Dear Christian friends:

Jesus weeps for the people of Jerusalem. Why? It was Palm Sunday. Jesus had just finished riding into the city on the donkey. The people of Jerusalem had welcomed Him as their King, the Messiah, Christ. They waved the palm branches and rejoiced greatly. They shouted and sang, "Hosanna to the Son of David! God bless the King who comes in the Lord's name! Hosanna in the highest!" (verses 37-38) The people seem to welcome Jesus for their King. Why does Jesus weep? Because they welcomed Him as an earthly king only. They did not welcome Him as their Savior. They did not welcome Him as the Son of God who became the Son of Man so that He could die for their sins and give them peace with God. Jesus weeps for them and says, "0, I wish you knew your day that God visits you; 0, I wish you knew the things which can give you peace! But now they are hid from your eyes." (verse 42) The people of Jerusalem misunderstood about Jesus when He came to visit them. So Jesus weeps!

Jesus still comes to people today through Word and Sacraments and many people seem to welcome Him and praise Him. But still Jesus weeps today. Why? Many church members today misunderstand about Him. Do we misunderstand Jesus?


We want Jesus for our Savior. We want Him to be the one who died on the cross in our place so that we can have forgiveness of sins. Isn't that right! What's wrong with that! Isn't that the way the people of Jerusalem should have welcomed Him that first Palm Sunday? Yes!

We should want Jesus Savior who has won forgiveness of sins for us. That's right! Jesus is our Savior. But our wrong is that we don't want Him to be our King who changes us as He saves us. We want Jesus to be our Savior who forgives us, but not our King who calls us to a life of holy service and hard work. Therefore Jesus weeps for us today!

We must repent! Jesus is our Savior. But our Savior is also our King, our Lord. As He forgives us He helps us love Him and live for Him! Don't misunderstand Jesus! We are "living stones in His holy temple; holy priests who make offerings of praise and thanks to our Savior King." (1 Peter 2:9)

We also want Jesus to be our Helper. When we are sick, in trouble, perplexed. Right? Right! God commands, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will save thee!" Yes, Jesus is our Helper, but He is more than that! He is our Helper-King.

Our problem is that we want Jesus for our Helper but we don't want Him for our King who helps us in His own way and in His own time, and who calls us to a new life of obedience and service. We want a Helper who will make life easy and comfortable for us. But Jesus our Helper King calls us to follow Him in suffering and sacrifice. So Jesus weeps for us today. We often misunderstand about Him.

We must repent! Let Jesus be your Helper, but let Him be a Helper who is also your King, who calls you out of the broad evil world, so you can follow Him on the narrow and right way. Jesus helps us by calling us from greed and competition. He calls us to deny ourselves and daily take up our cross, and follow Him in humble service.

We also want Jesus for our Hope, our guarantee that we can go to heaven when we die. And Jesus is our Hope for heaven. He says, "I am the One who raises the dead and the one who gives LIFE; he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." Yes, Jesus is our Hope for glory. (John 11:25)

But our problem is that we don't want Him for our King, too. Our Hope is also our King. Jesus says, "You will live forever in heaven, therefore don't lay up treasures on earth, - but lay up treasures in heaven." (Luke 12:31-34) Many want Jesus to guarantee a heavenly home for them, but they don't want to live like pilgrims and strangers here on earth. So Jesus weeps still! Many misunderstand about Him.

We must repent! Jesus is our Hope, but our Hope is also our King. Our King calls us to forsake the worldly things and ways and pleasures and live for the next world. He says to us, "Here you have not a continuing city; seek the city of the future, the city not built with men's hands, the city God has built, the city eternal in the heavens." Don't misunderstand about Jesus! He is our Hope and our King!

On the first Palm Sunday Jesus wept because the people of Jerusalem misunderstood about Him. They wanted only an earthly king like David. They didn't want a Savior-King. Today Jesus weeps because many church members want only an easy, cheap Savior. They refuse to let Jesus be their King. Today on this Palm Sunday let us repent! Let Jesus be our Savior and King who calls us to a holy life; our Helper and King who calls us to love and serve one another; our Hope and King who calls us to live forever, here on earth as pilgrims and there in heaven as citizens!

On the first Palm Sunday the people "rejoiced greatly and shouted praise to Jesus" but it was for nothing. Jesus was not happy with their praises. He wept because they misunderstood about Him. On this Palm Sunday, 1983, let us not misunderstand about Jesus. We don't want Jesus weeping for us. We want to please Him with our worship. We don't want our praise and worship for nothing! Therefore let us welcome Jesus as our Savior-King, our Helper-King and Hope-King!

Amen.