Walking in the Way of Our Humble King

The Reverend Canon Andrew Nolte / March 27, 2026

The Collect for the Sixth Sunday in Lent - Palm Sunday

"Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the Cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Palm Sunday is the great paradoxical pivot of holy week. In lent's most intense liturgical whiplash, we travel from Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem directly to His passion and death upon the cross. The collect for this Sunday encapsulates this reality. The triumphal entry represents the king the world expects, with pomp, majesty and glory. But Christ's glory is in His humility; His battle standard is the cross on which He wins victory over sin, death and the devil; and His crown is the crown of thorns meant for mockery, yet symbolizing His suffering.

In the collect, we see the fullness of Jesus' kingship made manifest. God the Father sends His son out of tender love for us. Through Adam's fall, sin enters the world, and humanity degenerates. Yet Christ is, and always was, the answer. The collect tells us that Jesus does three things: takes on our nature; suffers death on the cross; and gives us the example of  His humility. Certainly, most Christians understand the incarnation and crucifixion as pivot-points of history. In the incarnation, Jesus reunites God and man. His humanity is unabridged, partaking in the fullness of human nature, absent sin. At the cross, He suffers a death fit for slaves and criminals, and in so doing, conquers sin, death and the devil.

What, then, do we make of the "gift" of the example of His great humility"? At first glance, this is a jarring phrase. Yet, the collect is for Palm Sunday, pertaining to Christ's kingship, and humility is central to that aspect of who He is. Humility is contrary to the kingship of the world. It is even contrary to the warnings about kingship found in First Samuel. As the prophet warned them, the king would take the best of everything they had: their sons and daughters; male and female servants; flocks, herds and lands, all to his own purposes (1 Samuel 8:13-19, ESV). King Solomon's reign was many things: glorious, wealthy beyond compare, ultimately idolatrous, but never humble.

Yet, there is another form of kingship found in the Bible. In outlining the ideal king Israel might have if they chose, Moses says:

"You may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, `You shall never return that way again." And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. "And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel." (Deuteronomy 17:15-20, ESV).

Jesus is the archetype of Deuteronomy’s humble king, one who is limited by the law and not lifted up above his brothers. "Though he was in the form of God," Jesus "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped", as Paul reminds us (Philippians 2:6, ESV). Jesus is only lifted up above us twice: when He was lifted up on the cross to destroy death, and at His ascension when He opened to us the way of everlasting life. Jesus' humility is at the heart of His kingship, won not through earthly glory or political machinations, but through His fulfillment of the law, and His death for our sins.

If, then, our king is humble, so also we should walk in humility. The collect reminds us that we ought to "walk in the way of His suffering", and hope to obtain His resurrection. Through belief in the thing hoped for, we obtain to the resurrection He won for us. Yet, we are not greater than our king. As He suffered, so we also will suffer. We are called to sacrifice our time, talent and treasure, and to be ready and willing even to give up our lives for those Jesus came to save. The suffering of every Christian will look different depending on the context in which we find ourselves. Yet we cannot escape the inevitable reality  that we will suffer for Jesus. The collect of Palm Sunday, then, serves as a reminder of both the great blessings and high costs that come with following our king.