Which Worship Service is for You?
Matthew 21:1-9
April 5, 2020 anno Domini – Redeemer
Which worship service of Holy Week would you prefer? Palm Sunday or Good Friday.
I ask you that for a couple of reasons. Worship should be on your mind, Jesus should be on your mind, and if you are not missing the Divine Service at Redeemer, if you’d be fine sitting on your soft chair at home, drinking coffee while watching some good looking preacher (or a balding old guy like me) give you God’s Word – repent.
Palm Sunday or Good Friday? The question gets at the heart of worship, or the Divine Service as we Lutherans have called it for 500 years.
What do you prefer? Jubilant crowds or mocking and spitting crowds.
Children singing praises or an X-rated execution that no child should have to witness.
Crowds laying their coats and palm branches before Jesus to honor him and shield him from the dust or Jesus stripped naked while the guards play casino games for his garment?
A King riding on a donkey, entering the capital city in victory with the promise of peace. Or a disgraced King, so battered and beaten he cannot bear his cross, heading for execution.
A miracle worker who knows there are two donkeys that their owner will loan him or a man you couldn’t even bear to look at, whose 15 minutes of fame was over. Seal the tomb. This story is over. He’s finished.
Would you rather have Someone who might save you or Someone who couldn’t even save Himself?
The twelve chose Sunday. They were overjoyed to have grabbed on to Jesus coattails. They thought power and glory were at hand. By Friday Judas was dead, Peter was hiding, John Mark was explaining to his mom why he came home naked, and John was trying to comfort Mary as her Son died.
Why didn’t they want to go to church on Good Friday? The same reason you don’t. Jesus on the cross doesn’t look real helpful. They praised Jesus when He gave them their version hope and they mocked Him when He didn’t deliver. What’s the crucifixion compared to the coronavirus? I don’t need forgiveness I need a job. What good is eternal salvation when my retirement savings is disappearing? Eternal life is fine, but I really want to live here and now. They had the same hopes we have. They didn’t want to be locked down under Roman rule. They wanted Jesus to free them. They also were carriers of the same virus that afflicts us today – sin. They were plagued by laziness, apathy, lust, selfishness. They got behind the latest fad and that’s all Jesus was to them on Palm Sunday, a fad. When the crowds gathered behind Jesus expecting an earthly King. Popularity breeds followers. So also, most good Lutherans will swallow up the latest spiritual fad and read the latest Christian best seller and not even notice that the cross of Christ is absent from the book, baptism isn’t mentioned, and there is nothing about the church – it’s just me and Jesus.
Jesus does not need the Palm Sunday worship. Jesus doesn’t need the crowds. He doesn’t need your praise. He’s got the angels singing His praise in the heavenly throne room for all eternity. He doesn’t need your prayers or your hopes or your desires. Jesus doesn’t need to be popular. He’s God. He doesn’t need a big crowd – He created everyone. He wants Good Friday because He wants you.
The crowd cried “Hosanna” which means “Save us now.” They should have said, “Save us from the Romans” because that is what they wanted. God gave them more than they wanted. He saved them from themselves. God alone saves you and He saves you His way. He save humanity with an ark built by a drunken carpenter named Noah. He made His promise to bless the whole world through an old guy and his barren wife named Abraham and Sarah. He brought the Israelites out of Egypt with a stuttering preacher named Moses. The Son of God became flesh, was born of a Virgin, and died the most horrific death you could imagine – to save you from your sin, because that’s why you’re dying, that’s why you’re worried, that’s why the future is scary. You don’t know if you’ll get sick, if you’ll get your job back, if your investments will rebound, because of sin. Sin turned God’s good order into chaos. Sin destroyed the perfect communion between humanity and God into what you see on Dr. Phil or the old Jerry Springer show.
We preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach Jesus’ death because He didn’t stay dead. If the crucifixion was the end I’d be an engineer and you’d have all your Sunday mornings free and 10% more of your wages. Is worship at Redeemer exciting? No. Do we get big crowds? 30 years ago. Is there much to see here? Well, our beloved building is looking a little brighter and better, but it’ll never be a Cathedral. There’s a lot more enticing, exciting, popular worship in Christendom than you’ll find here. We don’t ever deliberately aim for boring, difficult or offensive worship. We aim for Jesus because that’s what sinners need – that’s what you need. Jesus Christ endured the passion (His suffering) because that was His Father’s plan to save you. Jesus doesn’t need you so He can be God. You need Him so you can be human once again. That’s why He came – to forgive your sins, to give you faith to believe in Him, to have God as your Father, to pry your grubby little hands off of your belly and heart and wallet and start living in the freedom of forgiveness, the freedom of eternal life and the certainty of the resurrection. The freedom that believes in the Triune God and loves your neighbor.
One concluding comment here for my flock. If you’re not one of my members this isn’t for you. Hit the stop button. Check out your Facebook status. Have a cup of coffee. To you I say “Amen.” But for my members. I pray you are not happy with video services. I pray that you cannot wait to get back to church. I had someone ask me why I wasn’t doing confession and absolution on the videos. My answer was it’s a sacrament – if I cannot hear your confession I’m not going to pronounce absolution. For the same reason I’m not asking you to grab a bottle of your favorite wine from your cupboard and some saltines to give yourself communion. That isn’t communion. Sadly some LCMS churches are doing just that. The Son of God came in the flesh. He called people to faith by the preaching of His Word through His ordained preachers. Everyone who comes to faith joins a congregation. God uses flesh and blood to save. Jesus came in flesh and blood to save us. He uses flesh and blood to deliver His gifts – the tongue of a preacher and the ear of a hearer, the hand of the pastor and the mouth of the communicant. His risen and living body and blood are given into our flesh and blood in His Supper. God could have saved you virtually. He could have saved you without flesh and blood and word, but He didn’t. The Son of God was a real man, who died a real death, on a real cross, for real sinners, for you. His church is made up of real sinners who gather to hear Jesus preached and Jesus’ body and blood delivered by the real mouth and real hands of a real man. We pray “Hosanna. Save us now Lord.” We’re in real trouble. Before we ever prayed God answered us for real. In the name of Jesus. Amen.