[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Reagan, you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ with all the baptized, the glorious robes of his blood and righteousness, and ready now to stand before him on the last day with nothing at all to fear. I know that’s scary, the idea of being judged. And for you, for all of us, because we’ve, ugh, we know that we’re guilty, conceived and born in sin, that we ourselves are sinners, but clothed in the righteousness of Christ, covered by His blood, raised by His perfection, declared righteous and holy by His obedience. Now we have nothing at all to fear. That is the surprise of the text. Fear not, daughter of Zion.
Triumphal entries were made for inducing fear. There are all these reports of triumphal entries from the ancient world, and they’re magnificent things. I mean, they are just glorious. The one that I always remember is the triumphal entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon, this great city, and the parade was miles long. There was the army together with the captured soldiers and the prisoners of war and then more of the infantrymen all in their regalia, shields polished and swords sharpening, marching in order. And then the mounted troops with their spears, and then on his chariot plated in gold, Alexander the Great himself surrounded by leopards and lions in cages—crazy stuff.
Everyone from the city came out. They put the road for miles outside of Babylon. They covered the road in rose petals, and they had these little altars that they built offering incense to Alexander the Great, and they had choirs standing along singing his praises, and the people all came to the walls and they were praising the greatness of Alexander the Great. The reason he came in such a triumphal entry is so that all would see his might, all would see his strength, all would be afraid to rebel against this great king.
So when you hear of a triumphal entry, it should be announced like this: Be afraid, O daughters of Zion, because look, your King comes to you in power and might. But that is not how this triumphal entry is preached and promised and given to us. Fear not, daughter of Zion, because your King comes to you not in strength, not in might, not in glory, not in military regalia. He comes not carrying a spear or a sword or any weapons of war. He comes lowly, in peace, riding not a war horse—or if it was me, I think I would have ridden an elephant. Nothing of the sort. He comes riding a colt, a foal of a donkey. This is how Jesus comes.
Now, you have to think that the disciples were pretty excited about this. After all, they thought Jesus should be the king. They thought Jesus should sit on the throne. They thought Jesus should overthrow the Romans and bring an end to the rule of the Pharisees and that He should take the power and rule Himself. They thought that Jesus didn’t come to suffer, but to rule. And so you have to think that while they’re going down the Mount of Olives, and they’re handing out the palm branches to the children, and they’re saying, we’re singing Psalm 118, the third stanza, and here they’re all going down, and the disciples are thinking, ah, this is what it’s supposed to be like. Here’s a little bit of triumph. That’s what we were looking for this whole time. Him, but Jesus comes down the mountain weeping, longing to gather the people of Jerusalem under the shadow of His wings like a hen gathers her chicks, even though they were not willing.
Because Jesus knows that this path that He’s on, that this road that He’s on does not end on the throne, but at the cross. It doesn’t end in glory; it ends in humility. It doesn’t end in triumph; it ends in death. It doesn’t end in His destroying Jerusalem; it ends in His being destroyed by Jerusalem. It ends not in His conquering, but being conquered, giving His life as a ransom for you. But that is why Jesus came, so that you would not be afraid of God.
It is appointed to us, to all, once to die and then to be judged. We will all stand before the judgment seat of God one day to give an account for all that we’ve done, for all that we’ve failed to do, for every word that we’ve spoken. We will all stand before there. And this is a frightful thing because all of us have broken God’s law. All of us deserve His wrath and eternal punishment. But all of us have been died for by Jesus and rescued by His work of suffering and death.
So, when we hear of this account of Jesus riding in humility and lowliness into Jerusalem, we rejoice because He was riding there for you. And He still does. I mean, there’s a reason that we sing this song every Sunday, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, because Jesus still comes. He doesn’t ride a donkey. He, I suppose, has an even humbler tool that he uses. He rides on the bread and the wine, and he brings us his body and blood still lowly, still in peace, still so that he might bless us and redeem us and rescue us. He still comes to save.
So we rejoice. With the children from 1,976 years ago, and with the children from 30 minutes ago, we rejoice that Jesus comes lowly, in peace, to save and to deliver. Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen. And the peace of God, which passes all that your mind can do, strengthen and keep you in the true faith, to life everlasting. Amen.