Palmarum (Palm Sunday) – April 13, 2025
Psalm 22; Philippians 2:5-11
St. Matthew 26-27
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ our Lord rode into Jerusalem to
die for the sins of the whole world. Like the wood carried by the donkey up the
mountain when Abraham intended to sacrifice Isaac, Jesus is being carried to
the altar of the cross on a mountain called Calvary. Our Lord willingly submits
to the mockery, torture, and execution of sinful men to redeem even those
wicked Pharisees and Sadducees.
Despite dying for the sins of the whole
world, the whole world is not saved. There are those blatant pagans, who scoff
at the Name of Jesus. They have never believed in Christ and so condemn
themselves. What is more difficult for many of us are those who have known the
Name of Christ, been baptized and taught from His Word, but through laziness,
discontent, or the influence of the world, have abandoned their Lord.
St. Peter and Judas Iscariot are two
such people. Judas has been embezzling money from the disciples for some time.
It seems the anointing of Christ at Bethany was the last straw for Judas.
Sometime after the woman poured the costly perfume on Jesus’ head, Judas ran to
the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver
[Jesus] to you?”
They handed over 30 pieces of silver and left Judas alone to begin plotting.
St. Peter believes himself to be
zealous for the Lord. While he is sorrowful at first, recognizing that he is
capable of betraying his Lord, Peter later decides that he will never abandon,
let alone betray, Jesus. When the crowd appears, Peter jumps into action,
drawing his sword and cutting off the ear of the chief priest’s servant.
In his zeal, Peter has forgotten that
the Christ rode into Jerusalem to die. He made Himself of no reputation, taking
the form of a bondservant, and the likeness of men so that he could be obedient
unto death.
This death would seal the new covenant in His blood, atoning for the sins of
the world. Peter thinks he will defend Jesus from the crowd, not allowing them
to take Him away.
When such a power play doesn’t work,
Peter follows behind the crowd to the courtyard of the Sanhedrin. I’m sure he
was working hard to develop a plan to spring Jesus out of the chief priests’
custody. It is here, in a garden, he denies three times to know Jesus at all.
By the time the rooster crowed, Peter realizes his sin. Zealous Peter, who was
willing to die with Jesus rather than abandon Him, had denied his Lord three
times. The gruesome parts of that Friday, the torture and crucifixion hadn’t
even begun, and Peter had already fled like a startled lamb. He ran into the
early morning light weeping bitterly.
About the same time, Judas is also
having second thoughts. The Sanhedrin condemned Jesus and were now taking Him
to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor. Judas knew the only reason to take Jesus
to Pilate was for a death sentence. He suddenly realizes that his actions have
sentenced Jesus to death. His reaction to the situation tells us that he didn’t
fully understand the implications of betraying Jesus until he had already set them
into motion.
Peter ran away crying.
Judas ran back to the chief priests
Judas confessed his sin before them and
gave back the thirty pieces of silver, but the chief priests would not have it.
They did not forgive Judas but left him to contemplate his own sin. Then Judas
went and hanged himself.
St. Peter disappears for a while. We do
not hear about him again until the day of the Resurrection. He hides himself
for shame. The former spokesman of the disciples, the recipient of miracles,
St. Peter is reduced to a child hiding in his closet after hitting his brother.
The sins of Peter and Judas weighed
heavily on their souls. Peter overestimated his righteousness. He overestimated
his ability to withstand temptation. Thus, when he fell, he fell hard. It seems
a slight sin to have denied knowing Christ, but it is indeed blasphemy. He was
denying the very God who took on flesh to die for him.
Whenever you are silent in the face of
sin, you too deny knowing Jesus. When you see homosexuality portrayed on
television or in the movies and are not disgusted by it, you deny knowing
Jesus. For that matter, whenever you watch something, read something, or even
visit certain restaurants and think to yourself, “Oh, I can handle watching
this. The nudity, language, violence, tight clothing, or other blatant sins
won’t affect me;” you may as well proclaim, “Even if all are made to stumble
because of You, I will never be made to stumble!” This overestimation of your
own righteousness and underestimation of your sinfulness is the sin of Peter in
your flesh.
Judas was greedy. His betrayal began
with the question, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?”
Every time you have chosen the respect of the world over the commandments of
God, you have bargained for far less than 30 pieces of silver. Submitting to
the government because “they said so” or preferring the word of “Science” to
the Word of God is appealing to the chief priests. Being annoyed by a long
sermon or bible study but being able to sit through a 2-hour movie unperturbed
is a sin. At least Judas made 30 pieces of silver. Today, we are happy to
betray Christ for 7 minutes of pleasure.
All of you will be made to stumble
because of Jesus, for the ancient flesh which clings to you desires nothing
more than to scatter the flock of Christ. All of you will betray Christ in word
and deed. What then is our hope?
Judas had no hope. He was sorrowful for
his sin. He expressed contrition, the first part of repentance. Yet he was
without faith. He did not trust that Christ could and would forgive him. He ran
to the priests to make atonement for his own sin. He gave back the silver,
trying to buy a clean conscience, yet even these wicked men would have none of
it. Judas ran outside the city and hanged himself.
Suicide does not automatically condemn
you to hell. It is entirely possible for a Christian, possessing faith in
Christ for his salvation, to be overcome by a moment of emotion and make a
stupid decision. The shadow of depression can pass over anyone and if the
shadow is dark enough, it can make us think there is no light, at least for the
moment. Such a suicide certainly can be saved.
But we should not take that to mean
that everyone who commits suicide is not responsible for his actions, nor that
the act of suicide is not inherently sinful. It is. And there are some who
commit suicide because they have despaired of Christ. They believe He cannot or
will not forgive them. Judas is one of these. Our Lord said of Judas, “woe to
that may by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man
if he had not been born.”
Since the fall, man has confused good
and evil. Since the enlightenment, we’ve fooled ourselves into believing the
world is never black and white, only shades of gray. And since at least the
1980’s, we have come to celebrate the so-called “anti-hero” in the United
States. We cheer for the dark, brooding guy bad guy who is full of wickedness
but rises above it, at least for a while, to save the day. Every hero must be
flawed so deeply that he constantly questions what is good and what is evil.
What’s more is that we’ve become
obsessed with the idea that every villain must have a reason for his evil. He
must have an origin story. Someone committed evil against him so he has a
reason, a right, to perpetrate his evil acts. Evil is no longer evil. It is the
understandable, if inadvisable or regrettable, consequence of a difficult life.
Christians must reject this thinking because we know the devil is a liar and
the father of lies. He is the source of evil. The sin clinging to our flesh is
the source of evil. Evil is never something to sympathize with nor something to
be played with.
This tendency in our modern minds has
turned Judas into a sympathetic character. Many Christians choose to believe
that Judas is in heaven. Jesus says differently. It would’ve been better had he
not been born. This is a statement of condemnation. Judas dies in his sin
because he dies without faith. He despairs of the forgiveness of God and hangs
himself because he thinks he cannot live with what he has done. For the rest of
eternity, he will endure not the love of God, but His divine wrath.
There is a note of hope for us in the
story of Judas, however. Each time our Lord predicts His betrayal, Jesus is
calling Judas to repentance. By the foreknowledge of His divinity, Jesus knows
that Judas will ultimately reject this call to repent, but that doesn’t stop
Jesus from calling. The worst thing to happen to men on this side of glory is
to hear the silence of the Lord. Notice how often Christ is silent before
Caiaphas and His other accusers. When God stops speaking to you in His Word and
Sacraments, it means He has left you to the passions of your own heart. He did
not shut His lips toward Judas. Judas shut his ears to the Word of God. Judas
chose the approval of man over the love of God, and seeing that he had lost the
approval of man, Judas hanged himself.
This is a note of hope for us because
it demonstrates how far Christ will go to keep His sheep in His flock. Being
called to repent, being confronted by your own sins does not feel good. It
hurts when someone points out your sin. It hurts because the wound inflicted on
your soul by sin is being reopened. The call to repentance opens the wound so
that the wound may be cleaned out by the confession of your sin. The wound is
then healed by the salve of Christ’s Word of forgiveness. The whole life of the
Christian is one of repentance because repentance has two parts: sorrow over
your sin and faith that God will forgive that sin.
St. Peter is the narrative foil to
Judas. He denied Christ and ran away weeping. Wherever he went that Friday
morning, we know that he returned to the company of the disciples by Sunday. He
is again with the disciples in time to hear Mary Magdalene proclaim the
resurrection to him.
Peter was ashamed of his sin, but he
did not try to purchase forgiveness. He came back to the place where Christ
promised to be. “Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in the
midst of them.”
Peter returned to the place where he expected Jesus to be, even if he didn’t
fully understand Jesus’ prophecies regarding the Resurrection.
For his threefold denial, Christ our
Lord gives St. Peter a threefold absolution.
Peter demonstrates both sorrow over sin and faith that Christ has overcome even
his sin.
Preachers often find themselves trying
to help you recognize sins in your daily life. I am quick to point out that
utter devotion to a local sports team is akin to offering sacrifice to Yahweh
in the morning and Baal in the evening. But sometimes, we all need to remember
the severity of grosser sins. Peter denied knowing Jesus. He said, “I do not
know Him.” This is like saying, “I am not a Christian!” Judas betrayed Jesus to
a murderous mob, resulting in the Crucifixion.
These were not sins of momentary
passions. They were wicked, manifest sins. Yet the death of Jesus atones for
them. No matter what you have done—from giving more time and attention to the sportsball
than to reading Scripture, to sleeping with another man’s wife, murdering a man
in the flesh, or denying the Name of Christ for the sake of a job, money, or
reputation—the Blood of Jesus has atoned for you.
If a guilty conscience ever seizes you,
certainly remember your baptism, but also come to your pastor. Remember your
baptism because it was the sure and certain moment in which you were washed in
the waters of regeneration and born again of water and the Holy Spirit. You
were made a new creation in Christ and an heir of heaven.
But also come to your pastor for
absolution. You need to hear that Jesus has forgiven your sin in this very
moment. With the hands of the pastor on your head, hear that Christ died for
you, for this sin that plagues your conscience, for all the sins you have
committed. Do not think you can handle sin on your own, like Peter did. Do not
think you can relieve yourself of sin, like Judas did. Confess your sins and
trust that Christ forgives them. Meet with Jesus in the place He has promised
to be and hear the Word of absolution again and again for your sins.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
