Every Year the city of Jerusalem filled with excitement as pilgrims streamed into town to celebrate the Passover. Passover was one of three great festivals of the Jewish people. During Passover, the people of God made a pilgrimage to the temple. They came to remember what God had done for them in Egypt; how an innocent lamb was slaughtered so that the angel of death would pass over them and how they had been set free from slavery and delivered from death by the LORD’s mighty right hand. They came in anticipation of the future. Families gathered to eat bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and roasted lamb on the evening of the first full moon of spring, just as the grain harvest began. The annual feast anticipated the coming of the Messiah who would set them free from slavery to sin and deliver them from death and the devil.[1]
Most people were excited to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Jesus, no doubt and quite understandably, had mixed emotions. Most people assumed that Jesus would not make the Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem this year. The high council “had given orders that if anyone found out where Jesus was, he should report it so that they might arrest him.”[2] Jesus’ own disciples were convinced that a pilgrimage to Jerusalem would mean certain death for Jesus. They tried to discourage Jesus from going saying, “Rabbi, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”[3] When they were unable to convince Jesus to alter His course the disciples resolved to go with Him saying, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”[4] Jesus knew what awaited Him in Jerusalem. Jesus told His disciples, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.”[5] So, yeah, mixed emotions for Jesus as He entered Jerusalem.
Jesus may have had mixed emotions, but the vast majority of the people were excited to see Him. Everywhere Jesus went the crowds were amazed at His teaching “because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”[6] His disciples went so far as to confess that Jesus spoke “words of eternal life.”[7]
Furthermore, Jesus had gained a reputation as a worker of miracles. He had given sight to the blind, caused the deaf to hear, and made the lamb walk. He had calmed a storm, walked on water, and cast out demons. His reputation as a worker of miracles had very recently been enhanced by the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
Finally, what excited the people was the realization that Jesus was the fulfiller of prophecy. Though not everyone knew it at the time, Jesus was the product of a virgin birth as foretold by the prophet Isaiah and He was from the house and line of David as foretold by the prophet Jeremiah. At the moment, the prophecy that excited the Passover pilgrims more than any other was a 500-year-old prophecy from the prophet Zechariah who wrote in the 9th verse of his 9th chapter, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” As Jesus entered Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, excitement surrounded Him.
Still today, excitement surrounds Jesus. You see it in classrooms where the Word of God is taught. Anyone who has ever taught Sunday School knows what I mean. Little eyes grow wide and mouths gape open as you tell them about David and Goliath. My confirmation students are more reserved with their reactions, but still I can tell they are excited even when we are studying things like commandments and confessions. Even for the more mature students who have spent more than a hot minute with the Word of God, year after year it is still exciting for us to hear about the babe of Bethlehem and the empty tomb.
Furthermore, you see the excitement that surrounds Jesus as modern miracles are performed. Be it at the baptism of a child where simple water is combined with the Word of God to miraculously create faith or at the table where by the Word of God ordinary bread and wine are miraculously combined with the body and blood of Jesus to offer forgiveness to those who believe.
Finally, you see the excitement that surrounds Jesus as He is revealed as the fulfiller of prophecy. With the help of the inspired authors of the New Testament we have that advantage of seeing Jesus as the fulfiller of every Messianic prophecy. From the crushing of the serpent’s head in Genesis 3, to the casting of lots in Psalm 22, to the slaughtering of the Lamb in Isaiah 53 it is exciting for us to see Jesus fulfill the Father’s plan to save us from our sin.
Such excitement has always surrounded Jesus. As you can imagine, news of Him ridding into Jerusalem seated on a colt, the foal of a donkey spread quickly. In their excitement, some “36 people spread their cloaks on the road” before Jesus, others cut branches from palm trees and spread them on the road before Him. They were following an ancient tradition, one that began at the anointing of King Jehu, some 800 years earlier. With this action, the Passover pilgrims were acknowledging Him as the long-awaited Messiah and they were declaring their submission to Jesus as their king.
As Jesus drew nearer to Jerusalem, the Passover pilgrims articulated their excitement over the coming of the long-awaited Messiah-king. They “37… began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” The words they spoke were similar to the traditional greeting they would give to any Passover pilgrim. The words are from Psalm 118 and were chanted antiphonally, that is back and forth, as a form of festive welcome to their guests. However, there are some notable differences. The first being, in Psalm 118:26 it says, “blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.” To Jesus the people proclaimed, “blessed is the king who comes in the name of the LORD.” Additionally, they added a phrase that is reminiscent of the song that was sung by the angels to those shepherds who kept watch over their flocks by night. “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest” sounds incredibly similar to “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”[8] It is as if the Passover pilgrims that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem were inviting heaven itself to join them in singing antiphonal praises to their Messiah-king.
As they have done for thousands of years, believers continue to articulate their excitement over Jesus. Our excitement is often articulated with our Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. We often articulate our excitement as we sing our hymns, psalms, and songs of praise. We regularly articulate our excitement over Jesus in our confessions and creeds.
Sunday morning at Messiah is an excellent time and place to articulate your excitement over Jesus, but it is not the only time and it is not the only place. In a few moments Nick Jackovatz is going to step forward and articulate his excitement over Jesus. He is going to confess Jesus as his Messiah-king and promise to conform all his life to the teachings of God’s Word; to be faithful in the use of the use of Word and sacrament; and in faith and action remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as long as he lives. Nick’s confession is going to remind us all that the entire life of the believer is to be an articulation of our excitement over Jesus.
The Pharisees in the crowd could not stand to hear the people excitedly proclaiming Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah-king. They “said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”” The Pharisees sought to stifle the crowd’s excitement. They didn’t want them to see Him as their Savior from sin. They didn’t want the people to accept Jesus’ rule over their lives.
Sadly, this request to stifle the crowd’s excitement are the last words we hear the Pharisees speak in Luke’s gospel. Sadder still, is that the words of the Pharisees continue to echo inside of us. There is, in a way, a little Pharisee that lives inside of all of us that is constantly trying to stifle the excitement we have for Jesus. This Pharisee inside of us does not want us to see Jesus as our savior from sin. It would rather we look to ourselves and put trust in our imagined goodness for salvation. This Pharisee inside us does not want us to see Jesus as our king. It would rather our lives be ruled by personal opinion or popular ideas.
Every one of us has this Pharisee whispering in our ear, seeking to stifle our excitement over Jesus. However, inside a young confirmand, this voice screams. Nick, today you are excited to confess Jesus as your Messiah-king, but over the next few years especially, there will be this voice inside of you that seeks to stifle your excitement. That voice will be encouraged by an evolutionist who says life is the result of a cosmic mistake, or a Marxist who refers to religion as the opiate of the masses, or a Hedonist who encourages you to do whatever feels good. Over the next few years of your life, there will be a voice inside of you that seeks to stifle your excitement over Jesus. I pray, by the grace of God, you don’t let that happen and so does your mother and father, your brother and grandmother, as well as all the members of Messiah. We are all praying for you Nick. We are praying that the excitement you have for Jesus remain. And we ask that you pray that by the grace of God it remains in each of us as well.
The Pharisees sought to stifle the excitement that surrounded Jesus as He entered Jerusalem, and for a time it seemed as if they had succeeded. However, they did not, indeed they could not succeed in stifling the excitement that surrounded and surrounds Jesus. Jesus told the Pharisees, “I tell you,” “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” and through the working of the Holy Spirit in Word and sacrament we do. We do cry out. We like living stones have been built into a spiritual house that declares the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light.[9] We cry out to our friends and neighbors, we cry out to our colleges and coworkers, we cry out to the nations that surround us and the generations that come after us so that all people may share in the excitement that surrounds Jesus our Messiah-king.
Today is an exciting day for all of us. Today we celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and join our voices with the Passover pilgrims who praised Him as the Messiah-king. Amen
[1] Behold the Lamb by John Lawrenz
[2] John 11:57
[3] John 11:8
[4] John 11:16
[5] Luke 18:31-32
[6] Matthew 7:29
[7] John 6:68
[8] Luke 2:14
[9] 1 Peter 2