Abundant Life on Palm Sunday

This sermon was preached for Capital Pres Fairfax on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025, as a part of our Holy Week sermon series “Abundant Life.” We all crave an abundant life. But what does that mean? How do we live a full life? Jesus said, in John 10:10, that he came that we might have “life and have it abundantly.” Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection invite us into the abundance of life — both now and forever. This week we focused on Luke 19:28-40. A recording of this sermon will be available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Luke 19:28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 

36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 

This year we’re titling our Holy Week series “Abundant life.” Abundant life is found only in the person of Jesus Christ and having a personal relationship with him. And the most important thing we can to do reach abundant life in Jesus is encounter him in his word. So that’s what we’re going to do this week. We’re simply going to see Jesus in the gospels, we’ll walk with him through the most critical week of his life. That week starts with a donkey and palm branches and a crowd shouting “Hosannah.” 

There’s three things we need to know about Jesus if we’re going to share in his abundant life. First, Jesus knows where he is going. Second, Jesus knows who he is. Third, Jesus invites us to follow him. 

Jesus knows where he is going 

I just recently watched a mini series about two friends trying to travel across the whole of Japan on motorcycle. They were going from Cape Sato in Kyushu to Cape Soya in Hokkaido—about 1800 miles in fourteen days—and doing it all with no smart phones, no map. The real challenge was they they had about a kindergarten-level grasp of Japanese. They didn’t even bring an English-Japanese dictionary! All their directions had to come from asking strangers where to go and following their guidance with blind hope, and they weren’t even letting themselves write down directions. 

Imagine the stress you’d feel if you were in the same situation. Maybe some of you are adventure junkies who love to travel and that sounds great to you. If you’re a homebody like me, it sounds terrifying. They were fully at the mercy of convenience store workers with zero understanding of English. Every conversation was a battle to understand the person, every fork in the road was met with uncertainty. It made for great late-night entertainment when I was up bottle-feeding my son. There was something deeply cathartic about watching two guys completely lost trying to figure out life while holding a newborn. 

Maybe you can resonate with that. It might taking care of your first child, or maybe it’s something else in life that has you feeling totally lost and without a guide. What is it for you? When have you found yourself in a spot wondering “Where in the world am I going?” When we look at our Bible passage this morning, we find Jesus in a very different situation. 

Look with me at verses 28-35. Our story starts with Jesus on a very familiar route. He’s going from Bethany to Jerusalem, two places he’s been to dozens of times and only about two miles apart. Nothing about this journey should be remarkable, but Jesus has other plans. He recruits two of his disciples and sends them on a little adventure, which to them, surely sounds ridiculous. Really think about this. I know for many people who have grown up in the church, Holy Week can feel like a familiar journey. You may have read this same passage dozens of times in your life to the point that it all feels ordinary—just typical Jesus doing his thing. If that’s you today, let’s do the hard work of de-familiarizing ourselves with the text. See it with fresh eyes, and see how ridiculous this moment is. 

We’ve got a little ancient near eastern Grand Theft Auto with a splash of Blues Brothers. Jesus tells these two guys, “Go into town, you will find a specific donkey—not just any old donkey, but one particular donkey—and take it. Don’t ask permission, if anyone questions you, tell them ‘We’re on a mission from God’ and they’ll just let you go.” And here’s my favorite detail of all, verse 32 “[they] found it just as he had told them.” They find the donkey, they say the line, they bring it back to Jesus, no problems. 

What’s the point of adding this detail? Is Luke just adding some fun filler? No. This is of critical importance for us. Jesus knows where he is going. He is about to ride that donkey into Jerusalem, and over the course of the next five days, he is going to experience hell on earth. By all outward appearances, Jesus is totally at the mercy of everyone around him. He’s arrested, sentenced, beaten, and murdered. But at every step of the way, Jesus proves that he knows exactly what will happen. He knows he will be betrayed. He knows who will do it and where and when it will happen. He knows he will be convicted in a kangaroo court. He knows he will be beaten and crucified. Here on Palm Sunday before any of that happens, Jesus is calmly showing his disciples, showing us, he knows exactly where he is going. 

Jesus knows who he is 

One of the most important questions Jesus asks in the Bible is “Who do you say that I am?” How you answer that question is of the utmost importance to finding abundant life. What are some of the common answers you hear today? Lots of people say Jesus is a good moral teacher. He teaches people about love and charity and justice. Some say Jesus was a religious leader, like a prophet. He helped people connect with God, worked miracles, and saw the future. Others say that Jesus was a political leader. People have used Jesus as a sort of mascot for different political movements throughout history. 

We see some of those same answers in our passage this morning. The crowds view Jesus as both a religious leader and a political leader. They marvel at his mighty works and they give him a royal parade into their capital city while calling him “king.” The institutional religious leaders don’t like that very much, so they reduce Jesus to a teacher. 

That’s everyone else, but who does Jesus think himself to be? Let’s look at the text. First off, there’s a not-so-subtle implication behind the donkey situation. Jesus says to tell the people “The Lord has need of it” and then he is the one who ends up riding it. Then as he rides into Jerusalem, the people start quoting Psalm 118 and call Jesus king, and how does Jesus respond? He receives it fully! He agrees with their claims! And when the Pharisees tell Jesus to make the crowd stop, what does Jesus say? “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 

Friends, you have to recognize that Jesus has just crossed a line. Nobody likes a guy who thinks too highly of himself. Think Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, or King George in Hamilton—there’s a reason they’re villains. But even the most conceited narcissist in the world wouldn’t make the claim Jesus makes here. Sometimes you might encounter people who say “Jesus never claimed to be God in the Bible,” well look no further than this passage. Jesus is saying “I am the Lord of life and the king of Israel. I am exactly who Psalm 118 and all the Scripture point forward to. I am deserving of all glory, and if I have to breathe life into earth again like I did with Adam in the garden to get my glory, I’ll do it.” 

That’s what he’s claiming. The question for you this morning is, it is true? If it’s not true, then Jesus is the greatest lunatic to ever live and we have absolutely no business following him. If it is true, that changes everything. That would mean that God himself has come to meet us, and that means either unimaginable blessing or disaster. We have to remember this as we come into Holy Week. It can be all too easy to slip into playing pretend-Christianity with familiar passages, but let these palm branches break you out of the routine of religion. I’m reminded of a CS Lewis quote from his book on miracles. 

An ‘impersonal God’—well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads—better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap—best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband—that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (‘Man’s search for God!’) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?¹

Jesus knows exactly who he is—he is God himself come to earth as a man. God has found us, and so we ask, “What does he want with us?” 

Jesus invites us to follow him 

Holy Week is the culmination of Jesus’ earthly ministry. From the moment he was baptized, he was working toward this moment in Jerusalem. And all along the way, Jesus extends the same invitation to everyone he meets: “Follow me.” For all those who do, Jesus gives them a taste of abundant life. For some, it tastes like freedom from disease and disability. Jesus’ crowd includes people who were paralyzed from the neck down now dancing in the street waving palm branches. For others, it tastes like forgiveness from heinous sins and life-shattering mistakes. Think about Zacchaeus in the tree and the woman at the well. It always comes with love, especially for those who were on the fringes of society. This king isn’t marching with an army, he’s arriving with children and beggars and “sinners.” 

Don’t you long for that? Don’t you long for healing? Don’t you long for forgiveness and unconditional love? That is what Jesus wants with you! That’s why he’s come! And that’s exactly what he accomplishes over the course of this next week. To earn you freedom from all disability and disease and even death itself, Jesus will taste death. To forgive you for all your sins and mistakes, Jesus will bear the full weight of sin upon himself. To bring you into the love of God, he will drink the cup of God’s wrath to the dregs in your place. And to invite you into his own abundant life, he will rise from the dead on Easter morning. 

Jesus knows who he is. He is God in the flesh, the only person able to give us abundant life. And he knows where he is going. He’s going to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. 

Here’s why that’s good news for us here today. So often we can feel like those two guys lost in Japan. Lost in life, unsure of where we are going or how to get there or who to look to for help. And I know that for some people in our church family, this past week has felt like hell on earth. Friends, Jesus knows. You are not going at it alone and you are not without help. We can be tempted to look for guidance from all sorts of people and things, but you don’t need to look for abundant life anywhere else than in this king on a donkey. He is the same God today he was back then, and he knows how to lead you to abundant life. 

This Holy Week, come and follow the God who came to save you. Come to our Maundy Thursday service to see Jesus give us a new commandment and a sign to remember him. Come to our Good Friday service to see Jesus give his life to pay for your sin on the cross. Come to our Easter service next Sunday to see Jesus give you everlasting life through his resurrection. But right now, let’s follow Jesus into Jerusalem this Palm Sunday singing Hosannah to our king. 

¹ C.S. Lewis, Miracles (London, UK: Geoffrey Bles, 1947), 114. https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20150616