We have taken quite a journey through the Old Testament. We have seen God’s hand at work in his people as he has implemented his plan of salvation. We have watched him go from the failure of complete destruction with Noah and the flood to the establishment of a chosen people through Abraham. We’ve seen him act to defend his people from danger in the liberator Moses and the kings of old. We have seen his patience and mercy in dealing with his people’s vices and weaknesses. We have heard his prophets proclaim the next step in the plan: the coming of the Messiah.

All of which brings us to today and brings us at last to that Messiah. To Jesus of Nazareth. To the Palm Sunday story and to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It’s hard not to feel that everything is coming to a climax at this point. We’ve gone through God’s plan of salvation as told in many of the stories, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of all of them, of the Old Testament. In all the years of our being a part of the church in whatever form, we’ve heard the stories of Jesus, of his miracles, his teachings, his debates with Pharisees and discussions with disciples. All this, all of this, seems to now be coming to a head, for us and for the people of his day. It’s really happening. God is on the move. The plan is coming to its fulfillment.

Perhaps that is why Jesus himself claims, in one of the various versions of the triumphal entry, that if the crowd were silent, even the very rocks would cry out. It’s like all of creation, people, birds, animals, plants, and even the very ground on which he walks stands in eager anticipation of what is about to happen. Imagine a child on Christmas Eve multiplied a thousand-fold and we might begin to catch a glimpse of the mood on that Sunday morning so long ago.

They’re excited because here comes God’s chosen, God’s anointed to the seat of power, to the center of their religion, to the headquarters of the occupying enemy. God is at work in this Jesus, but what exactly is going to happen next no one is quite sure. This crowd, they know the stories of old. Into which mold does this Jesus fall?

Some no doubt see him as Elijah or Nathan, a prophet who challenges evil, who speaks the truth to power, who calls us to repentance when we have done wrong. And Jesus is most certainly that. His debates with the Pharisees and the other religious authorities are already common knowledge. And the legacy of his prophecy, of his challenge, continues well beyond the spirit of this first Palm Sunday.

It is his truth, his Gospel, that inspired a troubled young monk to call the church to account when it had strayed too far from God’s message of mercy. It is his truth, his Gospel, that inspired a young preacher from Alabama to call this nation to account when it had strayed too far from its ideals of freedom and equality for all. And it is his truth, his Gospel, that prophesies to us, that acts as our conscience, when we are guilty of doing harm to others, that calls us to repentance. And it is also our voice when speak the truth even when it is not popular, when we give voice to the voiceless, and we cry out for justice in this world.

That is who Jesus is.

Others on that day see the Christ in model of Moses or David, the conquering hero, the liberator who has come to save his people from bondage. They expect him to march upon the king’s palace or upon the Roman garrison, armed like Moses with a staff and all the plagues God can muster or with a few stones to dare challenge the Roman Goliath. Not a wholly accurate image of Jesus, but also not an entirely inaccurate one either.

After all, it was his witness that once drove an American president to fight a war to set a people free from slavery. It was his witness that inspired doctors and scientists to create new technologies that set people free from disease. And it is his witness that draws us to the food pantry once a month, to do what we can to set someone free from bondage to hunger.

That is who Jesus is.

Still even more see him as a prophet in the mold of Isaiah or Jeremiah, one who speaks words of hope and comfort to a people in the thrall of despair. They remember well the stories they have heard of healing the sick, making the lame to walk, giving sight to the blind, of mingling and ministering to the outcast and forgotten. As before, that legacy also remains.

It gave peace to those wrongly condemned to death in the arenas of Rome. It gave hope to those living under the tyranny of Nazism or Stalinist Russia. And it has been with us as we have faced the trials of our lives, the loss of friends and family, the ailments of our body and mind, and everyday struggles of life. Christ’s words of hope have never forsaken us.

That is who Jesus is.

All these things are who Jesus is. He is a prophet who challenges. One cannot read Scripture or listen to the words of preachers or see the works of people doing God’s will and not be challenged to better themselves in their service to others. Every day, I find my Christian walk challenges me to be a better person. And he is a prophet who comforts. How many trials have we as a congregation endured thanks to the gifts of his presence and peace?

And he is a liberator. For from this triumphal entry, he goes to the cross. He goes into the hands of the authorities, who lie about him, beat him, and then hang him on a cross to die. In the midst of all the other things that he is, it was for this purpose most of all that he was born. It was for this purpose most of all that he came into the world, for here is the true solution, here is God’s final step in his plan of redemption for the whole world. He dies on the cross, taking our place there, taking our sins upon himself and killing them with him. Setting us free at last from their burden and their inevitable punishment.

And then, on the third day, he rises again. Not only does he break the power of sin, but he breaks also the power of death and he liberates us from the one enemy none of us could otherwise defeat. God’s plan of redemption and salvation finds fulfillment in Jesus Christ. God’s plan comes to its conclusion in a way we never expected, and yet at the same time, its finds its conclusion in all the ways we had hoped. God be praised. Amen.