Date: March 29, 2026
Speaker: Pastor Christopher Warneke
Scripture: Philippians 2:5-11; John 12:12-19
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In Zechariah 9:9, which is fulfilled in the Palm Sunday procession, the prophet writes, “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.” These are the two descriptions of Jesus that we receive and that we see for ourselves on Palm Sunday: that he is humble, entering into his kingdom mounted on a donkey, and that he is full of righteousness and salvation. We see the way He is: humble. And we see what He comes to bring: righteousness and salvation.
And that's the message that we have today on Palm Sunday: Jesus enters Jerusalem with humility, humility even to the point of death on a cross, so that you can be brought up to heaven with Him. When we see that scene on Palm Sunday, maybe in your mind of what a king coming into his kingdom is supposed to look like doesn't really match what you see in Jesus. The crowds are there, but a donkey? Maybe you would imagine a huge stallion, the battle horse that the king is riding on to come into his city. Maybe that's what we would imagine, but that's not what we see. Rather, we see Jesus humble, mounted on a donkey.
When we know Jesus, this isn't all that surprising, is it? Because humility is really the whole pattern of his life. You remember at Christmas, we talked about how He was born in a manger, in very humble circumstances to His poor mother and father. And this is what we hear from Saint Paul in Philippians chapter two, “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Jesus is true God. He is the Word of God through whom all things were made. He holds all things in His hand. And yet He, even He humbled himself and took on the form of a servant. He was born in the lowly manger. He rode the humble donkey. He who is above all is humiliated for our sake. This is what we refer to as Jesus' humiliation. We have Jesus' humiliation and his exaltation. His humiliation is that for a time, he lays aside the full exercise of His divine glory and takes on the form of a servant. He does this for a specific purpose. He lays aside the full use of His divine glory and takes on the form of a servant for your salvation. He who is above all is humiliated for our sake.
This pattern of humility is for the purpose of your salvation. He comes humbly, even being obedient to death on the cross, in order that He can die for your salvation. Like Saint Paul says in Philippians 2, “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” And we heard this account from the Passion Reading, from Matthew chapter 27. And it was certainly filled with humiliation.
And Jesus bears it all. He bears the mockery and the lies. He bears those people yelling out at him, the Pharisees, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.” “If you are the son of God, come down from the cross.” He bears the lies: “He saved others. He cannot save himself.” He bears the beatings. He bears the crown of thorns. He bears the cross and wicked death itself. And he bears this all. He sets his face toward it and receives it all. He doesn't complain. He doesn't turn to the side. He bears the brunt of it.
This is what we heard in the Old Testament reading from Isaiah chapter 50. “The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” Jesus doesn't turn aside from the humiliation. He doesn't run away from the death and the beatings, says that He sets his face like a flint toward it and receives it all, receives the full force of it.
And He knows that He will not be put to shame because the Lord sent Him for the purpose of receiving all of this, all of this punishment, all the mockery, all the beatings, death itself for the purpose of your forgiveness—to take your sin onto Himself and pay the penalty of that sin to wipe your sin away through his blood. All of this in order that, laying down his life, He might take it up again on the last day, rising again, crushing death under His feet forever so that you can have forgiveness and life in Him.
And this is how St. Paul ends the reading, Philippians 2, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Jesus is true God who came down to us in human flesh and then He is exalted to His heavenly throne once again.
When He accomplished everything that He needed to for our salvation in obedience to the will of the Father, He was raised from the dead and ascended once again to the right hand of the throne of God. He is God's chosen one, God's beloved Son, true God in the flesh who has done all of this, won the victory for you. And it's for this reason that when Jesus processes into Jerusalem, processes humbly, processes into Jerusalem in order to die, even this is his victory march. Even all of this, the humiliation is His glory because that is the place where He wins your salvation. The humiliation is His glory because that is the place where He wins your salvation.
So, we conclude with where Paul started. He said, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant.” If Jesus, the name that is above all names, is humble, should not His Christians be humble? Don't be like the Pharisees who, because of their pride and envy of Jesus, refused to look on Him in faith and believe in Him.
Don't walk according to the pattern of Satan. Don't walk according to the pattern of our sinful nature who in our pride want to exalt ourselves up to God. Rather follow the pattern of Jesus who humbly submits to the will of the father, humbly follows the will of the Father. Treat one another with humility in Christ, not trying to exalt ourselves over others, not trying to break down others because of pride and envy. But like Jesus, take on the form of a servant, wanting to serve one another, wanting to love one another.
That's the pattern that we've been taking on for this whole season of Lent as we march with Jesus into Jerusalem like he did: humbly. We humble ourselves to recognize our sin when we hear God's Law, repent of that sin, and then turn to him to receive forgiveness. And dear friends from Christ Jesus, this is going to be our pattern as we enter into Holy Week. This is going to be our pattern on Maundy Thursday when we hear about Jesus washing his disciples' feet, taking on the form of a servant, and when we are served by Christ with his very body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
This is our pattern on Good Friday, when we see Jesus crucified and when we remember that it is because of our sin that He is crucified. This is truly humbling. This is truly impactful as we see our sins laid out right before us, but then we also greatly rejoice when we hear Jesus say, "It is finished." We also rejoice when we hear on Easter Sunday: "He is risen." Join with us as we march toward Jerusalem with Jesus to hear of your salvation because that's how He is coming, righteous and having salvation. Amen.
Join with us this Holy Week as we journey to the cross and the empty tomb with Jesus!
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