Jesus Has the Power

29 March 2026  Matthew 21:1-11

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

“They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them, and He sat upon them.” (Matthew 21:7)

Suppose the new owners of some NFL teams decided to change the teams’ names: the Los Angeles Rams became the Los Angeles Lambs. The Philadelphia Eagles became the Philadelphia Doves. Fans would then have to shout some ironical things: “Hit ’em hard, Lambs!” “Crush ‘em, Doves!” Cheers like that are so counter-intuitive that they would get caught on your teeth on the way out. It would be reasonable to suppose that those new owners don’t understand what actually happens in the NFL.

Power isn’t something that is covered with a helmet, and our problem isn’t what we think it is. Our problem is sin, the solution is mercy – Divine mercy – and Jesus speaks that mercy into being because He is God.

The same irony applies to people waving palms and shouting “Hosanna!” to someone riding into town on a donkey, in fact a young donkey.

He should have been riding a horse. A horse is the ride of a real leader, a fighter, someone who would finally do something about the degrading, humiliating occupation of Jerusalem by the Romans.

A donkey says something…else – as counter-intuitive as “Hit ‘em hard, Lambs!”

A donkey says that the Romans are not the real problem – sin is. A donkey says politics can’t solve your problem – only mercy can. Divine mercy. A donkey says power isn’t what you think it is. Mercy is power. Virtue is power. Healing is power. Power isn’t the ability to make someone submit, but to make someone whole. Power isn’t something you cover with a helmet; power speaks things into being. Jesus said to the men holding stones over the head of a woman who had made a ghastly mistake, “Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone” (John 8:7). Moments later it was just Jesus and the woman, alone in a little garden of stones that had become suddenly peaceful. “Who now condemns you?” Jesus asked. The woman said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you,” and the woman was able to leave and sin no more (8:10-11). What Jesus says, is. That’s power.

The rest of that week which followed Palm Sunday was full of other ironies and unexpected things. Jesus didn’t expel the Romans from Judea, but the money changers from the Temple (Matthew 21:12-17). He lamented not about Romans oppressing Jews, but about Israelites killing prophets (23:37-39). The Passover meal wasn’t about the Israelites escaping the Egyptians with Moses, but about disciples escaping sin and death with Jesus (26:26-29). The disciples didn’t understand any of this, and at the first sign of real danger, they all forsook Him and fled. It would take an event on the magnitude of the Resurrection to bring the disciples around.

It still does.

But what Jesus says, still is: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by Me” (John 14:6). Power isn’t something that is covered with a helmet, and our problem isn’t what we think it is. Our problem is sin, the solution is mercy – Divine mercy – and Jesus speaks that mercy into being because He is God.

The Lamb of God packs a punch after all, because the NFL isn’t real life.

Jesus is.