Make Way for the King of Glory

The sixth sunday in lent – palm sunday

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Psalm 24

Of David. A psalm.

1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.  Selah

7 Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory.  Selah

Years ago a yacht landed at a wharf in Scotland.  Two of the men in the yacht left the boat to take a walk and tour the area.  It didn’t take long before they were lost.  It became late at night, and they came to a farmer’s cottage.  They knocked on the door and pleaded to the farmer that they were hungry and cold.  But it didn’t matter; the farmer would not let them in.  A mile or more away, they approached another cottage.  Though past midnight by now, the farmer willingly took them in.  Much to his surprise, he soon found out that one of the young men was the prince who would later become George V, the beloved king of England.  Now imagine the regret and shame the other farmer must have felt upon hearing that he had unknowingly shut the door in the face of the king!

The Bible tells us that many people will do the same to the Savior King.  To reject Jesus is to shut the door in the face of the King!  There is no middle ground here; in each man’s heart, Jesus Christ will either register as King, or he won’t.

On this Palm Sunday, as we remember his triumphal entry into Jerusalem amidst swaying palm branches and hollered-out Hosannas, we want to consider how we still Make Way for the King of Glory today.  To assist us we take a closer look at the psalm we sang this morning, Psalm 24.  This Psalm was written by King David.  We cannot determine the precise use for this psalm, but it seems very likely that it was used in some sort of procession to the Lord’s Temple.  Some speculate that it may have been used when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to the Temple, but there is no definitive evidence to support this thought with certainty.

Regardless, how might the Holy Spirit use this Psalm to guide people both to see and receive Jesus as their King today?  The tone is set in the very first verse: “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”  How can we know the Lord is the only one who can rightly be called “King?”  How can we know that there is no one greater or that no one else is more deserving of our hearts?  Because God made everything that exists – all of it.  He drew up the design, carried out the production, and brought everything into existence.  As David wrote, “he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters” (v.2). We confess it in the First Article: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth.”  The Lord deserves our acclaim as king because we, along with everything else in this world, would not exist apart from his having created us.

Realize it or not, we make way for the King of Glory on a regular basis whenever we properly manage the blessings he’s entrusted to us (stewardship).  If I remind myself regularly that every last possession I own is really God’s and that he has simply entrusted it to my care for as many years of life as he has measured out for me, then I start to see how I can honor my King with my (his!) belongings.

Imagine living as a peasant in the Medieval Ages and being so dirt poor that you barely have enough to scrape by and provide for your family.  Then, out of nowhere, and for no good reason that you could possibly fathom, you are called in to an audience with the king.  Not knowing whether good or bad will result, you enter into the king’s presence.  Then he explains why he has called you.  He has a significant portion of land that has gone unused, and he would like you to be responsible for farming the land for him.  While it is the king’s land, you and your family are allowed to take as much as you need to live comfortably off it, and the rest of whatever the land yields belongs to the king.  Will you not faithfully and diligently work the land to get as much from it as you possibly can?  Yes, and not just because you know that you get to live off a portion of it, but also because you want to show honor and respect to the king for his generosity toward you.

So it is with all that we have.  Our King brought it into existence, and he has been gracious enough to trust a portion of it to our care for a certain time.  Are we using what he has given us to show honor and respect to our King?  Are we making way for the King of Glory by seeing possessions first and foremost as means by which we serve him?

The Lord rightly deserve to be called King on the basis of his creating work, but he is deserving for another reason as well: he went a step further for us after his perfect creation became stained by sin: he redeemed us.  “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” because Jesus bought us back from Satan.  He paid the full price – there was no discount or bartering on our behalf – nothing but the full price of Jesus’ innocent blood would do.  And that buyback certainly included each of us, but it also included all mankind.  Nobody was excluded; however, not everyone is aware of it.

So… we can make way for the King of Glory when we acknowledge his having bought us back by making every effort to win others to Christ.  They’ve already been bought and paid for, they just need to know it.  They just need to hear about what the King of Glory has done for them to make them his own.  They need to hear that the transaction has already been made and that Satan no longer owns them.  So we make way for the King of Glory by faithfully carrying out the work of evangelism, for in so doing, we’re merely trying to gather souls that already belong to the Redeemer.

As you stand in line behind others waiting at a store to benefit from a one-time free giveaway and you notice others starting to slow down as they walk by, wondering what the line is for, what is your reaction?  Aren’t you inclined to let them in on the news and tell them to jump in line so they can benefit from this great deal?  Don’t we enjoy being “in-the-know” and sharing useful information with others so that they can come out ahead as well?

There is nothing greater to pass along to others than to be able to tell them of a free giveaway that has an impact on their eternity; to be able to let others in on the news that they’ve been redeemed and are under God’s love and protection, because through Christ they now belong to him.  They have been brought into the family and are heirs to the priceless and limitless fortunes of God’s grace, the riches of his forgiveness, a new and guilt-free life, and one that is full of meaning and purpose. We get to tell others that, and in so doing it is as if we were there in Jerusalem with the crowds, waving our palm branches and shouting our hosannas as we make way for the King of Glory.  We rightly receive him by relaying him to others.

We make way for the King of Glory because he created and redeemed us.  Without his redemption, we never would have stood a chance.  That is the only conclusion that can be drawn as David asks and then answers the question in verses 3 & 4, “Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false” (v.3,4).  Who has clean hands and a pure heart? No one. The expectation is not only that such a person would refrain from the outward actions (“clean hands”), but also that he wouldn’t even entertain wicked thoughts in his heart (“pure heart”).  We might fool ourselves into thinking we’ve accomplished the former, but we don’t begin to qualify for the latter.  Our hearts are corrupt inside and out.  They needed to be cleansed.

That brings us back full circle to why Jesus willingly strode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  His mission was to launder unclean hands and impure hearts.  How hard it must have been to ride in to the wonderful procession, the type of welcome truly fit for a king, only to know that some of the very same voices shouting “Hosanna” would be the same screaming “Crucify!” in a matter of days.  Yet those were the ones he came to save.  Those who were just like you and me, with no inherent redeeming qualities of our own; like lost and wandering sheep, helpless, and needing salvation.  He came so that we could benefit, as David described: “He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior” (v.5).

That vindication wouldn’t come on our own merits, but by his victory.  Up to this point Jesus had always been victorious.  He had been victorious over sin by his perfect life.  He won the battle against Satan when tempted in the desert.  He had been victorious over death when raising the dead back to life.  He overcame nature itself.  Finally, the ultimate battle against Satan was what brought him to Jerusalem.  And Good Friday and Easter morning were the convincing proofs of his victory in that most important battle for our salvation.  The King came to die and rise again.  “Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle” (v.8).  He is the One who created us and the one who redeemed us.  He is the King of glory.  So then, “Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in” (v.9).  Amen. 

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)