Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

“In like a lion, out like a lamb.” That usually means you’re talking about the weather in the month of March. Around here, our weather has included a sampling of both extremes this season. The saying is also very likely meant to refer to constellations and when they appear in the evening sky at the beginning and end of March. But there’s another “in like a lion, out like a lamb” besides this—and you heard it today in the midst of the subdued, yet excited Lenten joy that is characteristic of Palm Sunday.

The whole Passion story really started a few days back on that first Palm Sunday. Jesus began a “March” so to speak, of His own, a holy March in which according to God’s ancient plan, the Son of Man in Jerusalem would go “in like a Lion, and out like a Lamb.” Jesus had predicted it would happen this way three times before, at least. The Son of Man would be handed over to men, suffer at their hands, and on the third day rise again. But nobody who heard Him give these warnings seemed to have understood what this suffering and rising meant; it didn’t sink into the disciples’ ears, quite like the Lord wanted. And it wasn’t Jesus speaking alone; all of the Old Testament pointed with great expectation to the many events of this holy Passion history that we heard today from the Gospel of Mark. The people in Jerusalem, including many visitors who had flooded the city due to the Passover festivities, they had heard of Jesus’ coming, and they were ready.

And so His March begins– “in like a lion.” He was the undisputed King of the Jews, prophesied of old, working miracles and teaching not as the scribes and Pharisees do, but with authority. He rides a donkey rather than a marvelous, powerful animal, but that’s because of what Zechariah predicted. Cut and wave those palm branches, strip your outer coats and pay your respects to Christ who is your true King! Shout for His salvation, saying, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Behold, the Lion of Judah parades victorious up the hill toward His temple, passing through that building’s shadow in the late afternoon sunset. He’s the one for whom we’ve been patiently waiting, and now He’s here! Just wait till that Lion roars in all His power—and everything will be back to what it should be!

But what happens instead to Jesus? There’s no roar of a lion. He shares a final meal with His disciples, prays in anguish in the garden, gets arrested and charged with ridiculous crimes. But as Isaiah said it would be, He said nothing, “like a lamb before a slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.” He paraded in triumphantly like a conquering Lion, but in mere days He would exit the city, holding a cross, headed for Golgotha’s hill as a beaten, bloodied, defeated, sacrificial Lamb. The Savior did not bare His teeth or let out any roar to settle the score with the evil ones. Even His disciples one-by-one were scattered like sheep without their Shepherd. Young Mark flees away naked, Peter adamantly denies knowing Him before the second rooster-crow. People are getting a creepy feeling out of all the dead people walking around alive. You can’t help but wonder at how disappointing this first Holy Week is turning out for those Jews who were excited over the Son of Man who marched in like a Lion, but was Marched out like a Lamb, in bloody pain, carrying a shameful cross.

Maybe you’ve had that same frustration with Jesus. Does humiliation, beating, insults, and apparent worthlessness hit a little too close to home for you? Why does it have to be a cross for me to bear, you may ask. What did I do wrong? Counselors sometimes use a technique to begin conversations with patients, asking them, “If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your life?” While that exercise may be a possible window into true healing for the soul, everyone still eventually remembers that such a “magic wand” doesn’t exist in real life. Like those Jews who desired their Lion to roar with power, your sinful flesh can push you to be ashamed of the Lamb-like Savior whose words of comfort sometimes sound little more than, “I’m there for ya.” It doesn’t ever seem to take any of that suffering away.

Lambs are weak. Lions are strong. We need strength. We’ve got to assure the younger generation that responsible adults are in charge. Children feel the need to demonstrate adult-like independence so their parents will trust them and let them have more freedom. When someone else has hurt you with their sin, you cannot let on for even a second that they’ve affected you, because then they’ll know that they’ve won, or they’ll be encouraged to keep on hurting you and take advantage. When Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount to turn the other cheek, foretelling His own passion agony, we tend to say, “Sure, Jesus, you go ahead and let others beat You up; I’m going to keep looking out for #1.” But as long as you trust in strength, you stay in alliance with the sinful world, and remain opposed to the Lord who says, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit. When you despise weakness, you despise Jesus, and you reject the salvation and peace that only He can give to you, and you are lost.

Behold the Lion of Judah! Says the book of Revelation. And contrary to popular understanding, Revelation addresses not only future things concerning the end of the world, but it also presents God’s point of view of spiritual things that are in effect right now. The heavenly worship service of Revelation chapters four and five is constantly praising Christ. “Behold, the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, … and then (beside the throne) I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain,…” Did you notice that? Jesus is praised with the title of the “Lion of Judah,” yet He comes forth as a slain, that is, a slaughtered Lamb! That is depicted for us in a common symbol for Lent, just like here on my stole. Your Savior achieves a Lion’s victory especially for you by offering Himself up as a Lamb for sacrifice. The ancient cry of Hosanna has been turned around when it comes to Jesus—it used to mean, Hosanna! Save Him, as in, God save the King! But now it means save US instead. That’s how His suffering is your salvation, His wounds and stripes are for your healing, His chastisement is for your peace.

The Passion story that you heard again this morning and will hear again this Holy Week, is not a story of defeat, but it’s a decisive win. Christ marched in magnificent victory, precisely when all it looked like was humiliation and pain. Good Friday was, and remains the brightest pinnacle of heaven for sinners like you, even though by all appearances it seemed to be the darkest and lowest hell for Jesus. The triumphant resurrection which we’ll celebrate with joy again next Sunday, signs and seals that Good Friday Passion victory for all time. This is no mere magic wand, a throwaway cheer-up line or feel-good imagination technique. This is the real-life solution that God provided by His grace: the forgiveness of your sins, the resurrection of your body and the life of the world to come. Truly, the conquering Lion who is the Lamb has achieved the blessings of the new heavens and new earth, the home of righteousness, the place of eternal joy where as Isaiah prophesied, the wolf will graze with the lamb, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and a little child shall lead them. (Isaiah 11)

For now, until that glorious eternal day in heaven, we follow the lead of those who wave their palm branches and exult over Jesus the King and sing Hosanna, save us Lord. And as we progress through this Holy Week, I encourage you to pay close and prayerful attention to the Passion of your Savior who was led like a Lamb to the slaughter out of love for you. And at Easter, rejoice in the victory march of the Lion of Judah, for that conquest over sin and death and Satan is yours—not because you were strong, but because Christ suffered in weakness and overcame the Ancient Enemy by means of suffering and the cross.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Zech. 9:9–12 your King is coming to you … Lowly and riding on a donkey
Ps. 118:19–29 the stone which the builder rejected … this is the day … Save now … Blessed is he
or Ps. 31:9–16 I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief
Phil. 2:5–11 He humbled Himself … at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … every tongue confess
Mark 14:1—15:47 flask of very costly oil … the Institution … the betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial
or John 12:20–43 unless a grain of wheat falls … If I am lifted up … He has blinded their eyes