Summary: Palm Sunday sermon showing that Jesus is the real superman - the Super God-Man - who humbled himself for our sake and now reigns over all things.

JESUS WEARS THE REAL “S”

1. He Was Our Suffering Servant

2. He Is Our Superior Savior

Ever since the beginning of time, people have been fascinated by superhuman powers. Already in the Garden of Eden it was the lie of the devil that got Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. “You will be like God,” the devil told her (Genesis 3:5). In other words the devil said, “You will have superhuman powers.” At the time of the Exodus, the Pharaoh of Egypt had sorcerers and magicians who were able to perform for him “secret arts,” the Bible says. When Pontius Pilate sent Jesus to King Herod, we are told that Herod was happy because he wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle; he wanted to see a show of superhuman powers. In fact, it was the miracles that Jesus performed that often attracted the people to come to him.

And still today we are captivated by superhuman powers. Comic books, novels, TV shows, movies, video games, and other things give high honor to superhuman characters. Many of the cartoons the children watch are about stronger-than-life people who triumph over evil. Two of my girls’ favorite cartoons are Powerpuff Girls and Kimpossible. There’s no doubt, we are captivated and fascinated by superhuman powers – even in fictional stories.

And one superhuman character that has been around a long, long time is Superman. While many others who once stood in the limelight have now faded away, Superman has withstood the test of time. But instead of wasting our time with a pretend Superman, we’d be much better off making good use of our time with the real superman, Jesus. Instead of honoring a dream hero, we ought to be praising the true hero. And as we look at this portion of God’s Word, here we see once again that JESUS WEARS THE REAL “S.” And this “S” reminds us first of all that (1) He Was Our Suffering Servant, but now (2) He Is Our Superior Savior.

The story of Superman is not real; someone made it up. The story of Jesus is real; it is the eternal truth of God himself. But it’s ironic, isn’t it, the way comparisons can be made between Superman and Jesus?

As the story goes, Superman was born on the planet Krypton. But the planet was in danger of being seized and overcome by evil. And so, the baby Superman was placed into a capsule and sent down to earth. When Jesus stood on trial before Pontius Pilate, he told the Roman governor: “My kingdom is not of this world … But now my kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36). Jesus didn’t come to this earth from the planet Krypton, but from the kingdom of God – heaven.

But unlike the pretend story of Superman, the real story of God’s Word tells us that it was not heaven that was in danger of being overcome by evil, but it was this earth that had already been overcome by the Evil One, Satan himself. Unlike Superman, Jesus was sent to this earth not to escape evil, but to confront evil head on and destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil.

The apostle Paul says of Jesus here: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped” (v.6). Jesus, without a doubt, is the real, true Superman from heaven. He is in very nature God. He is God. He is one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He is the eternal Son of God, who in the course of time took on our human flesh and blood and came down to this earth to free us from sin, death, hell and the devil. And so, Jesus is not just a superman, but he is the Super God-man.

And yet, even though he is God, Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.” While we might dream of being superhumans and having all these powers within us, Jesus emptied himself of his almighty powers as God. He “made himself nothing.” He did not strut around showing off his power as God. “Hey, everybody, look at me! Look, I can change water into wine. I can walk on water. I can feed 5,000 people with only a few fish and five loaves of bread. Hey, look, I can even raise the dead to life again.” No, Jesus didn’t act like that. Even though he performed these miracles, and by them showed himself to be the promised Savior, still the “S” that Jesus wore during his life on this earth stood for “Suffering Servant.”

“But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (v.7-8). Now, let’s ask ourselves: why is the not-real Superman praised and honored and adored by so many people? Is it because, as Clark Kent, he worked in a newsroom with Lois Lane? Not at all! No, it’s because, as the story goes, he can leap tall buildings in a single bound, he can run faster than a locomotive, he can fly at the speed of sound. That’s what attracts people. It’s his superhuman powers.

Now, let’s ask ourselves: why do we praise and honor and adore Jesus and believe in him as our only Savior? Is it because he walked on water? Is it because he gave sight to the blind and made the deaf to hear? Is it because he raised a few people from the dead? These things certainly don’t hurt, but the real reason we believe in Jesus is because he was our Suffering Servant.

And today, on this day of Palm Sunday, we honor him as our humble King who once marched into Jerusalem on a donkey. And to many people this sight is nothing more than a joke. But to us who believe in him as our Super God-man, this scene is the fulfillment of OT prophecy. Hundreds of years before Jesus did this, God spoke through the prophet Zechariah and said it was going to happen: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech 9:9).

And so, we follow Jesus with believing hearts as he now goes from this Sunday of being praised and honored, to Friday when he is punished and persecuted. We follow him from the Garden of Gethsemane where he is arrested to the courtroom of Pontius Pilate where he is condemned to death. And we see, yes we see our sins being placed upon his sinless soul; we see our iniquities causing his injuries; we see that it is our crimes against God that are crucifying him instead of us. We see him dying our death to hell, being punished for our sins. He is our Suffering Servant, our real life Super God-man, who humbles himself and becomes obedient to death as the only way possible to free us from sin, death, hell and the devil.

Yet, it is because of this – because he was our Suffering Servant, because he lived and died for us – that we now read of Jesus: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (v.9-11). Yes, Jesus Wears the Real “S.” He is our Superior Savior.

As the people in the pretend stories of Superman face dangers and troubles, they call out to their hero for help: “Help us, Superman! Help!” And in a flash the strong and mighty man of steel is there to rescue them. He defeats the enemies of evil and sees to it that good prevails. And then, everyone thanks and honors him for what he has done.

But getting back to the realm of reality, our Superior Savior, Jesus, is not a dead body in a grave. Jesus is not a made up story. Yes, Jesus really died on that cross. But … but he rose from the dead. He is the risen Lord. He is the real-life Super God-man who defeated evil so that the goodness and grace of God might prevail in our lives. There is no one greater than him. He is our Savior, our Lord, our God. He has “the name that is above every name.”

Lex Luther, the evil man in the Superman story, he knew that in Superman he had met his match. He should have surrendered and given up. But he didn’t. Instead, he kept trying to find a way to defeat Superman so that he could rule the world. But try as he might, it didn’t work.

In this Word of God the apostle Paul uses the word “should.” “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Just look at this world in which we live. People are so caught up in their sinful lives that they try and they keep on trying to overthrow Jesus. They refuse to have him as their Savior. They will not bow before him and confess him as their Lord. They think they don’t need Jesus. They’d rather live in sin than live in the love of God. And we must admit that we are guilty of doing the same. We put ourselves ahead of him. What God wants is ignored, because we’re more concerning about what we want.

But before Jesus every knee WILL bow and every tongue WILL confess that he is Lord. Believers in Jesus confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior now. Unbelievers don’t. But on Judgment Day they will have to. And it will be kind of like this. Jesus will appear in glory and the unbelievers will see Jesus. “It’s a bird. It’s a plane. OH NO! OH NO, it’s Jesus.” And they will have to admit that he is the Superior Savior that they rejected. And they will be condemned to hell.

When our Superior Savior comes in his glory, for those who believe in Jesus it will be kind of like this: “It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Jesus, our Superior Savior who has come to free us forevermore from all sin and death, from all evil, and take us to himself in heaven! To him be the glory!”

Yes, Jesus wears the real “S.” Remember what this “S” stands for as we now go through this Holy Week, pondering his sufferings and death for our sins, and then rejoicing in his glorious resurrection. He was our Suffering Servant. He is our Superior Savior. Amen.