“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (NRSV, Luke 19:38)

Today we begin the most solemn week of the whole year when once again we accompany Our Lord along the road which led to his Cross.  Today in spirit we enter with him into the city which crucified him, and from now on, until the utter desolation on Good Friday, the shadow of that fearful Cross falls across the intervening days.  And yet even at the beginning there is a gleam of hope which presages the joy of Easter Day, for today Christ is acclaimed as King.

But there is a difference.  On Palm Sunday he is surrounded with the pageantry of earthly royalty: on the Feast of the Resurrection he is clothed in the first splendour of his Heavenly Kingship.

Today, in deliberate fulfilment of an ancient prophecy, he enters Jerusalem as King, seated on a humble, peaceful donkey.  “Tell the daughter of Zion”, said the prophet Zechariah, “Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey…” (NRSV, Matthew 21:5).  And in his way the cheering crowds spread their clothes before him on the road, and cut down branches from the trees for a carpet under him.

This was the only occasion on which Jesus allowed himself to be acclaimed and honoured as the Messiah, the long-awaited deliverer and King whom God would send to save his people.  The patriotic crowd thought that he was going to seize the opportunity of the Passover festival to proclaim himself a national leader and declare a holy war against the Romans, and free his people from Gentile occupation and oppression.

It was not until Good Friday that it became clear that his Kingdom was not of this world and that the deliverance he came to bring was not political and economic but moral and spiritual; that his mission was not to liberate the Jews from the rule of the Roman occupying power but to deliver all mankind from the reign of evil within themselves.

For Good Friday revealed, to all who were given the inner vision to see, that he was the King not of force but of love, and as King of Love his reign continues to this day.

But royalty connotes loyalty.  If we acknowledge Our Lord as our King it means that we are only true to that acknowledgement if we ourselves are his loyal subjects.  There are many loyalties – loyalty to one’s family; to one’s friends; to the group or community to which one belongs; and when natural disasters occur, such as earthquakes or floods, a common human loyalty comes to the surface which transcends divisions of race and nationality, and help is sent or brought by people from all over the world.

But what of our loyalty to Christ our King?  We profess and call ourselves Christians, that is, we claim to belong to Christ, to believe in him and to follow him.  Yet too often one has to make the humbling admission that one’s loyalty to him is not always firm and resolute.

In what, then, should our loyalty to Christ consist?  First, in our defence of the Christian Faith and Christian moral standards, both of which are under attack today.  When Christ stood before Pilate he defined his Kingship by declaring that he came to bear witness to the truth and we cannot be loyal to him if we fail to do likewise without regard to any opposition or ridicule we may incur.

But Christ is not only King of Truth, he is also King of Love and as such he gave his Apostles his new commandment on Maundy Thursday.  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another”.  And he draw from that commandment a fundamental practical lesson, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (NRSV, John 13:34,35, our emphasis).

And by love he meant, not a sentimental emotion, but an unfailing goodwill which persists in the face of rejection, and which was for all time expressed by Our Lord’s sacrifice of himself on the Cross when he laid down his life, not for his friends only, but also for his enemies.

And such is the love which his followers are required to show if they are true followers.  It is a love which makes no distinctions but embraces all.  “If you love those who love you”, he said, “what credit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them.  If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same…But love your enemies…and you will be the children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (NRSV, Luke 6:32-33, 35).

It is so easy to hate as the world hates; it is so hard to love as Our Lord loves.  We may wish sometimes that the Christian religion were less difficult and demanding, yet it can never be anything else if it is to be recognisably Christian.

So often we want to pick and choose with the Christian religion: to accept the things we have a mind for, but to regard loving our enemies, in the sense of bearing them an unfailing goodwill, as an optional extra that is all right for those who like that sort of thing.

And yet “Love one another” was Our Lord’s last earthly command, given to his disciples at the Last Supper only hours before his Crucifixion.  If we do not take it seriously we can scarcely claim to be a true follower of him.  And if we are actually content to bear malice and hatred in our heart, then we are either a bad Christian or a humbug – or both.

For we must remember that the Christian religion is not only that of Easter Day but also that of Good Friday; not only that of the Risen Christ but of the Crucified Christ who still loved with an infinite compassion those who crucified him.  And what Christ requires of us, and will always require of us, is to walk in newness of life by following that example of his.

And so to love as Our Lord loves is the principal test and expression of our loyalty to him, as it is also the test and expression of our Christian discipleship.  And by showing that love to our fellow human beings for his sake, our relationship with him grows ever closer and deeper as he himself promised it would.

“This is my commandment,” he said, “that you love one another as I have loved you”.  “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them…and we will come to them and make our home with them” (NRSV, John 15:12; 14:21,23).

Prayer for Palm Sunday

Lord Jesus Christ, on this day you entered Jerusalem and were acclaimed as King by the crowds.  We worship you, the King of Love, and pledge afresh our loyalty to you.  Help us to show this loyalty in our daily lives by keeping your new commandment, to love one another.  May more and more people be drawn to you, who was lifted up on the Cross for love of us and who now reigns for ever – risen, ascended and glorified.  Amen.