Dear Christian friends:

Palm Sunday is a wonderful day. It is almost as wonderful as Easter. In some ways it is more wonderful than Easter. On the first Palm Sunday Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on the donkey. In doing this He made happen exactly what Zechariah in our text prophesied five-hundred years before. Zechariah here explains about our wonderful King Jesus and His wonderful Kingdom. It tells us to rejoice greatly because we have a mighty King and Kingdom. Rejoice!


We should rejoice because we have a wonderful King, son of David and Son of God. A wonderful Kingdom unlike the Kings and Kingdoms of this world. There are wonderful blessings in His Kingdom. Zechariah saw people after a great victory jumping and dancing and shouting with joy. Why don't we Christian rejoice?

Now He acts as if He already suffered and died and won the victory over sin and Satan. This is the ride of a victorious King coming home from battle having conquered His enemies. This He did that first Holy Week, especially on Thursday, Friday and Easter when He died and rose again for Jerusalem and all the world. His Kingdom is not of this world Jesus said to Pilate.

Verse 10 explains His Kingdom, "I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth." No horses of war or chariots of war or bow and arrows as earthly kingdoms. He shall speak peace unto the heathen and preach forgiveness of sins to all people. The Gospel, Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the weapons of His Kingdom. Through these He wins men to join with Him. His rule is from sea to sea and over all the earth. A everlasting Kingdom.

Verse 11 shows what this King Jesus offers His members. Not a forty hour week at $3 an hour with Social Security as Mr. Kennedy in America, but salvation from the waterless "pit". A picture of man trapped in sin doomed to eternal death and hell. He sets them out.

He gives them double blessings. Where man suffered once in sin, He will make him happy twice in salvation. Plenty of blessings, hope and joy now on earth and forever when we die.

How should we feel about this King who came? "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout; O daughter of Jerusalem. We should be very, very happy about our mighty King Jesus and His Kingdom all over the earth and the wonderful blessings He won for us and shares with us in His Church on earth.

Do we really rejoice in our King Jesus? We often are not very eager or happy about our King Jesus and our membership in His Kingdom. Did you see how excited the Duluth fans got when their team won the State Basketball Tournament last night? They were jumping with joy and shouting. That's what Zechariah tells us to do here about Jesus our wonderful Victor King.

You know what those Duluth fans will do when they get home. They will talk, talk about their great team and hero. Do you talk, talk about Jesus and His Victory like that? Often we don't care to talk about Jesus at home or with others. We become tired and fed up with that or ashamed of Him and afraid to talk about our King Jesus. That's why we are also not eager about supporting our church, evangelism and world missions.

We are so sinful and blind and weak faithed. To bad we waste so much time and money eager about earthly things. To bad we can't get stronger faith and eagerness for Jesus and His Kingdom.

We can become more eager and have greater faith if we will more and more pray and hear and study His Word. Then we will know that we are on the winning team, not the losing team.

Amen.