Holy Week in Luke’s Gospel: Palm Sunday Sermon, 29 March 2026
Palm Sunday, Choral Evensong, St Andrew’s Church, Sedbergh
You can read the sermon below, or listen here:
A reading from the Gospel according to St Luke
When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.”’ So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,
‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’
As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’
Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, ‘It is written,
“My house shall be a house of prayer”; but you have made it a den of robbers.’
Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
Luke 19.29–48 NRSVA
This Holy Week, we are taking our readings from the Gospel of Luke. The different Gospels paint different portraits of Christ, each one bringing out a different element of his person and ministry. A striking feature of Luke’s Gospel is that Jesus is portrayed as a prophet.
In ancient Israel, the prophets were those who spoke on behalf of God. They showed the people the error of their ways, and they called them to repentance. If the people listened and changed their ways, they were restored. But if they ignored the prophets – or worse, rejected or even killed them – then they brought about the judgement of God upon themselves.
This emphasis comes through especially in the account of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. Notice how in Luke’s telling, it is only the disciples who are cheering Jesus on. The people of Jerusalem remain silent – even the stones would shout out to compensate for this lack of praise, Jesus says. And in Luke’s Gospel alone, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, just as the prophet Jeremiah had done six centuries earlier. They have failed to recognise the time of their visitation by God. They have rejected the prophet that God has sent them. And if they continue on this path, they will suffer the consequences.
The historical background to this is the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70, about 40 years after Christ’s death and resurrection. The horrors that Rome inflicted upon Jerusalem cannot be understated – the city was razed to the ground, and many of its inhabitants were killed or enslaved. Luke likely wrote his Gospel after this cataclysmic event, and it colours his interpretation of Jesus’ ministry. He connects the dots between the city’s earlier rejection of God’s prophet, and its later destruction.
Jesus preached a message of peace, but the city chose violence. Jesus preached a message of repentance, but the city remained stubbornly opposed to him. In Luke’s telling, this leads to its eventual downfall.
Whether out not we agree with Luke’s interpretation of events, many of us would acknowledge that there are certain roads we can go down which do not lead to good outcomes. To remain opposed to God our maker is not wise in the long run. Ultimately, Jerusalem’s rejection of Christ represents a common failing of all humanity: our rejection of God, our elevation of ourselves, and our failure to put others first. The prophetic words of Jesus apply to us all: we are called to repent and believe the good news.
There is something paradoxical about repentance. The word simply means to change one’s mind. But it is simultaneously the hardest thing we can do, and yet the simplest and most natural response we can offer to God.
Repentance is hard, because it involves acknowledging our failure, and admitting that we have been going in the wrong direction. We must let go of our pride, our stubbornness, and our independence. That is difficult.
Think of a family holiday, when the father has taken a number of wrong turns and is now miles off course, but is unable to admit his mistake. He certainly won’t suffer the indignity of having to stop, wind down the window, and ask for directions! At moments like this, a simple act of repentance – to change his mind and ask for help – can save hours of frustration and heated arguments. And yet it remains so difficult to do!
But at the same time, repentance can be simple and natural, because it rests of God’s goodness and forgiveness.
Think of a child who is playing with a ball indoors – something they know they shouldn’t do – and knocks over and shatters a glass vase. When they run to their mother in tears, there may be a few stern words, but we would expect the mother to forgive and comfort the child.
It is the same when we turn to God in repentance. He is a perfect Father, who forgives perfectly. Repentance is a natural response because it resonates with something deep within us. We know, in our hearts, that we are dependent upon God. We need his forgiveness, his acceptance, his healing touch. And the good news we are called to trust in is that God freely forgives and welcomes us when we come to him.
Luke pictures this time and again in his gospel: the prodigal son who is welcomed home by his father; the tax collector Zacchaeus, who is called down from the tree and forgiven by Jesus; the penitent thief, who on the cross turns to Christ and is forgiven. These stories are unique to Luke’s Gospel, and they reveal his message of the forgiveness and acceptance that God extends to those who repent.
The prophetic word of repentance extends not just to individuals, but to communities and whole nations as well. We live in a complex world, and our understanding of it is always limited and partial. We must try as best we can to consider the roads we are walking down, and where they lead.
The West is gobbling up the world’s resources at an unprecedented rate. The rich continue to get richer and the wealth gap widens. New wars are started as tens of thousands are killed or displaced. In our own country, we are becoming increasingly inward focussed as we cut foreign aid, and become fearful of our neighbour. What are we to do?
Once again we can turn to a unique feature of Luke. As Jesus rides into Jerusalem, we hear the disciples shout out: “Peace in heaven” (19:38). This curious declaration recalls the message of the Angels at the beginning of the Gospel: “on earth peace among those whom he favours” (2:14). In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus shows us the paths of peace and the way of reconciliation. Repentance leads to peace with God, and peace with our neighbour. When we become overwhelmed with the many problems facing our world, we can pray for God’s peace, in our own lives, and in our world.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem with a message of repentance. He implored the people to turn back to the living God. Today, the risen Christ stands at the door and knocks. He calls out to us – to our communities, to our country, to our world – to turn back to God, and to welcome him in. The question for us this Holy Week is, will we listen to Christ? Will we lay down our own ambition and pride, and seek his humility? Will we open the citadels of our hearts and acknowledge the ways in which we so often turn away from God and from others?
As we journey through Holy Week, let us acknowledge our sins before God, and recognise our complicity in the condemnation and killing of an innocent man. But let us also never forget the abundance of God’s forgiveness for us. It is free and inexhaustible. It releases us from the burden of guilt and sin. It heals us and restores us, remaking us in the image of Christ. All we need do is the simplest and most natural thing in the world – to come to our heavenly Father in repentance, knowing that it is his nature to forgive.
Amen.