March 16, 2008

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church

Palm Sunday 2008     

Pr. Per Inge Vik  

Matt 21,1-11 

Hosanna!

Palm Sunday is a day for praise, a day for hailing Jesus. We heard it in the text reading from Phil 2. These verses are originally a primitive Christian hymn. A praise to Him who humbled himself, and whom God then exalted, and is to be praised by all tongues, and every knee should bend for him, in heaven and on earth. At last all humans should  confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

He is to be praised in heaven for eternity. That gives perspectives to the praise of our congregation. We have the opportunity to practice with that which eternity is filled.

The crowd on the Mount of Olives and in the city gate of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus as the Son of David, as the Messiah. At the same time I read from our text today an ambiguity among the crowd towards the one who comes riding. Because at the end of the text a different answer is given as the crowd that had been singing “Hosanna” was asked “Who is this?” Then they answer, This is the prophet Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee.

This statement is much more vague and unspecified than the Hosanna exclamation to the Son of David. For there were several prophets, but only one Messiah. We can choose to understand this in a positive way, so that people singing hail to Jesus already had grasped an important point, that Jesus is both true God and true human.  

For my own part, I would rather take this as a sign that those praising Him didn’t exactly know who he was or what they were singing. They were faltering. Their worship wasn’t very deep, but they were swept away on a wave of excitement. Among those shouting Hosanna on Palm Sunday, there were some of the same shouting “Crucify” five days later.

In any case, Palm Sunday is a day for praise. Jesus welcomes the adoration from people. We too are invited. It is good to sing praise, it makes us happy and

Relieved. There isn’t too much faith enthusiasm among us Norwegian Lutherans.

The “Natural Church Development” survey we took in Mindekirken a year ago showed that our weakest point as a congregation was exactly here.

“Passionate spirituality” showed up to be our “minimum factor”. There we have our greatest potential for growth. So the nerve and core of Palm Sunday, praise is very important for our congregation! 

All the 4 gospel writers tell about the procession into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. This tells us that this is a crucial event. Jesus is being praised on his way towards his suffering, and his last Passover Celebration. Let us take a look at the characteristics in the story according Matthew that we just heard.

One thing present throughout the gospel according to Matthew are all the quotes from the Old Testament. The all over references to the prophecies. Matthew views the story he tells, from beginning to the end as fulfillments of the promises God in his time gave to the patriarchs and prophets.

As here in verse 4 as the gospel writer comments what type of animal Jesus is riding on his way to town: This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Both the newest Norwegian Bible translation and the English translation that we use in our church here render the quote from the prophet with an “and” in stead of a comma between the donkey and the colt. This is another remarkable thing about Matthew. He is the only one of the 4 to mention two donkeys, a colt in addition to the donkey mother.

This is a bit strange. So did Jesus ride on two donkeys?  Probably that would have been a bit difficult, even for Jesus. So is he mounted on the colt or the mother?

On Palm Sunday last year we had Luke’s story, commenting that no one had ridden this animal before. So it seems that it was the youngest animal Jesus was riding.

Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven! the crowds were shouting. Every time we celebrate the meal with bread and wine in church, we too sing this. What does the word Hosanna mean? As suggested earlier, the consciousness among the crowd about the meaning of what they sang, was not too deep.

At the time of Jesus, the old Hosanna greeting had changed meaning from what was the case earlier. In the old time, the literal meaning of Hosanna was “Lord, save now!” So it was a cry for salvation. But during the years this meaning had been forgotten. So on Palm Sunday in Jerusalem it had the meaning of shout of hail. About the same as when we Norwegians shout “Hurra!” on the 17. of May. 

I think it is nice for us to imagine that people at that time didn’t know what they were part of singing either. Don’t we feel now and then that the hymns and the liturgy we use in church are a bit unintelligible? Yes, but even if we don’t comprehend everything, even so we are invited to praise God . He welcomes our praise, even if we do not understand the depth of what we are a part of.

The mysteries of faith are much more than our reasoning can comprehend. Please notice two things. First, Jesus welcomes the praise from children and adults as he is riding into the city. When others who hear and see those singing, and try to hush them down, Jesus says, Let them sing! If these become silent, the stones will shout!

That is the first. But secondly, Jesus answers the prayer from the crowd. He not only welcomes the praise, but he takes the cry literally. So he fulfills the petition for salvation! Five days later, on Good Friday this comes true. Then the act of salvation is completed at Calvary.

We who live now in this time, we see and know more than the crowd on the first Palm Sunday did. They hadn’t experienced either the crucifixion, the rising from the dead nor the sending of the Spirit on Pentecost day.

So we have a greater reason to sing to the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who was, is and will remain one, true God from eternity to eternity. (Congregation responds:) Amen.  

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716