Sermon -- 6th Sunday in Lent: Palm Sunday (March 29, 2026)

YOUR KING COMES WITH AN ATTITUDE.

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11 

In the name + of Jesus.

      St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Indeed, let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).  This tells you that Jesus has an attitude.  Now, usually when we say that someone has an attitude, we regard that as a problem.  You might say to a child, “You have a bad attitude.  Clean it up!”

     We experience bad attitudes because people don’t like to be told what to do.  This is also a reason that Americans are opposed to having a king.  If we don’t like our leaders, we can vote them out.  But kings reign for life.  Kings don’t ask permission to make decrees.  King issue laws, and that word reigns supreme.  (If you enjoy irony, this Sunday hits the same weekend as a bunch of “No Kings” rallies.) 

     Our Lord is the true King who reigns supreme.  The Lord God is King of heaven and earth.  His word reigns supreme.  He has given his laws to define good and evil, and he did not ask for our opinion on those laws.  Sinners, of course, resist this.  Everyone has one throne in his heart.  Each person wants to rule on it himself.  “I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it.  And I don’t want anyone to challenge, much less condemn, what I choose to do!”  But God is eternal; his word is not going to change.  And there is going to be no regime change.  So, anyone who thinks he can challenge, criticize, or condemn God for his laws will finally discover that our Lord comes with an attitude—vengeance upon all who do not honor him as King.

     The prophet Zechariah foretold that the King is coming.  The King comes with an attitude.  But Jesus’ attitude is not something we should fear.  Zechariah prophesied, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  Look!  Your King is coming to you.  He is righteous and brings salvation.  He is humble and is riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).  Your King comes with an attitude, but it is an attitude of meekness, gentleness, and humility.

      St. Paul noted, “Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:6).  Jesus did not come radiating his divinity.  Jesus did not lose his power, glory, or majesty.  Rather, he kept it hidden under weak, humble flesh.  So, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, people did not flee from him in terror.  Rather, they met him with songs of praise.  “The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed kept shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:9)!  They welcomed Jesus as their king.  They recognized that he had not come as an enemy or even as a threat.  He came as a king, but not as a tyrant. 

     Your King comes with an attitude.  He assures you, “I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29), so you need not fear him.  But do not misinterpret Jesus’ gentleness as timidity.  And even though Jesus was humble, that does not mean he was a push-over.  Jesus stood firm on God’s word.  He preached that word boldly and without apology.  Occasionally, those words cut people to the heart.  Some were alarmed by their sins and the judgment which they deserved.  To those who feared God’s wrath and sought relief from their guilt, Jesus proved to be gentle and humble in heart.  He bestowed mercy and gave them hope.  Others became angry at Jesus’ preaching.  They refused to let King Jesus possess the throne in their heart.  But when they became angry, Jesus did not soften God’s message.  He upheld the truth and did not budge.  If God’s word produced anger, the fault was not with God’s word.  Nor was the fault with the one who preached God’s word.  The fault lay with the sinner who rejected God’s word.

     Your King comes with an attitude.  His attitude was seen especially in the week when he entered Jerusalem.  Jesus was resolved to fight the battle which would deliver us from our sin.  There were numerous enemies who fought against him.  Jesus backed down from none of them.  Rabbis and priests came with cleverly devised “gotcha” questions, hoping to condemn Jesus for blasphemy or for treason.  Jesus did not evade their questions; he answered them with boldness and faithfulness to God’s word.  The devil tempted Jesus to shrink from the cup of God’s wrath.  Jesus responded with fervent prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The Father strengthened Jesus in his resolve to take up our sins and to drain the cup of God’s wrath.  Even when Jesus hung in agony from the cross, his enemies taunted him.  They challenged Jesus the same way Satan had when Jesus was in the wilderness.  “Save yourself!  If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!  If he’s the King of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:40,42, emphasis added). 

     Jesus, however, had no need to prove himself to the priests, to the rabbis, or to the devil.  St. Paul noted, “Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he … humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).  He was determined to do the work that saves sinners.  His mission was not to dazzle, but to die; not to slaughter his enemies, but to be slain for sinners.  Your King comes with an attitude.

     Jesus humbled himself to suffer death on a cross, but he was no helpless victim.  He did not seek to escape arrest, although he did demonstrated that he could have.  When Judas arrived in Gethsemane to betray Jesus, Jesus asked who they were looking for.  They said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”  Jesus answered plainly, “I am he.”  St. John then adds, “When Jesus told them, ‘I am he,’ they backed away and fell to the ground” (John 19:6).  Still, he did not attempt to flee.  Your King came with an attitude—a conviction to suffer and die for sinners.

     Jesus is a King whose will was carried out, not a pawn at the mercy of his enemies.  To further emphasize that Jesus was no helpless victim, we need only to consider the plans of Jesus’ enemies.  They were trying to orchestrate Jesus’ death according to their own designs.  “The chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas.  They plotted together how to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.  But they said, ‘Not during the Festival, or else there might be a riot among the people’” (Matthew 26:3-5).  And yet, Jesus’ death came during the Passover feast.  In truth, the priests were the pawns.  The Lord used the unbelief and the hatred of the priests and rabbis to achieve his own purpose.  According to Jesus’ timing and in fulfillment of God’s promises, they unwittingly fulfilled the role of God’s anointed priests: They sacrificed the Lamb of God.  Jesus is the true Passover Lamb whose body was roasted in God’s wrath and whose blood now marks you so that death and damnation pass over you. 

     And since he has done everything the Father sent him to do, the Father raised up his Son on the third day to live and reign forever.  This man, Jesus, now possesses all authority in heaven and on earth.  St. Paul wrote, “God … highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). 

     Jesus of Nazareth has been exalted.  This man now has and uses all the majesty, glory, and power of God.  Behold!  Your King reigns forever and ever.  And you have every reason to rejoice over this, because this King rules for you.  Everything in heaven and on earth and under the earth serves Jesus and is employed by him for the eternal good of his Church.  You may not understand why he does what he does, but your comfort is not in unraveling how he rules.  Your comfort is in knowing that Jesus does rule, that he is your loving Redeemer, and that whatever you experience does not change his nature, his love, and his devotion to you.

     Your King still comes to you.  He comes as God’s people sing the Palm Sunday song: “Hosanna in the highest!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  We sing this as we are preparing to feast on Holy Communion.  For Lord comes to feed us with his living body.  He comes to mark us with the blood that causes death and damnation to pass over us.  Your King still comes with an attitude—compassion, mercy, and devotion to you.

     Behold!  Your King will come again on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead.  You may be grieved that people currently mock him, his word, and his people.  They seem to get away with it because our Lord’s judgment is being held back.  But your King will come with an attitude.  He did not regard his divinity as a prize to be displayed when he came to suffer and die, but his divinity will be displayed in radiant, undeniable glory when he comes to judge the living and the dead.  St. Paul said, “Every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11).  Many will not want to, but they will have no choice.  Jesus lives and reigns over all things.

     Our joy is that we already bend our knees before him, especially as we come to this altar to feast on his body and blood.  Our joy is that we already confess that Jesus is Lord.  We engage in the hymns of God’s people from all ages.  We even join in the song of angels and archangels as we sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of heavenly hosts.  Heaven and earth are full of your glory!”  We sing that because we confess that it is our King who comes to us to bless us and to save us.

     So, “let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). You can be humble; for you know that you are sinners like everyone else on earth.  But you need not be timid.  You can confess God’s word boldly because it will never fail you or deceive you.  Even if you must suffer hatred from Jesus’ enemies, you are still sons and daughters of the King.  When he comes again with an attitude, he will avenge you.  Better than that, he will exalt you to the heights of heaven and to glory everlasting.

     Rejoice!  Your King comes with an attitude.  He is righteous and has salvation.  He is full of compassion and mercy.  He is totally committed and devoted to you.  That is why you and I are totally committed and devoted to him.  He is the King we all need.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.