Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
It’s the week of
Passover; Jerusalem is overflowing with people from all over come to celebrate
this Holy Day. It’s the week of
Passover, they’ve come to remember the deliverance that God had given them from
the land of Egypt when He spared them from the Angel of Death that crept across
the land killing every firstborn, by the blood of the lamb smeared on the
lintels of their doors. It’s the week of
Passover, people have flocked to Jerusalem with their own lambs to offer as a
sacrifice at the temple. It’s the week
of Passover, and the final Passover Lamb is riding on a donkey into Jerusalem
to be sacrificed.
He rides in with
these pilgrims shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who Comes in the Name of the
Lord, even the King of Israel.” “Hosanna!”
they shout, “Save us now!” But it’s not
to be saved from sins, that they desire, but to be saved from Rome. These Passover pilgrims, who have had an
uncircumcised, gentile king ruling over them lay down palm branches before the
One they think will take His throne in power and might, kick Caesar out and
restore Israel to her former glory.
They’re looking
for a king who will roar like a lion, but what they get is one that will bleat
in agony like a lamb. They’re looking
for a king who comes in triumph, what they get is one who will die in
humiliation on a cross.
Yet, this is the
Lamb King on whom our gaze is focused, because this King is the King who saves,
not from Roman oppression, but from sin, death, and hell. The Lamb King comes to His people, not to
subjugate them under His powerful might, but to die for them. What kind of king does that? Ours.
Our King Jesus. He’s the King we
don’t deserve, but the one we need and the one we’re given.
Jesus
comes riding into Jerusalem, not to deal with the Roman government, but to deal
with sin; your sin and mine. Each and
every sin we commit demands blood, it demands death; and that’s what we
deserve. Like the first Passover in
Egypt, the Angel of Death killed sinners without regard to nationality, or
severity of sin, He was sent to take his just wages for each act of iniquity
committed against God. But God was
merciful, passing over the homes who had covered themselves with the blood of
the sacrificial lamb. And so it is for
you.
King Jesus rides
into Jerusalem, carrying, not a sword, or shield, or spear, but He rides into
Jerusalem carrying your sins. He carries
the sins that burden your conscience, the sins that you don’t want anyone else
to know about, the sins that demand blood and death as punishment. And so that it isn’t our blood that’s spilled
for our own misdeeds, we’re given Jesus, the King who spills His own blood for
you. Who rides into death for you.
That which we
deserve – death and hell - we don’t get, and He who doesn’t deserve any of the
mockery, the beatings, or crucifixion does it willingly for you. Because Your King loves you, even unto
death. The King suffers for you.
It’s the week of
Passover. Lambs are being bought and
sold, and soon there will be the bleating of thousands of lambs as they’re laid
on the sacrificial altar. But in the
midst of the bleating of lambs inside the city at the temple, the Lamb King is
crucified on Calvary’s Hill outside the city gates. Instead of a throne of cushions, He takes for
Himself a throne of wood and nails. He
takes for Himself a cross-shaped altar where He ascends, for you. Shedding His blood for you. Suffering and dying for you. Paying the price that our sins deserve.
See the blood
there, people of God. As the blood of the
lamb saved the people in Egypt as death passed over them; so you are saved by
the blood of the Lamb King. He rides
into Jerusalem knowing full well what our rebellion and sins will cost Him, yet
He goes lovingly for you. We call it His
“passion” because of His intense love for you.
This is the
confession that you’re going to make today, [Brayden] [Gabe], and the
confession the Lord wills that you make your whole life; that this Jesus who’s
riding into Jerusalem is there with your sins upon His back. That with you, [Brayden] [Gabe], we too can
look at the wooden throne of our Lamb King and say, “There He is, paying for my
sin. The ride into Jerusalem leads to
the cross for me.”
It’s
the week of Passover; our Lamb King rides into Jerusalem toward His death and
Your salvation. It’s the week of
Passover; the blood posted on the lintels of Israel’s doors in Egypt points us
to the Passover Lamb who shed His blood for you, that in the sacrifice of the
Lamb King the eternal consequences of your sin pass you over. It’s the week of Passover; and though our
king dies like a bleating lamb, we wait and watch until that Easter morning
when He will burst out of the tomb with the roar of the Lion of Judah. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
