Advent
1 – December 2nd and 3rd, 2017 – Matthew
21:1-9
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
Christ
Jesus, your Lord and Savior, is coming. And by this I do not simply
mean that our Christmastime preparations this Advent are now in full
swing; I do not simply mean that once a long, long time ago Jesus
came. While that is true, the season of Advent is bigger than just
that. Advent is the time when we meditate upon our Lord’s Coming –
we see how our Lord prepared people for His Birth, for His death and
resurrection – and from this we see how He prepares us for His
Second coming. In the Old Testament they waited for the Messiah to
be born, and even while we prepare to celebrate the Messiah’s
birth, His first coming, we await His second coming. And it is true,
Christ Jesus your Lord and Savior is coming.
Our
text for this morning is the triumphal entry, is Palm Sunday. There,
of course, is a wonderful example of our Lord coming – it is Christ
Jesus coming into Jerusalem in order to win us salvation with His
death and resurrection upon the Cross. However, there are two main
things that I would like to draw out of the text this day, one that
should be very familiar, and one that we don't always think about.
So let’s begin. Before Jesus enters the city, He takes two
disciples and says, “Go
into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a
donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs
them,’ and he will send them at once.”
Why all this? “This
took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘Say
to the daughter of Zion ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble
and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of
burden.’’”
This is of course a very familiar passage – when we see our Lord
enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He enters the city humbly. That’s
the first thing, that’s what we should all know – Christ Jesus
comes humbly. In fact, we are going to see humility modeled for us
all throughout the next two months. When He is born – humbly, in a
manger. And whom is His mother? Mary, a lowly, humble virgin. Who
proclaims His coming? John, a humble man. Jesus will humbly go into
the water to be Baptized. There is humility all over the place the
next two months. So why, why does Jesus come so humbly?
Jesus
comes humbly for one simple reason. If Jesus hadn’t come humbly,
hadn’t come in humility, none of the disciples, none of the sinful
people there could have withstood being in His presence. Consider
the Old Testament – after the fall can any sinful man bear to look
at God? Adam and Eve, they hide. Moses on the mountain – just a
flash of God’s backside. Elijah, can’t bear it. Or if they do
see God, they are like Isaiah, who only sees a vision of God and yet
cries out woe is me, I am going to die. Even the disciples, Peter,
James, and John, at the transfiguration, when the voice of the Father
echoes from the cloud, they all hit the dirt. Sinful man cannot be
in the unbridled presence of God – it’s too much for us. And so,
Christ Jesus comes humbly – He comes humbly to be with man, to come
down to our level, to live with us, to teach us, and ultimately, to
enter Jerusalem humbly, to ride on unto his own death and
resurrection for our sake. This is what your Lord does – out of
His love for you, He came humbly, so that He could accomplish your
Salvation by taking up your sin and destroying it with His death and
resurrection. He is always focused upon your Salvation.
But
there is something else, in addition to our Lord’s Humility, that I
would like to point out. We often can skim over the fact that Jesus
sends the disciples on to get the donkey and colt, that Jesus does
this to fulfill scriptures. We kind of want to get to the scenes
with the crowds and the palms – on Palm Sunday morning we’ll have
our kids waving palm branches, that’s the part we like. We aren’t
going to have them lead two donkeys around – and no, this is not me
trying to give you ideas, we are not going to have them lead two
donkeys around the Church. But think about this section – Jesus
sends the disciples, get the animals you find there, here’s what
you say to anyone who asks you what you are doing. And so, our Lord
fulfills Scripture. This lesson teaches us a simple truth that we
all know but can often forget or over look. Jesus knows what He is
doing. It’s not as though Jesus just randomly says, “Boy, my
feet are tired, go find me a donkey or something.” No – this is
no accident, Jesus does what He does in order to fulfill the
Scriptures, in order to make clear and plain that He comes to save
us, to win us salvation. This really is a great, wonderful comfort
for us. So often our lives are filled with doubt and insecurity –
so often we don’t know what is going on. In fact, isn’t this
really the source of much of our fear? When a loved one is having
surgery, and the procedure is taking a bit longer than you expected,
what’s the question in your mind? What’s going on? And not
knowing what is happening can terrify us. The simple fact is that
often we do not know what is going on, what is happening, and we
simply have to make our best guesses, make decisions and hope for the
best. Christ Jesus does know what is going on, and He always acts
for your good, even if you do not see it or understand it. Jesus
isn’t just groping in the dark blindly – He is the Lord God, and
He knows what He is doing. His riding into Jerusalem on a donkey
wasn’t an accident; it was intentional, to fulfill Scriptures, so
you would recognize that He is the promised Savior.
Now,
just as Christ Jesus came humbly and intentionally, knowing what He
was doing then, so too, Christ Jesus your Lord comes to you humbly
and intentionally today. So let’s consider these two ideas –
first, that Jesus comes to us quite humbly. We confess, we know, we
teach that God Himself is present here for us – that in the
preaching of His Word, Jesus is with us and gives us life, that in
His Supper Christ Jesus comes to be with us physically in a most
wondrous and mind-boggling way. Do you ever just think about that
for a bit? Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, all the folks of the Old
Testament, they would have given their eye teeth to be in the
presence of God like we are – they couldn’t before the
Crucifixion – that was all behind the curtain stuff. Once a year
one priest could enter the holy of holies – that was it. But for
us, what does our Lord say? Wherever two or three of you are
gathered in My name, wherever two or three of the Baptized worship
together, there I will be. I will be in the Word that is preached
and taught in your midst. I will be in the Supper whenever you
celebrate it. He comes to us in such humble, simple, common ways.
We aren’t required to go on pilgrimages to see God, we don’t have
to jump through hoops, lay down lavish amounts of money. Nope, God
comes to us through simple means – whenever His Word is proclaimed,
wherever we can find simple bread and wine.
He set
this up this intentionally, you know. This plan, this idea of
gathering you, gathering His baptized brothers and sisters together
around the preaching of the Word and around His Supper, this wasn’t
an accident. This isn’t just something we here thought up; it is
what He gave to us. And why? Because He knows you and loves you.
Jesus knows your life, He knows what struggles you face, what sins
tempt you, what sins you’ve given into. You never have to play
pretend with Jesus, you never have to pretend that your life is
perfect with Him – He knows it's not. And nevertheless, He loves
you, so He gives you a place where He gathers you together with other
people who are struggling and slugging it out in this world, and
together you receive His forgiveness, His strength, His love. You
hear it preached to you, have it poured into you, over and over and
over again. Christ Jesus doesn’t want it to be hard for you to
receive forgiveness, hard for you to hear His love for you shouted
unto you again. And so, He Himself comes to His own house, and He
calls you here to be with Him, and this He shall do until the Last
Day.
And
then, on the Last day, we will see our Lord come. Now, what will
that day be? Well, when Jesus comes, it will be done intentionally.
The Last Day isn’t going to be an accident, it’s not as though
Jesus will be walking around in heaven, trip, start falling from the
sky and say, “Oh, um, yeah, um, I meant to do that, behold, I come
again.” No, when the time is right, when through His Word He has
called all our brothers and sisters to faith, when the time is right,
our Lord will come again. That is the plan, always has been and
always will be until that day. That’s in God's hands – let us
simply leave the when for that to Him. However, we should note a
contrast. When Christ Jesus comes again, when Your Lord returns, it
will not be “humbly”. It will not be on a donkey, but it will be
accompanied with all the hosts of heaven. It will not be hidden away
in a lowly manger, but it will be brilliant and obvious for all to
see. So why, why will Christ Jesus be able to come in glory, why
will He no longer need to come humbly? In the past and even now,
Christ Jesus comes humbly to us who are humbled, who are laid low by
our sin. On the Last Day, Christ Jesus comes in Glory to glorify
you, to perfect you. On the Last Day, when Christ Jesus comes in
Glory He will make you to be Glorious, He will give you your own
resurrection, and you will be like Him, without sin and righteous and
perfect. There won’t be any need for anything but glory and wonder
on that day.
We
aren’t there yet. God in His wisdom and in His love has held off
that day for our sake, for the sake of all those whom He loves. So,
in the meantime, until then, we are focused upon how our Lord once
came and indeed how He even comes to us today. He comes humbly, He
comes to be with us, to forgive us, to strengthen us so that we might
share in, that we might participate in all the benefits of His death
and resurrection now, even until the day we see them fully shine
forth. This Advent, our eyes are focused once again on the goodness
and love of our Lord God, who came for us, who comes unto us this day
in His Word and Sacraments, and who will come again. Thus our prayer
until that day is and will remain, Thy Kingdom Come. Come quickly,
Lord Jesus, Amen.
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