Combined Text of the Gospels, 
Johnson Cheney's Harmony
Palm Sunday 2003 

Hosanna!  Hosanna to the Son of David.  Blessed is the King that is
coming in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna to the Son of David! 

Hosanna!  Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord, 
the King of Israel.  Blessed is the kingdom of our father David! 

I. FIRST, CONSIDER THE NATURE OF THE KINGSHIP OF JESUS.

Is it a literal kingship or a metaphorical one?

1. Well, it is literal but a different kind of kingship than an ordinary kingship.  Many of those people, no doubt, had an overly-political interpretation of his kingship, but they certainly could not have over-estimated the extent of his dominion!  Here was the Son of God incarnate "through whom the Father made the worlds and who upholds all things by the word of his power," in the midst of the descendants of the ancient Jewish people, being proclaimed God's king over everything which was included in the Kingdom of God.

In a way, since it was the fulfillment of the Old Testament political kingship.  This kingship was even more real than the antetype in the kingdom of David.

2. It is a major theme in the life and ministry of Christ.

In reformed theology, there were 3 major headings that describe the ministry of our Lord -- prophet, priest and king.  He is the prophet in the sense of his teaching and in his revelation of God the Father.  He is the priest in his saving work on the cross and in his present intercession for us before the Father in Heaven.  He is the king in his right to command; in his right to be pre-eminent in our lives, in his  right to rule over our individual lives and over his church, and even one day, we believe, over the Millennial Kingdom.

It is a theme that is spectacularly missing in the broad spectrum of what passes for Christianity just now; so it is a timely subject.  And more about that presently.

3. But for now, I would urge you to not miss this theme in the rest of the New Testament, beyond the Gospels.  Although the actual uses of "king" for Jesus are not plentiful, there is a reason for their omission. In all probability, for political and social reasons, the term "king" was gradually changed to a synonym which had the same force but less political overtones.

Kingship  had a bad reputation among Greeks and Romans alike. And, outside of Jewish Christians the readers of the N.T. writings were  largely people who  were culturally Greeks  or Romans, or a mixture of both.  To the Greeks the term "king" signified barbarians such as our word "chieftain" would to us.  To the Romans it was a hated word quite synonymous with "tyrant."  Not in the most regal times of the Roman Emperors was the Emperor ever called a "king," except by his enemies.

In the rest of the N.T., the word "Lord" generally replaces the word "king."  "Jesus Christ is Lord" seems to have been a collect, or liturgical phrase, in the N.T. Church.  And it meant exactly the same thing as "Jesus Christ is King," except that it was not capable of misunderstanding in an empire that was paranoid about the possible loss of power.  And, by the way, the book of Revelation revives the use of "king" at the end of the first century and confesses our Savior as "the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords."

You can see some of them dramatized in this grand display of his kingship and of the multitude's acclamation of him as their King on this first Palm Sunday.  Look at some of them:

1. Very conspicuous among them, is the fact that his kingship calls forth a negative reaction.  The Pharisees, Sadducees and the scribes, priests and chief priests were absolutely bent out of shape at the crowd's reaction and Jesus response to that reaction.  "Can't you hear what they are saying?" they said.  "Rebuke them!"

They were right, of course.  That is, "right" in terms of their wrong view of who Jesus was.  For these crowds of people were ascribing attributes of deity to Jesus and they were certain that such was not the case.  Acclaiming Jesus as King and Savior would be blasphemous and idolatrous, if he were not the incarnate Son of God.  One is reminded of the lack of integrity of the liberals who deny the essential deity of Christ but then go on and worship him anyway because they believe in the essential deity of man.

Now this is important.  The kingship of Christ causes rejection.  Its claims are enormous.  Because of his deity, his claim is to absolute sovereignty and pre-eminence in the church and in every area of the life of the believer.  And people continually face the kingship of Christ in this issue or in that issue.  And many of them walk slowly away like the rich young ruler did when he was confronted with it in practical terms of who would be his god.

On every hand there is a "another gospel" being proclaimed that says variously that you can get eternal salvation, or earthly peace, or wealth, or happiness, or whatever and ignore this kingship of the Lord.  And to create such a "gospel" which does not have the Lordship of the Savior/God is only a more civilized and cultured way of reacting to the basic message as the Pharisees did violently so long ago.

2. More positively, let me say in the second place that the Kingship calls forth joyful surrender.

We, like that multitude on the first Paul Sunday, from the depths of our hearts cry: "Hosanna!  Hosanna to the Son of David!"  And in that acclamation the multitude were, in effect, crying "Rule, thou son of David!  Rule over my life; for to you belongs the right of dominion!"  It is not the surrender of the conquered alien, bound with chains around his neck  and with shackles  around his arms and  his legs but the surrender of a glad subject to him whose right it is to rule in the lives of those for whom he died.

Dare I ask how you are facing the kingship of the Lord Jesus on this spring day, that is designated as Palm Sunday?  Most of us face it time and again!  Let us face it joyfully, full well knowing that our King is no tyrant but rules with a good and gracious dominion over our lives!

And the church faces the issue repeatedly in similar fashion.  He is the King over his church:  "Jesus Christ is Lord!"  He is Lord in that he should dominate the agenda of the church and the preaching and the program of the church!  He is Lord in that he should dominate the devotion of the church!  "God (the Father) has give him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." 

3. And the kingship calls for great joy on the part of its subjects:  "Hosanna, Hosanna!" You can sense the joyous enthusiasm of the multitude.  It as if they verbalized the pent up longing of the People of God since the dawn of history:  "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"  The Mighty God has become incarnate among us and this Second Person of the Godhead is our King!" 

Now don't miss this!  When we worship on Sundays, it is not just an aesthetic occasion where we contribute to the music to enrich one another.  And in our church we try to make it a time of cultural enrichening by using the best our culture has given us.  But it is not just a long-standing tradition; it is a building up of our own personal faith by our corporate expression of worship and true acceptance of the rule and saviorhood of the Lord Christ!

4. The kingship of Christ is an institution of healing.  That is the fourth thing.  Notice in the Matthew account -- in 21: 14 -- it records that on the next day "the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them."  It seems to be so out-of-place at that occasion, but it is not.  The healings of the N.T. are never just conveniences to those who don't like to be sick or blind or lame.  Otherwise, Christ, instead of healing one person, would have healed everybody in Palestine, or in the whole world -- and be done with it.  And for a day, at least, everyone would be healed.  But it is not primarily an institution of mercy, so much as it is an institution of teaching.  Healing of the body, which could be seen, was to dramatize the healing of the soul which could not be seen.

And on these days of his kingship dramatized, it was fitting that "the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them."  It was symbolic of the spiritual effects of his kingdom.

This, then, I believe is the message for us of the Palm Sunday triumph of our Lord.  May we join in its triumph as we sing a hymn sung  by Christians for 225 years to celebrate his kingship, Hymn No 297.