Great Expectations
God’s people, crowded together, were watching, waiting expectantly. They had done what God had commanded. The head of each family had sacrificed a lamb and painted its blood over their doorframes. They had roasted the lamb over the fire, eating it with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast, dressed, ready for when God came with his deliverance. Now they were ready for their long-awaited rescue from slavery in Egypt. They had expected that God would do what he said: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” (Exodus 12:13).
God had passed over them that night when he brought judgment on the gods of Egypt, before he brought his people out and led them as far as the sea. As they huddled together by the shore, they looked up to see the pursuing Egyptian army. The sound of charging warhorses and chariots and the crack of whips and shouts struck fear into their hearts. There was no route of escape.
This wasn’t what they were expecting God to do at all! They said to Moses: “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Moses answered the people: “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:11-14).
God was not done! God did fight for them! He commanded Moses to stretch out his staff, and as he did, the sea parted before their eyes, so that they could pass through on dry ground, before the waters closed together to drown the army who pursued them. God saved them but definitely not how they expected. Why had God done this? Perhaps it was to test them; to teach them to rely on him, who works above and beyond the normal laws of nature, and for whom therefore nothing is impossible. They needed to learn that in life with God, they had to live by what they couldn’t see, and what they couldn’t understand. They had to be still and trust him.
God had commanded his people to commemorate the Passover throughout their generations, so that they would never forget his saving help to them, and their children and children’s children would learn that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord—that they too needed to live by what they couldn’t see, even when to human logic it would make no sense to do so.
In today’s Gospel Reading the Passover festival was about to be commemorated. A great crowd from all over Israel had made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, having brought with them their Passover lambs, to remember God’s deliverance by his mighty deeds of old. But the nation is also waiting for a new deliverance. They were again under oppression from a mighty foreign power—this time the Romans. They longed to be a free nation again, waiting on God to raise up their long-awaited Saviour.
On this occasion, something felt different. There was an air of anticipation. In recent days some
incredible things had happened. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead just by speaking a word, and report of Lazarus’ resurrection had spread everywhere. Jesus feasted with Lazarus at a meal given in Jesus’ honour. That kind of miracle was on par with God parting the Red Sea! Jesus’ popularity had skyrocketed! A large crowd of Jews had come looking for Jesus, and also to see Lazarus for themselves. Jesus’ fame had even spread beyond Israel—some Greeks who came to the Passover request to see Jesus too. (John 12:17-20).
Many people in that crowd had pinned their hopes on Jesus. When they saw him ride into the nation’s capital on a donkey, their expectations surged. They recognise Jesus as the fulfilment of Zechariah’s prophecy:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
They acclaimed Jesus as their King! They took Palm branches and went to meet Jesus, jubilantly shouting verses of Psalm 118: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” ‘Hosanna’ means: “Lord, save now!” They cheer Jesus as the one who has come in the name of the Lord with saving help from heaven. There’s overwhelming expectation over the blessing and salvation Jesus will bring.
If we were there, longing to be liberated from an oppressive rule, longing for national freedom and independence, what would we expect this king to do? We would expect a show of force, liberation through an impressive display of military might. We might join the fight, and expect others to as well, expecting to capture and punish our oppressors for the way they treated us and our nation. We would expect to get even.
Battles are won, and nations are defended and protected by military might. Sometimes it is necessary to invade and overthrow. But Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem was to liberate the whole world from the most oppressive slavery—an unseen, spiritual enemy which cannot be overthrown by physical might: Satan, death, and sin. Jesus rode in on a donkey’s colt, signalling that he was coming on a peace-making mission, to bring peace between God and the world. Rather than overthrowing oppressive political rule Jesus surrenders to it. Later that week he would be mocked, beaten, whipped, bruised, bloodied, and suffer the worst kind of torture at the hands of the Romans—being put to death on a Cross.
At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus points ahead to what he would ride into Jerusalem to accomplish: Jesus would be the Lamb of God who would bring peace between God and the world, winning the forgiveness of sins by shedding his precious blood, so that the graves of his people would be left empty. Jesus would give up his own life for people who did not deserve it: criminals and wrongdoers, the unrighteous and immoral, those who bring suffering and emptiness on themselves and others, those who hate and abuse and kill, those who don’t know him, those who are ungrateful to God and do not thank him for the help he brings each day. At first, Jesus’ disciples did not understand this. Who would do such a thing?
Jesus would. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8).
As South Australians in 2026, our situation is perhaps not dissimilar to that of Israel when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. For all the freedoms we enjoy we still know oppression. We ourselves, thank God, do not live under a harsh, tyrannical government, but we live in a world where tyrannical governments still reign, and there is the constant threat of chaos around us. We live in a world in which it seems like evil wins the day from international upheavals right down to abuse and aggression in our local community. We live in a world where preserving pride, not peace, wins the day. We are oppressed, not by occupying forces, but an economic downturn, crippled by a fuel crisis, families driven to the brink trying to pay their mortgage, skyrocketing cost of living heaping misery and fear upon so many. People are bound to working harder and harder trying to avoid losing everything they have toiled for. Our health care system is buckling with supply struggling to keep up with demand, while all the while we know frailty and decline. We groan in bondage to decay and the ever-present pandemic of death continues no matter how we try to stave it off. Anxiety and tension are high, because our way of life is threatened. I’m reminded of the words from the much loved hymn, Abide with me:
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, it’s glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
There is one thing worse than struggling through life in a dark and decaying world and that is to struggle through it without Jesus. Living in a country that is free does not mean that one necessarily has true freedom. So many struggle to pay off their home but after the foundations shake and the bricks tumble will not have a home in heaven. The things people turn to for peace can help forget life’s problems for a few fleeting moments, but troubles remain long after the joyful experience has ended.
Jesus himself would teach: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:31-34).
Do not worry about tomorrow. Seek first God’s kingdom. Seek it today.
Although we cannot see God like the people saw God’s powerful presence of old, parting the Red Sea and going before them in a pillar of fire, and although we cannot see Jesus like the first Palm Sunday crowd when he rode past them, Jesus is truly here. Not as a concept, or a memory, or even a spiritual presence, but our crucified, risen Saviour and King is actually, bodily, personally present, here for each one of you as your King to bring all his Father’s blessing from heaven for you.
As we think back to our ‘One on one with Jesus series’, all that Jesus accomplished in the Gospels he brings to you. He triumphed over Satan in the wilderness and brought that triumph to your life. He opened the eyes of a man born blind and comes to give us sight to see the way of God in Christ. He freed a woman caught in adultery from the condemnation of the law and the death penalty, and he has freed us from condemnation and the death we deserved too. He offered to give the Samaritan woman at the well living water, and whoever drinks deeply from his word has that living water, the Spirit of life. He taught Nicodemus that he needed to be born again from above by water and the Spirit, and all who have been baptised in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are born anew—made new creations in Christ.
At first God’s people did not understand what God was doing when he led them to the Red Sea. At first Jesus’ disciples did not understand what was happening at the Passover procession. In life it can be hard—impossible even—to see what God is doing. Who can understand? “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” declares the Lord (Isaiah 55:9).
But we are not first of all called to see, or understand—only to trust. And that trust is itself a working
of God’s Kingdom in our hearts; a sign that the salvation Christ won for the world he has brought to you personally as people born anew from above.
As we meet with Jesus today, what expectations do you have?
Do you acclaim Jesus not only as your Saviour, but also your King? Do we want him to come and rule over us…or are we willing for him to be King only in the parts of our lives we are ready to hand over? Do we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness…or do we expect Jesus to grant us our own will, demands and desires? When we have received the final blessing from him, and the announcements are given at the end of the service, what expectations might Jesus have of us, his church in the world, from Monday to Saturday?
God’s kingdom reigning in Christ comes to rule over us, even without our asking it, so that our expectations align ever more closely with his:
- so that we do not seek to save our life but to lose it,
- so that we do not seek to become the greatest, but the least,
- so that we do not seek to punish our enemies but pray for them,
- so that we do not seek pride but forgiveness,
- so that we do not seek to cause conflict but make peace,
- so that we do not cling to human knowledge but seek true wisdom,
- so that we do not seek to control, but surrender, and
- so that there is a dying of the old self and rising to new life in our baptism each day.
Through the Person of Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, God continually comes to give spiritual sight, living water, grace and mercy, life out of death, forgiveness and salvation. He comes to us so that we experience his own resurrection at work in us, quenched with the life he gives, seeing the world and the church through his eyes, pouring out his life and compassion to others from the abundance we have first received.
He is the King who reigns, so we can be confident that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). On that day, may we be found faithful to his word, so that in his judging of the living and the dead he gathers us around the throne to share in his glory forever, rejoicing with the crowd of angels and all the other saints as we cheer: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Palm Sunday, 2026
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
“God’s kingdom reigning in Christ comes to rule over us, even without our asking it, so that our expectations align ever more closely with his”
- What are your expectations of God at this time—for the nation, the church, your life?
- How might these expectations align with God’s? How might they be different to God’s?
- Looking back on life, do you now see times when God worked in ways you didn’t expect? What learnings can be taken from this?
- Think of some ways in Scripture God has worked to bring saving help for his people. Why do you think God worked in these ways?
- What does this teach us about God…and our need for him?
- How does not being able to literally see God challenging in our faith journey?
- What things do we see more clearly in the world, the church and our own lives?
- What has God given us so that we can be sure of his will for our lives?
- How is Psalm 118 fulfilled for us?
- Imagine what it would be like to personally witness God’s mighty rescue at the Red Sea, and see Jesus riding into Jerusalem. How might the reality of God’s presence with his power and peace encourage us to come to worship?
- What change might God be desiring in our life so that we are more like Christ?
- Are you ready to welcome the reign of Jesus as King in your heart? What parts of life do you find most difficult to hand over to Jesus? Why might this be?
- How is Jesus’ arrival in peace—coming to serve rather than dominate—good news for us?
