Historic Palm Sunday
Zechariah 9:9-13 April 9, 2017
Dear Friends in Christ.
Our text for this morning’s Palm Sunday message gives us a look at what might well be called a very pivotal point in history. And this is not just in regard to Israel’s history, but in regard to world history as well. For the time of the writing of this text, the days of the prophet Zechariah, as well as it being the time of Ezra and Malachi and Haggai and Nehemiah, was a time of world change. It was a time when the smaller empires of great and powerful kings like King Nebuchadnezzar began to give way to what might well be called the world’s first super-powers. The smaller regional empires were being swallowed up by far larger kingdoms.
For what we find at the time of our text is a picture of the end of the rule of the Babylonian Empire. Though it was a great and powerful empire in its day, a kingdom that easily defeatedJudah and carried away all of its people into captivity in Babylon, present day Iraq, it was short-lived. The power held by Nebuchadnezzar and his son and his grandson lasted only around 80 years. After that time a far more powerful kingdom, the Medo-PersianKingdom, overran Babylon as if it was not even there. Under the direction of the emperor of Persia, King Cyrus, a new rule of law and order overtook the Middle East.
The first step that was taken in this changing of the guard was that the captives from Israel were released. All those people from Israel that King Nebuchadnezzar had carried off to Babylon were now going home. This was not done out of the goodness of Cyrus’ heart, but through the working of God. Long before Cyrus ever came to power, God prophesied that a Persian king would defeat the Babylonians and set Israel free. When Cyrus did capture Babylon, the Children of Israel brought forward their Old Testament prophecies and showed the king how the Lord, the God of Israel, had promised that all this would take place. It even mentioned Cyrus by name. The response of Cyrus was also in accord with the will of God and the Israelites were sent back home to rebuild the temple and return to the regular worship of the one true God.
But even as this prophecy was fulfilled and Israel was allowed to return home to rebuild and re-establish the land God had given them, there was another prophecy in place that foretold the fall of the Medo-Persian Empire of Cyrus at the hands of an even greater and more powerful king, Alexander the Great of Greece. His kingdom would be ever greater than that of the Babylonians and Persians combined. It would be a far reaching kingdom that covered almost all of the Middle East and Asia.
But even the days of Alexander were limited because waiting in the wings was an even larger empire, the Roman Empire. Though it was the largest of all the empires, it too fell under the weight of worthless kings and Caesars. For what we find in this section of Scripture for this morning, in a text that was written at the pivotal point of the changing of these great and powerful kingdoms, is that these kingdoms of men will come and they will go. They will rise up and fall at the will and command of God who truly rules all things.
Yet in the message of Zechariah that spells out all of these comings and goings, the rise and decline of empires at the will of God under the hands of kings who would live and die, this section of Zechariah’s prophecy that we have for this Palm Sunday is a section that looks away from the kingdoms of men that will all fail, and turns to the Kingdom of God. For the message foretold by Zechariah is what we are celebrating today. It is the promise that some day a King would come who would never be defeated by any other king. There would be an empire that would reach throughout the entire world and never fall to one who was greater. The promise is that God would send a King who would be the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
The theme of our sermon for this Palm Sunday morning is one that looks at the prophecy of Zechariah and shows us that God did indeed keep His promise and send a King that has not been and will not be defeated. Through these words we can “FOLLOW THE ONE TRUE KING.” For even as all the other kings, the Cyruses, the Alexanders, the Caesars of Rome, all came expecting allegiance because of their power and might, we see that our King of kings did not come in the power of this world, but he came in the power of His Spirit, and that secondly He did not come just to protect us from earthly enemies, but He came to save us from the most fiercest of enemies, the enemy of all mankind, death.
So as we focus in on our message for this morning, our theme is “FOLLOW THE ONE TRUE KING.” Part one is I.HE COMES IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT, NOT THE FLESH and secondly II. HE COMES TO SAVE US FROM OUR GREATEST ENEMY, DEATH.
Now as we take into account this Old Testament prophecy that starts out “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you;”such words may not hold much interest for us as 21st Century Americans who live in a democratic republic. The whole idea of a king seems to elude us. Whether for good or bad, we don’t always understand what a king would do. Mostly we think of him sitting on a throne living the good life.
But in the days of the prophets, the life of a good king was not all fun and games. Rulers like Cyrus or Alexander were men of action. They were men who went out and actively took part in securing wealth and prosperity for themselves and their people. They were concerned about conquering other lands to bring more wealth back home to their own. They led their armies into foreign lands and then they came back home with great parades and processions of military might and conquered goods. The kings spoken of in this message should bring to mind men of great skill and might who were surrounded by a great deal of pomp and circumstance.
And as this prophecy was spoken, this is what would have been in the minds of the people. They would have envisioned this promised King as one who would return from a great raid on another kingdom or a campaign that conquered enemies and brought back the spoils of war. In the minds of the people who first heard this promise of God through Zechariah, they would have thought of a great and powerful man who showed off his wealth and influence.
Yet listen to what follows that picture of a victorious king. The prophecy says, “He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.”What a difference this is from the great parades and festivals of men like Cyrus and Alexander. There is no military parade. There is no great pomp and praise. There is only the picture of a single person riding into town on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
On this Palm Sunday we can clearly see that this is a picture of Christ. It is Jesus who comes to us in fulfillment of this prophecy as a King who would rule over an eternal kingdom. He is a King whom no one else will ever conquer. And instead of coming in praise and power of this world and the fading glory of wealth or military victories, Christ was coming with the victory of “just[ice] and … salvation.” He was coming with the eternal gift of everlasting life.
For that is the message of Christ’s justice and salvation. It is not simply a justice here on earth but it is the justice of God that will judge all mankind by the same standard. It is the justice that lets no one escape, a justice that never closes an eye to things that are wrong. In the justice brought by Christthe wicked are always caught and the innocent always go free. Even the greatest of kings like David and Solomon could not make such a promise.
Yet in this promise of justice is also a reminder that when God promises to destroy the wicked, it includes us. We are the ones who will face the wrath of God for even one of our sins. One little lie, one little desire to have what is not ours to have, one thought of hatred against another person and the justice of God declares us guilty. The justice of God declares that we deserve the punishment of death and damnation.
But Christ did not just come bringing justice, He also came bringing salvation. He came bringing the freedom from our sins by giving His innocent life in exchange for our guilty lives. He made amends with the one who demands that we die for our sins and gives us in exchange, the hope of everlasting life. He gives us the freedom from our sins so that we can truly praise Him as our King of Kings and Lord of lords.
It is no wonder that in this prophecy of Zechariah and in the fulfillment seen on Palm Sunday there were shouts of praise to glory of God and hosannas to the Son of David. For in the perfect King, in the perfect Kingdom which He rules and puts into us through the power of His Word and Sacraments, we are not just made to be lowly subjects, but we are brought along in the victory of our King to be victorious ourselves.
For Zechariah states in this prophecy, “For I have bent Judah, My bow, Fitted the bow with Ephraim, And raised up your sons, O Zion, Against your sons, O Greece, And made you like the sword of a mighty man.” This message is one that says when Christ the great and powerful King of kings establishes His never ending kingdom, He will make use of those who are faithful. He will take those who are His followers, those who believe in all that He has commanded, and use them like arrows in the hand of warrior. He will use our mouths and hands, He will use our minds and words to bring to the Greeks, the gentiles, the unchurched and unlearned, the message of salvation by Grace alone. We will be the tools of the King who will continue to conquer defeat His enemies, brining them into the submission of His will.
Though in the days of Zechariah, living at the hands of sinful kings who did only as they pleased, it was hard for Judah to comprehend the great and blessed King that was to come. Yet on this day of celebration, the day in which we recall Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem as a victorious King, we can see just what it is that Zechariah meant. We can see the salvation that is ours and the blessed hope we have in the King who has conquered even death itself to win for us life and salvation. Amen.
every sin is enforced with the same stern message of death and damnation. And though this may sound bad for us as sinners, it is the good news that
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He is going to bring His people gifts that cannot be touched with human hands. He is going to bring them salvation from their greatest enemy and a system of justice, a fairness, which is unheard of by any other kings.
And when we look at this prophecy in the light of Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, today, we see that He is most certainly the fulfillment of these words. He is the only king who can really bring both salvation and justice to the entire world.
Zechariah 9:9-13 (NKJV)
9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’ 11 “As for you also, Because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12 Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you. 13 For I have bent Judah, My bow, Fitted the bow with Ephraim, And raised up your sons, O Zion, Against your sons, O Greece, And made you like the sword of a mighty man.”