Matthew 21: 1-11                                                                                                         Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

Palm Sunday                                                                                                                                     March 29, 2026

“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

        Prayer: O blessed one who comes in the name of the Lord, we worship you. Please help us, we pray, to lift you up in our lives to the highest position, for you are the Christ, the Messiah, our Savior. Amen.

Today is a day of wonderful celebration, rightly so! It’s the beginning of Holy Week. And we celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem which of course, is the day that we commemorate his arrival for the purpose of establishing God’s new covenant. Everything within us tingles with the idea of divine holy love outlasting any power and principalities of hate and destruction. So, yeah, we shout out “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Amen!

But we know, Holy Week is not without its dangers. We know that the cries of joy can quickly morph into cries of anguish. We know that the crises still loom large.

Like I know how hard it is sometimes for us to apply our faith... to the crisis of long lines at our airports due to a partial government shutdown. To armed ICE officers going into our airports, this time without masks. To gas prices going above $4 / gallon because of the war in Iran and the struggle over the Strait of Hormuz. To the search for Nancy Guthrie and the attention given to thousands of families who have missing loved ones. These are some of our crises.

And it’s tempting to think quick fix. That if Congress passed this law or that act, or if the President is like the savior and took this tact or signed that executive order, all these crises would all be fixed. Which may or may not be true. Probably not!

But, I don’t think applying our faith goes through the quick fix doors. Applying our faith sees through the lens of the one who is blessed and comes in the name of the Lord. We look to Jesus in crisis. We learn from his life. His way. But his way is different.

If we glance at the crises of Jesus’ day, oh my. Maybe we can imagine what it was like. I mean the Roman government was in control. It was an aggressive, oppressive government, with armed soldiers walking the streets. With threats that people could be arrested for disagreeing or killed without provocation. With taxes to Caesar so high that the poor people of Jerusalem and Judea only got poorer.

And Herod Antipas was the tetrarch, appointed to the position by Caesar Augustus. Herod Antipas was a tyrant. He had John the Baptist arrested and killed because John protested Antipas’ marriage to Herodias, the wife of his brother Phillip! Yeah. It was a real Peyton Place in the halls of religious leadership back then!

So, maybe it was tempting for Jesus’ followers to think that all the people of Judea needed was someone from God, someone coming in the name of the Lord whom the prophets foretold, someone to lead them in putting up a resistance. Someone to lead them in the fight, and break Judea and Israel free from Roman control.

So, the people surrounding Jesus on that Palm Sunday, were shouting “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Which roughly means in Hebrew, “Save us with heaven’s power!” What they meant was, save us from Rome with God’s mighty power. Save us from tyranny! From police brutality. From an oppressive regime. Save us from the bottom to the top!

But, following Jesus doesn’t take them or us through those doors. As I said, he’s on a different kind of mission. We learn from his life. We follow in his way. But his way is different. His mission is different. He enters Jerusalem as a humble teacher riding on a beast of burden. Not a tyrannical leader on a war horse. His followers were waving palm fronds and cut branches. Not soldiers waving swords and shields.

He came to preach about and establish a new way of life that God wants—not a kingdom per say that dominated others, but a kindom where everyone is seen as a kin in God’s family. Where love and respect for others are lived out. A kindom established with God-centered relationships that are freeing and supportive, not controlling. Lifestyles built on a new life-giving covenant with God. His way called for spiritual liberation!

  This is way different from what the people expected. Maybe way different from what some of today’s Christians expect, too? I mean are there ideas in some Christian circles that are totally contrary to what Jesus taught and what he was about?

That’s why I started thinking that maybe living spiritually means there are some things we have to be spiritually liberated from. Ideas that are simply in the way of Jesus being the blessed one who comes in the name of the Lord. Ideas obscuring Jesus being the one to save us.

And the usual suspects come to mind. That Jesus is the warrior king who is coming again to defeat the powers of evil and establish God’s reign on earth. And the US is to be a Christian nation leading the way. Yeah, Christian nationalism is totally in the way of seeing Jesus as the one blessed by God. He came as a humble servant to save us, not a warrior to defeat all evil by the sword. Or by guns. Or bombs. Spiritual liberation from that idea is needed right there, I think.

The other one is the mindset that everything in the Bible is about how to be good—how to be righteous, so that God will love you. Liberation is needed from that one, for sure. God loves you. Period. There’s nothing you can do to earn that.

But I think there is another idea that may be in the way. And it’s even more profound than those two things. And that is—hold on to your hats—ourselves. Spiritually liberated from ourselves, you say? Yeah. A lot of what I studied this past week, what my devotional time pointed out for me, was that maybe we need liberating from thinking that my faith is all about me. Making me a better person. That my faith is private. With it, I can increase my own goodness, deepen my own holiness. Establish my own moral center.

And, the result might be that someone might say about us, “What fine character that man has”. Or “That woman is a wonderful person.” Or, “See how good of a preacher that pastor is!” Mm-hmm. Yeah.  I get the same scrutiny.

But having faith is not all about me. It’s not all about you. I have to get over myself. You have to get over yourselves. We decrease in attention and focus. And the blessed one who comes in the name of the Lord has to increase in attention and focus. Because when Christ increases, we develop sustained spiritual intimacy with God. Then we are at Christ’s service. We are about his ways. His mission. We emulate his love for others. We have to help others see Jesus. Christ has to increase.

Of course, you might say my being a good person is showing Christ to others. Yes, that is true. It’s like the old saying that you may be the only way someone sees Jesus. Or you may be the only Bible someone reads. All that is good. But just be sure the person is not dependent upon you to have faith. I know that I sometimes have to get out of the way so that the person can have Jesus Christ in their life, too. To know, really know the blessed one who comes in the name of the Lord to save us.

That might mean inviting a person to come to church to worship because God is present. Try that for this Thursday or next Sunday. It may mean exalting others, affirming, complimenting them. Possibly sacrificing something for others to enjoy life so that our dynamic God whose presence pulsates through the whole human family can be felt by all.

So, I think living spiritually in part means liberating ourselves from anything that impedes us knowing that our faith is all about God. For others. It’s all about the blessed one who comes in the name of the Lord to save us, right up to the highest heaven. And God promises that the spiritual yoke is easy, the burden light. God promises light for the path, and strength for the day. But seek God first; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Amen.