickly? It happened between Sundays. On Sunday they praised Him. By Friday they had no use for their servant-king and Savior and cursed Him with their lips.
You and I, like this crowd, live with contradictions. On Sunday, we kneel before our servant-King as Lord alone. During the week, our minds – and our fears and faith – become set on the strong of this world, whether friend or foe, ruler or rebel.
And our lips which praise His name on Sunday find less use for His name during the week – or even use His name in vain. And those same lips speak ill of brothers and sisters who bear His name. “With our tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God…” [James 3:9-10]
If we confess to need Jesus on Sunday, but don’t find as much use for Him during the week, misuse His name as a casual curse or exclamation, or have a mind focused only on this life during the week, not giving thought about the next, then we are walking too much like this crowd, which praised Him on a Sunday and had no use for Him by Good Friday but denied Him and abandoned Him.
“Hosanna! Blessed is He!” became “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Yet the Lord used this contradiction in the hearts of His people for His ultimate good purpose of being their Savior. Jesus laid down His life – gave Himself on the cross – for the kind of sinners who would deny Him, leave Him, and crucify Him. He redeemed them.
By the end of that day, the very soldiers who crucified Him were praising God and saying, “Truly, this man was innocent”, and, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” [Luke 23:47; Matthew 27:54]. He redeemed them.
In those few hours, two thieves crucified next to Him were at first mocking Him [Matthew 27:38,44], then one of them began praising Him [Luke 23:42], then that one entered into Paradise with Him [Luke 23:43]. Jesus was redeeming people, buying them back, by His death.
On the cross, Jesus used some of His very last cries to pray for those crucifying Him – “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing” [Luke 23:34].
Jesus went up on that cross to die for sinners who are guilty. To save them. To forgive them – to make them spotless and without blemish in God’s sight by His blood. And to make them new men and women.
We are contradictory. Jesus is very consistent. Jesus remains steadily “God-Who-Saves”. He is not only able to forgive sinners like us – not only able to give us eternal life in Paradise – but is also able, in this life, to make us less contradictory.
Jesus is able to make you more consistent every day with what you confess on Sunday, not by human might but by the divine might of being your humble servant-King. He redeems you from sin and death all at once. He transforms you over a lifetime.
So, trust in Him, and spend a lifetime with Him, to be transformed by Him, that - week-by-week – our life may become more consistent with our Hosanna cries. Amen.
- Apr 13, 2025
- 5 min read
[Genesis 50:15-21]
“…but God Meant It for Good
“Where charity and love prevail There God is ever found; Brought here together by Christ’s love By love are we thus bound” – we must love as He has first loved us – “Forgive we now each other’s faults As we our faults confess, And let us love each other well In Christian holiness” – let’s forgive as He has forgiven us. [“Where Charity and Love Prevail”, Lutheran Service Book , #845; 1 John 4:19; Colossians 3:13]
The story of Joseph begins when he is just seventeen years old. Joseph is the second youngest of twelve sons. And Joseph is dearer to their father, Jacob, than the older brothers are – as shown, for example, when their father gives Joseph the “coat of many colors”.
Jospeh is also the recipient of dreams from the Lord. Dreams which signified a certain ‘favoritism’ that God would bestow on Joseph. First, Joseph receives a dream in which he and his brothers are gathering sheaves of grain. Their eleven sheaves all bow down to his sheave.
Next Joseph receives a dream from the Lord in which eleven stars, and also the sun and the moon – father, mother, and all the brothers – bow down to Joseph’s star. By God’s design, they will all one day be giving homage to Joseph.
Joseph did nothing for this. It was God’s will. But the brother’s act according to their own murderous nature. They are envious, jealous, and angry.
Jospeh is captured by his brothers – sold into slavery for twenty silver coins – carried off into Egypt - made a servant in a man’s household – falsely accused for a wrong he did not commit – and falsely imprisoned.
His course runs lower and lower. Yet God is with him and prospers him at each point. And, finally, through a series of events, God delivers Joseph from prison and then exalts Joseph to those high heights that God had originally revealed in those dreams.
Joseph is made ruler of all Egypt – second only to Pharaoh – all pay homage to him – and, through Joseph, many nations and people are kept alive during a seven-year famine. Including Joseph’s brothers and family.
Because of Joseph, Egypt has grain. Joseph’s brothers, like countless others, are forced to travel to Egypt to seek out food. They arrive. Joseph recognizes them. They do not recognize Joseph. They have no knowledge of all this that’s happened since they sold him.
But then, after a course of events, Joseph does make the grand reveal. He shows his brothers, who left him for dead and sold him for cash, who he is. After Joseph reveals to them who he is, what does he then do?
He says: “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” [Genesis 50:20]. As ruler, Joseph has great power for revenge. But Joseph forgives from the heart and recognizes God’s goodness.
The book of Genesis is fifty chapters long. It starts with creation and continues, chapter by chapter, through the most important events, promises, and people that lay the foundation for the promise of the Gospel, the coming of Christ.
Out of fifty chapters, the story of Joseph gets fourteen chapters! Fourteen of the fifty! That’s more than a quarter of the whole book of Genesis devoted to what happened to Joseph and what he did. And what Joseph did was that he forgave his brothers. Not with bitterness, but from the heart.
“So do not fear”, he said, “I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. [Genesis 50:21]
Joseph wept with joy when he met them; he wept with joy at the sight of his father again; and Joseph wept with sadness when it became clear that his brothers still did not understand that he had forgiven them.
Joseph’s story is a precursor to the cross of Jesus. Jesus, our Lord, is falsely accused by His brothers – his countrymen whom He came to save – is betrayed by a friend, Judas – is falsely tried and convicted – and is put, not in prison, but upon a cross. Put to death. Though He is the ruler of all.
Risen from the dead, and ascended to God’s right hand, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess – all will pay homage to Him. In the meantime, He is taking care of us and our little ones, and has forgiven us.
On the cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” And it was our sins which pierced Him. It was for our sins that He was rejected and suffered [Isaiah 53:3-6]. Yet He comforts us. It was for our sake that He suffered, “to bring it about that many people should be kept alive.”
Jesus is in the place of God, and He says to those who pierced Him – by nails or by sins – “you meant evil against me” – but “God meant it all for good”. God used the nails, the whips, the cross, the piercing, the crown of the thorns – His suffering and His death – all for our good.
“All this is from God” who “in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” [2 Corinthians 5:18-19]. “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose” [Romans 8:28].
Joseph’s brothers never really apologized. They feared because of the wrong they had done. They concocted a made-up story about their father’s wishes to try to get Joseph’s forgiveness. But they don’t actually apologize or express sincere sorrow over what they did.
But Joseph’s heart is not determined by his brother’s wrongs. God’s faithfulness to Joseph throughout his sufferings has shaped Joseph’s heart.
It was God’s provision which kept those brothers alive in the famine, by Joseph’s grain in Egypt. Who then was Joseph to hate those whom God cared for? “Am I in the place of God?” Jesus has died for the whole world. Who are we to hate a person for whom the Savior has died?
And, it must have helped Joseph to know that God used all the wrong that had happened for good, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Why would we hold on to past insults – by our anger – instead of letting them go, since we trust and believe that God does in fact “use all things” – good and bad – “together for good.”
No one can make past wrongs work for good by holding on to them. But God can and does use all things for good that we entrust to Him.
Lastly, we are sinners. We have sinned against God by our thoughts, words, and deeds. If sinning against man is worthy of a penalty, then what’s the penalty for sinning against God? We’ve seen that penalty in the cross of Jesus, as He suffered in our place.
Since God has forgiven me my greater debts, I also must forgive those who have sinned against me. Throughout our lifetime – as He did for Joseph, through trials and by His Spirit – God does shape our hearts to be like Joseph’s, so that we can and will forgive from the heart.
It’s not within our ability, but God will use all things for that good purpose within us, to make our hearts more and more like that of His own Son, Jesus our Savior. Thanks be to God. Amen.
- Apr 8, 2025
- 6 min read
[Luke 20:9-20] …He looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?”
Gospel, the Firm Foundation
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The cornerstone is the stone from which all the other stones in the foundation are aligned. With the cornerstone in place, the other stones line up right. Without it, there are cracks and shifting sand. What is the “stone that the builders rejected” which has “become the cornerstone”?
I.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable to the people while the scribes and chief priests listen within earshot.
A man planted a vineyard – where grapes would be grown to make wine – and rented out this vineyard to tenants who were to be its caretakers while he went away into a far country.
At the right season, the owner sent his servants to collect from the tenants the fruits of that vineyard. Instead of giving fruits, they beat the first servant and sent him away. Then they did the same and worse to the second and third.
The Owner of the vineyard then sends His beloved Son, saying, “Perhaps they will respect Him.” But when the tenants see Him, they are full of envy. “Let’s kill Him and make the vineyard ours!” So, they throw His beloved Son out of the vineyard and kill Him.
Jesus stops and poses the question: What will the Owner of the vineyard do to these tenants? “He will destroy them and give the vineyard to others.”
Those hearing exclaim, “Surely not!” – perceiving that Jesus “told this parable against them.” Jesus looks at them directly and says those words we heard at the beginning.
The “stone that the builders rejected” is Jesus – the very ones hearing this parable will soon plot and will cry, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” – but, on the third day, He will rise and “become the cornerstone” of a brand-new house, a brand-new vineyard.
That verse - “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” – is from the Old Testament, from Psalm 118:22, is quoted here by the Lord, and is spoken elsewhere in Scripture, the New Testament, referring to Jesus and also calling Him the “stone of stumbling.”
“You yourselves like living stones” – it says in 1 Peter 2 – “are being built up as a spiritual house” because that “living stone” that “stone of stumbling and rock of offense” which “the builders rejected” has become your “cornerstone”. [1 Peter 2:4-8]
And then, in Romans 9:30-33, the Apostle Paul sums up the whole thing – really applies the Lord’s parable – and makes it clear, in these plain words, in what way Jesus, our Rock and Foundation, is also, to many, the stumbling stone they trip over:
“What shall we say, then?” The answer: “That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel” – our Lord’s audience – “who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law” – they did not attain that righteousness – “Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone…
II.
The stumbling stone, the rock of offense, is the Gospel. That a person is right with God by faith alone in Jesus and not by their works or merit – not by their works or worthiness – is the stone that our fallen human flesh stumbles over. Rejects.
God’s grace is His unearned, unmerited love. His love and favor for you that you did not earn. Faith is trust in what Jesus has done to save sinners – that He offered Himself on the cross as the sacrifice that makes up for all your sins and shortcomings.
You are justified – forgiven and counted righteous to God, made right with God – by His grace alone through faith alone. Faith in Jesus. Not by your works or worthiness.
We say it this way in our Lutheran Confessions: “Furthermore it is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through our merit, work, or satisfactions (i.e. making up for our sins), but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace for Christ’s sake” – because of what He did – “through faith when we believe that Christ has suffered for us and that for His sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness in His sight…” [Augsburg Confession, Article IV]
This is the cornerstone of the Christian faith and of a man or woman’s life with God. Yet it’s what our sin-fallen nature stumbles over most. But it’s the source of peace we never knew we could have when we do believe it [Philippians 4:7].
Peace with God through faith alone in Jesus is what we heard about in our Epistle reading today: “…not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” [Philippians 3:8-9]
This is our healing when we are crushed. It is the firm foundation on which we stand. Don’t reject it, but accept it. And constantly depend on it in your day-to-day life.
III.
What does this mean for me each day? It means that my value, my worth – and my right relationship with God, my Creator – are not based on my works, merit, or worthiness, but on the value God placed on me when He gave His own Son for me – this means for me, everyday, that I can:
(1) ‘rejoice all the more in my weaknesses’; (2) have the freedom of acknowledging my shortcomings without fear; (3) and have the peace of calling my sins sin – because I know I am forgiven in my Savior.
I am freed from the burden of “What do I measure up to?” – because I can trust in the measure of what God has paid for me: His beloved Son. He might be rejected by many, but in Him I believe.
Also, that you are right with God by that perfect sacrifice Jesus gave on the cross, and not by your merit or worthiness, is why you can have confidence in all earthly circumstances. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” [Romans 8:32]
Many of our daily anxieties are issues of daily bread. About these needs, we say the following in our Small Catechism:
“I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them; He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have; He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me…” [Luther’s Small Catechism; Creed, First Article]
Not because I did good enough, but because He is my Helper and Father. By grace, because of Jesus, He accepts you and navigates your boat through the uncertain waves and winds. Because of His unearned grace and love, you can have faith.
“For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.” [Luther’s Small Catechism; Creed, First Article]
Jesus is your cornerstone. This Gospel of faith alone in Him is the firm foundation of your life with God – in this world and in the life to come. Thanks be to God. Amen.
