This podcast is being recorded for Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023. We’ve got the story of Palm Sunday from the 12th chapter of the gospel of John. We’re going to look ahead at what we call “Maundy Thursday.” I’ll tell you about a core Lutheran teaching based on Romans 7, called “simul justis et peccator”—recognition of our life in Christ as simultaneously justified and sinner. And we’ll end with God’s good declaration: you are beautiful, you are loved. So let’s start by reading the gospel of John 12: 12-19.
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
This podcast is being recorded for Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023. We’ve got the story of Palm Sunday from the 12th chapter of the gospel of John. We’re going to look ahead at what we call “Maundy Thursday.” I’ll tell you about a core Lutheran teaching based on Romans 7, called “simul justis et peccator”—recognition of our life in Christ as simultaneously justified and sinner. And we’ll end with God’s good declaration: you are beautiful, you are loved. So let’s start by reading the gospel of John 12: 12-19.
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
By Grace Through Faith (Romans 7)
Hello, welcome to the Will Preach for Food podcast. I’m Doug, a pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, based out of Shelton, Washington, a congregation of the ELCA. You can learn more about Faith at our website, www.faithshelton.org. This podcast is being recorded for Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023. We’ve got the story of Palm Sunday from the 12th chapter of the gospel of John. We’re going to look ahead at what we call “Maundy Thursday.” I’ll tell you about a core Lutheran teaching based on Romans 7, called “simul justis et peccator”—recognition of our life in Christ as simultaneously justified and sinner. And we’ll end with God’s good declaration: you are beautiful, you are loved. So let’s start by reading the gospel of John 12: 12-19.
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
Jesus enters Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, cloaks strewn on the road, palm branches waving. The disciples don’t know WHAT to think. “Hosanna to the King!” says the crowd. “We can’t let this go on any longer!” say the Jewish leaders. The Roman soldiers look up from their social media feeds to take note of a public disturbance on the edge of town.
There’s no doubt that Jesus is playing the part of the Old Testament messiah king. The prophet Zechariah, 500 years earlier, envisioned the liberation of Jerusalem from its enemies, led by a humble king, riding into town on a donkey. Palm branches were sort of a national symbol of Israel. And here it is: the Passover Festival—the busiest week of the year. If anything revolutionary is going to happen in Jerusalem, this is the time.
Which is exactly what scares the Jewish leaders. Make no mistake—there is no love for Jesus and his challenge to their authority. In the bigger picture, a local political uprising during the Passover would most assuredly get the attention of the Roman forces occupying the city. Israel is not free. Even the right to have their own Temple and to keep their religious practices is something that can be taken away at the slightest provocation. Fast forward 40 years, and Jerusalem witnesses the utter destruction of the Temple at the hands of those same Romans, and an end to their way of life. Sufficed to say, Jesus poses a threat to national security. “This isn’t going to end well.”
Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday is the beginning of the end. The first day of Holy Week. This week is also sometimes called the Passion of Christ, because all week long Jesus puts it all out there, or as the first verse of chapter 13 of the gospel of John puts it: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” He shows them “the full extent of his love.” All week Jesus is in the limelight, under scrutiny and surveillance 24/7. On Thursday he arranges one last supper with his trusted and overwhelmed disciples. Of course it is the Seder meal, the Passover celebration, recalling how God had acted 1500 years earlier to, you guessed it, liberate the people from their enslavers.
That night, that Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment, a new mandate, from the Latin root “mandatum.” So we get the verbally confusing holy day called “Maundy Thursday.” The Thursday of the Mandate. Maundy—rhymes with “laundry.”
This new commandment? Love one another. As I have loved you, love one another. And the two worship rituals associated with Maundy Thursday are the Lord’s Supper—for fellowship and forgiveness; and foot-washing. Love one another. As I have loved you, Jesus says, so you also must love one another.
By the end of the night, Jesus is betrayed, arrested, denied, and sentenced to death. The next day, Good Friday, Jesus suffers under Pontius Pilate, is crucified on a cross between two thieves. Even then, minutes before an excruciating death, Jesus loves the unlovable. One of those two thieves calls out to Jesus, desperately pleading that Jesus remember him when Jesus ascends to power. Wow. And right then and there, Jesus assures the man that there is a place in heaven waiting for him: Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.
Moments later, Jesus commits his Spirit to the Father. He dies, and is buried that same evening. On Sunday, the third day (counting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), the women find an empty tomb. He is not here, they are told that first Easter, for he has risen from the dead.
So, during Holy Week, the people of God around the world gather to worship and to remember these events of the last week of Jesus’ life. A few weeks ago I started to make the worship schedule here at Faith, and I realized that our sanctuary is now used every Thursday evening by another congregation, a Spanish speaking church called Agua Viva, Living Water.
My first thought was, uh oh! Do we need to ask them to move their service? Do we have our service in the Fellowship Hall? And THEN I thought, wait a second: Maundy Thursday is the night we remember Christ’s commandment to…love one another. To follow the example of Jesus by washing the feet of others. To practice our unity in Christ by the breaking of bread. So I asked our Council, and I asked Pastor Eric Gomez, and, well, the congregacion de Agua Viva has invited the people of Faith to join them this Thursday at 6:00pm for a shared worship service in Spanish and English—mostly Spanish.
· They have ushers who take you to your seat. I noticed that most worshipers kneel and pray when they first get to their seats. We finally get to use our kneelers!
· It’ll start with about 30 minutes of worship—electric guitar, trumpets, drums, and even dancers in traditional Guatemalan garb with tambourines. And we get to clap on the 1s and 3s.
· It is fun to see so many babies and children in worship and around the church.
· My Spanish is muy malo—very bad—but that’s okay, because most of them don’t speak English, either. Smiles go a long way. “Mucho gusto” means “nice to meet you.”
· Esta bien. “It’s okay.”
· After the music, both pastors will bring a greeting. We will read John 13 in both Spanish and English. Pastor Eric and I will wash each other’s feet. Then we will share Holy Communion—Faith style. We will pray together in English and in Spanish. Then those of us who want to can leave the service—they’ll keep going (in Spanish) for another hour or so…
· We will return to the Sanctuary the next day, at noon, Good Friday, to mark and remember the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. Pastor Brenda and the Faith Choir will help us worship that day.
But as for Thursday night with Agua Viva, I don’t really know what this experience will be like for us or for them. For you and for me. Sometimes, I think, God just tells us to show up, try things. Sometimes it turns out pretty cool. Sometimes it goes flat. Mostly, in my experience, obedience to the Holy Spirit sort of builds on itself. One yes leads to another yes, which leads to another, and so on, and so on.
I’d like to tell you that the arrow always goes up and to the right, but I’d be lying if I did. The fact is that life in the Spirit is good, and it’s hard. That is what the Apostle Paul describes beginning in Romans 7:14.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
The things I know are right, I don’t do. And the things I hate, are the things I do. Doesn’t that sound about right? Why did I SAY that? I should have known better. I don’t know what got into me. We admit that we are powerless over alcohol and our lives have become unmanageable. If it feels like there is a battle for your soul waging inside you every day, it’s because, well, there is. Simul justis, et peccator. Simultaneously justified in the eyes of God AND a sinner, judged under God’s law. We are not part saint and part sinner, some good, some bad. We are 100% each. At the same time. “Simul justis et peccator, cause we don’t do what we oughta…” When we say that the church is made up of sinners and saints, it is not that some people are better than others. It means that each of us is simul: the old self, held by sin; and the new self, being re-formed by the Holy Spirit in us. This is what Paul describes next:
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Under the authority of God’s love and, at the same time, subject to the judgment of the Law. You’d think baptism would make life easier. You’d think the Spirit would enable us to obey the commandments. But it turns out that the gospel is different all together. God’s promise in Christ Jesus doesn’t merely make it so that we can obey the Ten Commandments, but rather so that we can live in relationship with Christ, with each other, and with our world, free from the need to keep score.
Like we talked about in Romans 3, God is sovereign. God doesn’t answer to the Law. The Law is a tool that God uses. It is a diagnostic tool, like one of those magnified mirrors. They help us see what’s wrong. But the mirror itself can’t fix anything. And it doesn’t care about you. It’s a mirror. The Law is the same way.
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh…
No condemnation. What the Law couldn’t do because of our sin habits, God does, independent of the Law, by sending us Jesus. Remember, Jesus is the “mercy seat”—the place where God promises to meet us and be with us. Our salvation is in Christ and in Christ alone. We are “saved” because, well, Jesus says so. Jesus doesn’t have to clear it with the Law. He doesn’t have to fill out extra paperwork, or file for an exemption. God’s righteousness supercedes all other judgments, laws, or opinions. The thief on the cross was justified because Jesus said he was. The Law couldn’t do that, but Jesus could. And did.
If the Law is a mirror, then God is your spouse, your parent, your lover. “How do I look?” And what does your lover say, but the truth: You look amazing. I think you are beautiful. I love you. And, at the end of the day, your lover’s opinion is the only one that really matters, isn’t it? So it is with God’s righteousness. Don’t worry about how you feel, or what the mirror tells you. Listen to God’s voice, the truth that will set you free.
My point is this: the Christian life is both wonderful and wacky. It defies a straight line and certain progress. The law serves a purpose, but it is a tool used by God, not the final measure of faith. Only God has the last word. And that word is Jesus Christ, the Word that became flesh, suffered, died, and was raised on the third day. The Word that transcends English and Spanish. A Word that enters into our hearts as a gentle King. A Word that leans into hard things, washes feet, loves his friends, takes up his cross, and lays down his life for the love of us all. A Word that names you, claims you, and declares your sins forgiven. The Word that says: “You are beautiful, and I love you, no matter what. Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Amen. It is so.
Thanks for listening today. I hope this podcast series is helping you fall more deeply in love with the God who created you, who loves you, and has a purpose for your life. God loves you: deal with it! To learn more about Faith, go to our website, www.faithshelton.org. Please “like” us, subscribe, donate, or sign-up for our newsletter. You can subscribe to this podcast on most podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple, and Google. Chas, thanks for your production work on this podcast every week. All glory…