Palm Sunday/ Confirmation
Beloved. Today we sing the Palm Sunday hymn Ride On, Ride On, in Majesty and the hymn beautifully drives home the point that Jesus enters Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday with the express purpose of suffering and dying, twice using the line: in lowly pomp ride on to die. Then the final stanza adds after that: Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain. Not only is that an image of Jesus’ humility, but the image of putting one’s head down and just going on/ trudging on forward in spite of any and all obstacles, letting nothing distract Him. The holy Evangelist writes earlier about Jesus [Lk 9.51]: When the days drew near for him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem. There we see Jesus’ firm resolve to go to Jerusalem and to suffer and die for the sins of the world and by that to destroy the devil and all his works and so to reconcile us sinners with God and open heaven to us. Jesus was very clear about His purpose in coming: that He [Mt. 20.28] did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Now, with Palm Sunday, we see Jesus entering Jerusalem for that very purpose that, as He said earlier: we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise. These are the events of Holy Week that we remember this week—the very events of our salvation.
But Palm Sunday and Holy Week are not just a time for us to stand on the sidelines and cheer and encourage Jesus on: “Good job! You can do it! Get me my salvation!” Yes, we rejoice that Jesus did everything and endured everything for our salvation. But we dare not just sit back and think that’s it. Instead, we hear our Lord’ words to us [Lk. 9.23]: If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. The Christian follows Jesus. Just as Jesus submitted to His Father’s will in all things, no matter how painful, the Christian follows Jesus in submitting to God’s will in his/ her life. Just as Jesus kept riding that first Palm Sunday into Jerusalem in lowly pomp to die and bowed His weak head to mortal pain, so too do we, as Christians, follow Jesus wherever He leads. We simply put our head down and trudge on ahead, simply knowing that we are going where Jesus is leading and that in the end He is bringing us safely to Himself in heaven.
What would have happened if the only event of Holy Week was Jesus’ triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, if there were no Maundy Thursday or Good Friday? Palm Sunday was a great day: it marked Jesus as that long promised Messiah, coming to bring about the salvation of the world—all in fulfillment of prophecy. But if it had ended there with the joy and palms of the crowd and not gone on to the betrayal, trial, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection, and ascension, then what? We would still be in our sins and eternally condemned.
Today on Palm Sunday we celebrate the confirmation of two of our young people. And as we do so, it does each of us well to think back to his/her own confirmation –be it a long time ago or fairly recent. As we go through the rite of confirmation, it does us well to answer silently in our hearts the questions that our young people today are asked and, if you will, renew our confirmation vows.
If you notice, there is a beautiful connection between Confirmation and Palm Sunday. Both mark a certain point in time—a point marked by much joy and fanfare, but utterly worthless if not continued on. How worthless Palm Sunday would have been if Jesus did not continue to ride on in lowly pomp to die and bow His meek head to mortal pain and die for our sins that first Good Friday! And how worthless and futile all the joy and pomp of our Confirmation would be, if we do not bow our head/ put our head down and simply trudge on, taking up our cross and following Jesus through our earthly life, through sufferings, temptations, attacks of the devil until He finally leads us to Himself in heaven.
That’s why our text today is so beautiful and comforting for us. It is a prayer/ benediction of St. Paul upon the saints of the Thessalonian church: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. The glorious prayer and promise is that God Himself is continuing to work on you to preserve you in the faith and to lead you in a life more and more free of sin and a life of good works.
What you—Claudia and Hugo—and all of us need to hear, is that God is continuing to work on you; He is sanctifying you—that is, He is making you holy. The wonderful thing is that at your baptism God worked a great miracle. He forgave you your sins; He clothed you with Jesus’ perfect righteousness; He made you a member of His holy family, the Church. And at your baptism, He created faith in your heart so that you, through that faith, would receive these His gifts and blessings. In short, at your baptism, God declared you righteous! That’s why baptism saves—God gives you His gracious gifts and the very faith to receive those gifts. Now, as His dear Christians, you are in God’s sight holy and righteous. He has so declared it.
Baptism marks the beginning of your new, holy life. Your confirmation doesn’t add anything to your baptism. It simply marks the point that you have studied the doctrines of the church, know the very basics of the Christian faith so that you can examine yourself before receiving our Lord’s body and blood in the blessed sacrament. At your confirmation, you will answer for yourself the questions asked of you at your baptism but answered for you by your sponsors.
Baptism began your new holy life in the Lord. There the Lord gave you the gift of faith and every heavenly blessing and declared you perfectly righteous. But His work didn’t end there. He continued to work on you to teach you the faith and to ground you in that faith. He did that through your parents and other Christians. He did that through the church. All your confirmation is, is a marker along the road showing you have come so far. Confirmation is not the end—so don’t stop now learning the holy Christian faith. Remember—Jesus didn’t stop with Palm Sunday but continued on to Good Friday and then Easter and the Ascension.
Our text: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. God’s work He began in you in baptism doesn’t end either. Once we’re baptized it’s not like God says: “My job here is done!” Instead, yes, in baptism God declares us righteous, but that doesn’t mean that we no longer sin. We do, but God doesn’t want us to stay in our sin; He did not save and rescue us in baptism to live a life of sin. Instead, He continues to work on us to sanctify us, that is, He changes us from the inside so that we strive to and do indeed live lives freer from sin. That’s what God wants for us and He works on us and in us to bring it about! Sanctification—that is, our life of faith and good works—is God’s work on us all throughout our life.
The wonderful thing is that the very gift of faith that God gave you in baptism leads you to love the Lord and want to do His will. And as long as you have that gift of faith God gave you at baptism you want to do the Lord’s will—even if you don’t always succeed. Now as a Christian, a wonderful thing is happening to you and in you—God is working in you and through you what is pleasing to Him. He works with the new self/ the Christian in you. And what is so glorious is that God Himself gives you the energy, power, desire and willingness to do His will. Dear Claudia and Hugo, dear members of the congregation, just think of the great grace of God to you—He is still day by day, moment by moment working in/ on/ through you. The almighty God of heaven and earth cares enough for you, loves you and comes to you to do that!
Remember, your baptism clothes you with Jesus; it connects you with His death and resurrection. So through baptism and faith we are one with Jesus and so His life, purity and holiness are sown into our hearts and our life will be adorned with His virtues. In baptism, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us and teaches and shows us what to do and what not to do. He opens our mind of understanding so that we believe and understand the truths of the holy Christian faith. That’s what He has been doing as you have been in confirmation instruction these past few years and that’s what He will continue to do as you remain faithful in attendance in church, hearing His word and receiving His sacrament, and as you continue your study of Scripture and the doctrine it teaches. Don’t stop now! The more you grow in understanding the doctrine of Scripture, the deeper and more well-grounded your faith will become and the more you will live a life of faith and good works. This is all God’s gracious work on you! May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice, the Lord—the Holy Spirit—will sanctify you, make you holy. By His almighty working He will keep you blameless. Blameless—because through faith you are receiving the forgiveness of your sins; also blameless because your life will be full of more and more good works He worked in you. Don’t stop now! Hold firmly to our Lord. Remain faithful to Him, His word, His Church, His sacraments.
Along the way, you will be tempted to give up the holy Christian faith. There is the call and allure of the world around us trying to get us to think that the holy faith really isn’t that important; that other things are. There’s increasing godlessness of the society around us so that there may be severe consequences for remaining faithful to the Lord. There’s that old sinful nature we all still have that wants us to give up the faith. Wouldn’t it be easier just to leave it all behind and go the way of all flesh? Can we remain faithful to our Lord? That’s what has faced every generation of Christian, “every confirmation class.” Left to ourselves and our own strength, never could we remain faithful to our Lord and His word! But what does our text tell us? He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. That we don’t stop now but that we can continue on in the faith all throughout our life, is because God is faithful. He called you to faith and He will keep you in the faith. His faithfulness, not ours gives us the certainty that we will [1 Cor. 16.13]: Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, be brave, be strong. What we all have before us is a real battle. Let us remember, first of all, our Lord on Palm Sunday who rode on in lowly pomp to die and bowed His meek head to mortal pain, and follow Him; and second, let us remember that the Lord is faithful—our confidence rests in His nature/ who He is. Precisely when we feel our weakness and think we cannot remain faithful, we rely on His faithfulness to us. He called us in baptism; He is sincere. Precisely when we are at our wit’s end—but also everyday—we have our Lord’s gracious invitation [John 6.35]: I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. In faith, let us always go to our Lord, the source of real life which lasts forever. Let us go to Him and partake of His Body and Blood.
Don’t stop now with your confirmation. Don’t stop ever! Continue on boldly in your faith throughout your life, following Jesus. The Lord is working on/ in/ through you throughout your life. You are a work in progress until He calls you to Himself in heaven. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. INJ Amen