Advent 1 – November 30th,
2014 – Matthew 21:1-9
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
Who is God? Who is
He? What does He do? While that seems like a broad and wide
question, it is basically what Jeremiah was asking the Kingdom of Judah
in our Old Testament text. See, Judah
was in a bind. It was right around 588
or so B.C., and the Babylonian kingdom up north was rattling its sabers and had
already invaded Judah
a few times, had already taken Daniel off to captivity. And Judah
didn’t know what to do – but the prevailing wisdom was that Judah should buddy buddy up with Egypt and trust in Egypt to protect them.
If Jeremiah had asked a Jew of his day who God was, the
expected answer should have been this: “He is the LORD our God who brought us
up out of the land
of Egypt.” That’s really how the 10 Commandments start –
that’s the point of Passover – the LORD is the God who got us out of slavery in
Egypt. And now what – with fear and worries about Babylon, you forget the LORD your God, you continue in
idolatry, in fact, you want to run back to Egypt, back to the people who
enslaved you. And so Jeremiah
preaches. Says that Babylon will win, and they do. But in our text he also says the day is
coming when they will call God “The LORD who brought us up and led the
offspring of Israel
out of the north country and out of all the countries where He had driven them.” 586, Judah is conquered. 538, King Cyrus sends them back home. Jeremiah was right.
But Jeremiah points forward to a greater truth, a greater
prophecy. “Behold, the days are coming,
declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He
shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and
righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will
dwell securely. And this is the name by
which He will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’” No, Egypt won’t be the solution. A stronger military or just paying tribute
won’t be the solution. Nor will the
troubles of this day endure; Babylon
won’t vex us forever. Instead, here is
the truth – the Messiah will come, and He Himself will fix the problems. He will be the Righteous One for us, and His
day is what we should be looking for, more than just any military victory now.
And then we come to our Gospel Text. The triumphal entry. Palm Sunday.
And once again we can look at this in terms of a “who is” question. Okay, Israel, who is your King? What does your King look like, what does He
do? Jeremiah had prophesized a righteous
Branch for David – that is, someone Righteous from the line of David who would
be King, and there hadn’t been a king since Babylon conquered them – and then here comes
Jesus. And Jesus enters Jerusalem riding a donkey,
just like King Solomon had when he was enthroned. And everyone gets the symbolism; this is why
they cry out “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
Son of David! The Guy who should
be King! The fervor and the excitement
are astonishing – so high that come Palm Sunday in a few months, we’ll get in
on it [at Zion]
with little kids waving palms. But
again, there was a problem. Who did they
really think this King was, and what did they really think He was going to
do? Immediately after our text, we hear
this: “And when He entered Jerusalem,
the whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘Who is this?’ And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet
Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.’” Wait… just a prophet? Just a guy from Galilee? Why don’t they call Him the King? That’s because for the people, He wasn’t really
viewed as their King – why in a few days on Friday morning they will cry out
that they have no king but Caesar. He ended
up not being what they wanted. Now,
Matthew even connects the dots for us – Jesus is fulfilling Zechariah’s
prophecy about the donkey – but that’s not enough for the people. And a lot of this was based on their
expectations. Sure, a king was wanted,
but you don’t call him the king until he’s driven out the Romans! Once he’s made the nation glorious again,
then we can give the fellow the throne – you only get the throne after you’ve
beaten the bad guys! That’s the way it
still is in stories and movies today.
But here’s the problem. That
wasn’t what was promised to them. They
were promised a king who would be wise, who would execute justice and
righteousness. That wasn’t what they wanted. Power was they wanted. Earthly glory was they wanted. Revenge against the Romans was they wanted. And Jesus doesn’t do that. That’s not wisdom. That’s not justice, that’s not righteousness. Jesus is more interested in driving out the
money changers in the temple and reforming worship than He is in driving out
the Romans and reforming an Empire. And
by the end of the week, Pilate orders his death to prevent a riot. Think on that. It’s not that there would be a riot because
they are *killing* our king and we will rise up to rescue him. No, the riot would come if you don’t do Him
in.
So. What of us
today? Let’s ask ourselves the same
questions. Who is God? Who is our King? What does He do? What are the expectations, what do we look
for from God? If I turn on the religious
tv channels, I get horrified. If I look
on-line at facebook, I get horrified.
I’ll see tons of stuff about God giving money and wealth and success and
power and making your dreams come true if you just trust in Him. Is that what we want from our God? We are in the Advent season, where we focus
on the fact that Jesus came down from heaven.
Is that what we think He came to do?
In Advent we focus also on the second coming of Christ. What do we want? Do we want a Jesus that is going to reform
American society and make us a better land where we’ll get rid of crime if only
we obey Him? Is Jesus the guy who brings
the better rules that will make sure your family keeps its nose clean? And, of course, if you don’t send in money,
if you don’t click “like” Jesus will be mad at you and punish you.
What does your God look like? Does He look like a Man coming humbly, seated
on a donkey? Does He look like a Man who
is beaten and whipped and scourged? Does
He look like a man hanged upon a cross and left to die? Because this is what Jesus comes to do. Jesus is the LORD, our Righteousness. And He is our righteousness by going to the cross
and suffering and dying, by being buried, by rising again. This is the point, the point of contention,
the reason why so many people forsake Christ Jesus even to this day. Jesus deals with what we need, not what we
want. Jesus isn’t Santa Claus; we don’t
get to just tell Jesus what we want and know that if we are good little boys
and girls that we’ll get it. Because the
simple fact is this – a lot of times what we want is foolish. What we think is important isn’t. Judah
wanting Egypt to deliver
them was foolish – that would be even worse than Babylon
in the long run – at least Babylon
respected the Jewish culture. Wanting to
take down the Roman Empire was foolish – if you aren’t certain of that, when
Rome falls, we call what comes next “the Dark Ages” – it’s the fall of Rome
that allows Islam to conquer and destroy Christianity in the middle east and in
Egypt and in Babylon. And that’s just
immediate problems – that’s just current events turning to history. Where was the thought given to sin – where
was the thought given to the fact that I am a sinful human being and I am going
to die in my sin unless God intervenes and saves me? Meh, they didn’t think that was
important. Who wants a spiritual
solution – we want a better war machine, we want “justice” that looks like our
enemies crushed and bleeding and destroyed.
That’s not what Jesus comes to do. Oh, He could have come with legions of angels
brandishing flaming swords – in fact, He will come that way on the last
day. But first, He had a job to do. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the
LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as
King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the
land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be
called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’” His job is to be your righteousness. His job is to win you life and salvation and
the forgiveness of your sins. His job is
to execute justice, by taking up upon Himself all the weight and wrath of sin
and crucifying upon the Cross. His job
is to fulfill all righteousness, to live the perfect holy life, and then to
cover you with that righteousness in Holy Baptism so that He may say to the
Father, “See these, My brothers and sisters, they are righteous and holy and
without blemish in My name.” His job is
to see that you dwell securely, not just for a day, not just for a season, not
just until the next election, but for eternity.
This is His wisdom. And He still
comes to you, brings this righteousness, this forgiveness and salvation here in
this place, preached, proclaimed to you, comes to you humbly riding in, with,
and under bread and wine, for the forgiveness of your sins and the
strengthening of your faith.
So, who is this Jesus, our God? He is the One who pays no attention to human
expectations. Rather, He comes to
fulfill the Scriptures, to fulfill the Word of God that has proclaimed your
redemption and your salvation. And in
His great wisdom, He does whatever must be done to accomplish this – even if it
means coming down from heaven, and being incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and born
in a manager, and suffering and dying.
He is determined to be wise for your sake; He is determined to execute
justice for you, to be the LORD our Righteousness. And so He is.
This we have heard in the Word, this we have received in Baptism and the
Supper, and this we shall see face to face when He comes again. Amen.
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
No comments:
Post a Comment