Preparing for Worship - March 29, 2026

This Sunday, March 29, has traditionally been called Palm Sunday in the One Year Series and in our Lutheran churches, with an emphasis on Christ as our humble King, coming to Jerusalem, preparing to suffer and die and rise again for us. In the Three Year Series, this Sunday tends to be called The Sunday of the Passion, with a long reading of events that happened toward the end of Holy Week. There are eight possible readings this Sunday, and I can’t go through all of them, but I will try to help you focus on what is in them.

There are two choices for the psalm. Psalm 31:9-16 is a psalm of David, when he is in a time of great distress and grief and sorrow. His adversaries, his enemies, are giving him much trouble and plotting to take his life, and even his former friends and neighbors are fleeing from him, not wanting to be associated with him, fearing for their own lives. People are whispering and scheming against him. (Doesn’t this sound prophetic of our Lord Jesus, in His last days, too? The religious leaders are scheming together, and even Judas is planning to betray Him; and when He is arrested, all his disciples flee, running away in fear. As Isaiah 53:3-6 also predicted, Jesus was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” His sheep “went astray and turned away from Him to their own ways.” David is troubled in Psalm 31:10 about his own sins and iniquities, which he brought upon himself; but Jesus, who was sinless, was “pierced and crushed for our iniquities" because “the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”) In spite of his sins and weaknesses, David in Psalm 31 still “trusted in the Lord His God” and that “his times were in the Lord’s hands.” Perfectly, our Lord Jesus trusted His Heavenly Father, even when he was a “broken vessel” in “the hands of His enemies and persecutors” on the cross and even seemed to be ”forgotten” by His Father when He suffered the agonies of hell, in payment for all of our sins. Jesus was our perfect Servant Savior, trusting that He would be “saved” by His Father, as He prayed from the cross at the last, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46).

As I said earlier, I cannot work through the two chapters of the Gospel of Matthew today. In the past, many churches would read one Gospel’s Passion History over the six midweek services of the Lenten season and preach on at least some of the passages, or, once in a while, read a “harmony” of the four Gospel readings spread throughout Lent. I would encourage you to read Matthew 26:1-27:60 on your own, if you can, a bit at a time as part of Holy Week. Our attention spans seem to be very short these days, and this will give us a better chance to think about all that went on in these very important days.

The alternate psalm of this Sunday is Psalm 118:19-29. This psalm is prophetic of Jesus coming through the gates of the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. This was a day that “the Lord made for us to rejoice in and be glad” and "to give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and His steadfast love” for us. Jesus would be “our salvation” by being “the Stone rejected by so many” later this week as they helped put Him to death, and yet becoming “the Cornerstone” for our life and future that “endures forever,” through His suffering and death and resurrection for us. (See Matthew 21:42 and 1 Peter 2:6-7, in fulfillment of Isaiah 28:16.) Jesus was “the festal sacrifice offered up for us” on the cross, and we are now counted “righteous” in God’s eyes through Him. “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes,” as we are brought to trust in Jesus and say in faith: “Hosannah, save us, we pray,” as the Lord “makes His light to shine upon us” through His Word and Sacrments.

The events of Palm Sunday are also foretold in the words of our Old Testament lesson in Zechariah 9:9-12. Our “righteous King,” Jesus, would come to us, “having salvation,” yet coming in a very “humble way, riding on a donkey’s colt.” (See Hosea 1:7 and Micah 5:2=5a, also.) He would “speak peace to the nations” - Good News of His kingdom shared “to the ends of the earth.” Through His blood shed on the cross as part of His New Covenant, He would “set prisoners free” from their sins and give them eternal hope in Him. (See Hebrews 10:11-17, for example.)

Fulfillment of this promise is in what was originally the Gospel lesson for Palm Sunday, Matthew 21:1-9, as Zechariah 9:9 is quoted, along with words from Psalm 118:14-27 and Psalm 24:7-10, as Jesus, the King of Glory, comes, yet in a very humble way, into Jerusalem. He comes on a donkey, a beast of burden, as both  David and Solomon had ridden on a mule, as kings (1 Kings 1:32-33). People spread cloaks on the road before Him, as had been done for King Jehu, long before. And palm branches were spread, too, as a sign of rejoicing, as was done in the Old Testament Festival of Booths in Leviticus 23:40. And in Revelation 8:9, the countless multitude in heaven are pictured carrying palm branches in their hands and singing, “salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb,” the risen, victorious Lord Jesus. The Palm Sunday greeting to Jesus was a glimpse of that, as the people sang, “Hosannah to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” (These days, this reading from Matthew is often used for a Gospel processional, instead of the actual Gospel reading. The alternate reading, John 12:12-19, could also be read at this time, telling the Palm Sunday story and quoting from Zechariah 9:9. John’s Gospel also tells us that the disciples did not really understand what was happening on Palm Sunday. They did not understand until after the resurrection of Jesus. Many other people had come with Jesus on Palm Sunday simply because they had heard of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. The Pharisees feared that “the whole world was going out after Jesus,” and so the plan to get rid of Jesus was put into effect. (See also John 11:45-53.) Sadly, then, many of those people who had praised Jesus on Palm Sunday had been turned against Him by Good Friday.

The Epistle lesson, Philippians 2:5-11, ties everything together regarding Jesus as Savior and King and His saving work. Jesus was God, God the Son, and yet was willing to carry out the saving plan of the Triune God, by not hanging onto His glory as God the Son, but giving it up and emptying Himself and becoming a human being, a servant, born as a true man (through the Virgin Mary). He was still God the Son, but He humbled Himself, willing not always to use His Godly power and to be obedient to this saving plan, even though it meant His suffering and dying on the cross. (Paul knew that it was the perfect life of Jesus and His suffering and dying in payment for his sins and the sins of the world that allowed Paul to be counted righteous in God’s eyes. He did not have a righteousness of his own, but a righteousness from God through the gift of faith in Christ. See how Paul described that in Philippians 3:8-9.) Paul preached “Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1-4), but he also preached “the power of His resurrection from the dead.” (See Philippians 3:10 and 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, for example.) That is why in this Epistle lesson, Paul speaks not only of Christ humbling Himself even to the point of death on a cross. We also hear the wonderfully Good News of Easter and Christ’s victorious resurrection and ascension, being “highly exalted” and having “the Name that is above every name” and “confessed” as Lord and God, together with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. It is in the Name of that Triune God that we were baptized and brought to faith and given a new and humble and trusting mind in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:2-5) and live in Christ’s forgiving love and presence always, and want to share this Good News of Lent and Easter with as many others as we can (Matthew 28:18-20). It is truly Good News for all!