Return to the City of God John 12:12–19, Zechariah 9:9-12

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God our Father, and Jesus Christ, our King.

Our Lenten series has been return to the Lord, based on Joel 2:13: Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

Our Palm Sunday message is Return to the City of God, based on our Gospel reading: The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!”

This is the fulfillment of our Old Testament reading, especially verse 9: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Jerusalem was the holy city for Jewish believers in Palestine and throughout the Roman Empire. 

There were 3 great religious festivals held at Jerusalem each year. The most popular was the Passover, which is the context of today’s Gospel, when each family would sacrifice a lamb, and then celebrate the Passover Meal that evening. 

This reminded them that God had saved them slavery and death in Egypt, as they sacrificed a lamb and smeared it’s blood on their door frames, and the angel of death passed over, saving them.

Also there was the Festival of Tabernacles or Tents, when people would live in make shift shelters for a week, reminding them of the ancient people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, living in tents, with God watching over them and taking care of them and feeding them every day.

And finally the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost, which was a harvest festival, reminding then people that God had given them the Promised Land, an abundant land in a dry climate, flowing with milk and honey, as God promised them many times, in many verses throughout Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. 

For us today, Pentecost is the festival when we remember that God sent the Holy Spirit to his disciples, and they spoke the Gospel in many different languages, all bearing witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

Today, Pentecost reminds us that in Baptism, God sends His Spirit, with the power to believe God and love and love one another.

Hundreds of thousands of people from throughout Palestine and the entire Mediterranean world and even beyond, would travel to the holy city of Jerusalem for these huge celebrations. 

It was often quite an adventure, an exciting time for the people, something they looked forward to in the midst of their difficult lives, as they had to struggle and toil just to survive.

Psalms 120 -134 are about these journeys or pilgrimages to Jerusalem. They’re called the Pilgrimage Psalms. 

They describe the dangers the people faced, and their anticipation to reach their destination, Jerusalem, or Zion, as it was sometimes called, the city of God, there to celebrate with their fellow believers; to see friends and family they hadn’t seen in probably a year, sometimes more. And to meet and get to know new people who shared the same hope and faith.

In this atmosphere of excitement, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, as the prophet Zechariah said He would.  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.

The people shouted and cheered; a chant rose up, like in a stadium full of excited people at a ball game, shouting and chanting, Skooool, or Defense. 

Likewise a chant rose up at the sheep gate, through which hundreds of thousands of lambs would be herded into Jerusalem that Sunday, to be sacrificed for the Passover on Thursday.

But it wasn’t the sheep the people were cheering, it was the One John the Baptist called the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

As Jesus approached the sheep gate, riding on a donkey, many people, maybe  thousands gathered, and threw down their cloaks like a carpet for Jesus to ride over. 

They waved palm branches, a symbol of victory, and in unison they began to chant and shout, Hoshanna, or as we say, Hosanna, Lord, save us. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Never before had there been so much excitement in Jerusalem. The people were hoping that the time had finally arrived. After years and centuries of waiting, the promised Messiah had come to set up Jerusalem as the city from which God would rule as the king of the earth, or so many believed.

In a way they were right. Jesus had come to rule the world, but not in the way they thought. They were thinking politics, Jesus was thinking salvation.

Many of them expected Jesus to use His power to destroy Roman rule, and to set Jerusalem and Judea and all God’s people free from Roman tyranny. 

Jesus had come to set Jerusalem free, but from a tyranny far greater and far more lasting. Roman rule lasted a few centuries, but the tyranny Jesus came to set us free from has terrorized humanity ever since that day Adam and Eve fell away; the tyranny of sin, death, and the power of the devil.

It was to defeat this triad of evil power, that Jesus came to earth, and rode into Jerusalem. He would defeat sin by dying and death by rising. 

A short time before Jesus rode into Jerusalem to save he world, He was in Galilee with His disciples. Word was sent to Him that His friend, Lazarus, was deathly ill. 

Jesus waited two days and then told his disciples, “Lazarus is asleep. I’m going to Bethany to wake him,” In others words, he has died and I’m going to raise him. 

Bethany was only two miles from Jerusalem, and Jesus was a wanted man in Jerusalem, with a price on His head, so Thomas said, “Let’s all go there and die with Him.” 

So Jesus returned to city of Jerusalem to die, but alone, that His disciples might live; that you and I, might live. Jesus rode into Jerusalem not just to die, but to rise, that He might raise us. Now in Him, when you die, it’s to live, you die to rise.

Without the One who overcame death for you, without Jesus, you die to die. That’s the only reason. What a hopeless reason, what a vain and futile death.

But with Christ in your heart, you die to live, to rise. Your body is laid low in your grave so that your spirit might soar high above to glory. 

And at the last, your body will rise in glory, and you will live forever in the eternal city of God, in heavenly splendor, where there is no place for sin and death and evil, where the devil has no influence over you whatsoever. A place and a life where the influence is all God’s, where the love is holy, the peace is perfect, and the city, golden.

Until we rejoice in the golden city of God in Heaven, we live in the city of God on earth, the city of grace, which we call the Church. Here, where the Word and Sacraments are, where faith and love abound, here is where our God is, present in His House, and present in your heart, the city of God, God’s kingdom within you, with all the blessings of His Kingdom poured upon you, surrounding you, and filling your life and spirit.

How blessed and happy we are to live now in the City of God, His Kingdom of Grace on earth, and how blessed and happy we will be to live forever in the City of God, His glorious Kingdom in Heaven. 

As you live in the silver city of God’s grace on earth, until you reach the golden city His glory in Heaven, may His peace, which passes understanding, guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and Savior, and King. Amen.