Advent 1

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

    Advent is the season where we focus on Christ Jesus' first coming – where we prepare for Christmas and the celebrations of God becoming Man to save us – who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And we begin Advent by looking at Palm Sunday, at the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. It's a popular event in Jesus' life – it's easy to find paintings and pictures, in a few month's we will have palms and processions, and we like the praise, the triumph. Pastors and hymn writers love pointing out Christ's humility – in lowly pomp ride on to die. But for today, with this sermon, we will focus on what St. Paul sets up in the epistle today: Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. When you see Jesus come down from heaven, when you see Jesus in any Gospel lesson, indeed, when you see Him ride into Jerusalem, what you are actually seeing is Jesus fulfilling the law by loving His neighbor, Jesus loving you.

    Before we consider Jesus' love, how He fulfills the law for you, we need to discuss what the Scriptures mean by “love”. To love in the Scriptures doesn't mean to have a strong emotional attachment to something, nor is it describing how you feel about someone. To love someone is to serve them, to act for their benefit. To give of yourself so that they benefit. To decide how to act with the impact upon them in mind. And that is what Christ Jesus does – constantly and continually – He shows love. He acts for His neighbor's benefit, for their good; He acts for you, for your good. This whole season of Advent, of Christmas – it only happens for your good, for your benefit. Jesus didn't need to become man for His own good; it wasn't as though He was there in heaven and said, “You know what – I think I'd really like to be an infant and soil some diapers, won't that be fun?” In Philippians Paul notes that Jesus, “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Or in other words, Jesus gave up power and glory and instead came to serve and suffer for your good. That is what love looks like.

    And I will assert that everything Jesus does, everything you see Him doing in the Gospel is in fact love for His neighbor and fulfilling the law. “Oh really, Pastor – even calling people morons last week?” Yep. If I'm getting ready to do something that is grade A stupid and my wife pulls me aside and says, “Dear, please, don't be an idiot” it's one of the most loving things she can do. I mean, is it loving to just let someone plow on into something dangerous and harmful without saying something? No. So my friends, every thing you see Jesus do, any Gospel lesson we will come across this church year, is replete with Jesus showing love – but not love as we tend to think of it. Love as God defines love , love that fulfills the law and serves the neighbor.

    So ponder Jesus there on that Donkey as He rides into Jerusalem – what do you see? What is actually going on? Well, one of the things Matthew points out is that what you see is the fulfilling of Scripture. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” Or we could even consider what our Old Testament Lesson said – 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. Throughout the Old Testament, God had in His Word given us images and pictures of what the Messiah would do, things He would do – that way we would recognize Him. Because when God comes to save, when God comes to rescue and redeem you – it doesn't exactly go according to worldly, sinful expectations. We would think of a savior or a hero being bold and brash – not humble. We think of the hero killing the bad guy – not going to the Cross and His own death. And so the Old Testament continually gave us things to look for – don't look for some studly hero on a nice Arabian charger sweeping in like Lawrence of Arabia – He's going to be humble, coming on a donkey. He's not going to be focused on glory, but seeing justice and righteousness executed.

    Because this really drives the point home of what Jesus is doing. Jesus is never self-serving. Jesus is never blowing His own horn. He doesn't need a hype man or a PR agent setting up press conferences to increase His polling numbers. Jesus' focus is on loving, on fulfilling the law for you – and not just “for you” in the sense of “for your benefit” but rather “for you” in the sense of in your place. You see, God had created man to be righteous, to tend the garden, to love one another. And we fail, we have fallen, we sin. There is a drastic lack of righteousness and justice in the world. And the lousy, dire consequences of this spill out now before us – but there are also eternal consequences to this. If left to our own devices this sin would mean eternal separation from God and ever increasing suffering with selfishness and blame spiraling ever more and more grotesque. Jesus comes to execute justice and righteousness – to actually, actively love His neighbor. And thus, finally, once again the Father can look at a man, look at a human being – God become Man Jesus – and say that He is well pleased. And we will get many examples of Jesus actively loving, actively caring for people over the course of this year.

    But there is another side to fulfilling righteousness, of executing justice. And that's punishment. There's always two ways a law can play out – you can obey the speed limit and just drive along happily, or the cop can pull you over, give you a ticket, and you pay the fine. Both of these paths fulfill the law – the later one is just more dangerous and expensive. Jesus actively obeys the Law, does what is right, actively loves His neighbor. However, there is still the question of what is to be done with those who have broken the law. And it's not set up to be good. The wages of sin is death. There are consequences to be had. Humanity is broken, and someone's got to buy it. And this is what we see Christ preparing to do in this text. We see Jesus entering Jerusalem not for fun, not for merriment, not even with the joy that these crowds are showing forth. Jesus comes to fulfill the punishment of the law in your place. The sinner must die – and so Jesus comes to take up your sin and die upon the Cross. That's why He's entering Jerusalem – but that's been the plan from the beginning – behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world... and He takes it away by dying. The Lamb gets sacrificed – again, taught all throughout the Old Testament. And this is what Jesus comes to do. The wood of the manger must lead to the wood of the cross. The Christmas tree with it's lights leads to the tree on Calvary where Christ, the Light of the world, hangs.

    And Palm Sunday, this triumphal entry, it captures all of this – the joy, the fulfillment of prophecy, but also the humility, the expectation of the Cross. And it's all for you, to see that you are saved, to see that you are rescued and redeemed from sin. And it's why we will echo the song of Palm Sunday in just a few moments in the Sanctus – Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the LORD – Sing hosanna in the highest, sing Hosanna to the Lord; truly blest is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Christ comes to you to save you, even this day. He comes in His Word, He comes bodily in His Supper – indeed, every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper it is a celebration of Christmas – Christ Mass, that's where it gets its name. Christ became man, took on a body, to die and rise and give you life – and in this Supper He gives you His Body and blood to give you forgiveness, salvation, and life once again. And we sing His praises and He enters this place in His Supper – do you see the parallels?

    But its good to be us, to be people of the New Testament, post-Easter people. Because we also see clearly the resurrection of Jesus, that His Suffering is completed and yields to victory, to joy, to celebration. It's good to be the baptized, to be those washed in water and the word, to be those baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – which is how we start our service, how we come here – oh yes, truly blest are you, you baptized people, for you come here in the Name of the Lord, quite literally. Even the children who aren't yet prepared and trained for right reception of the Supper get a blessing at the rail – a remembrance and declaration of their baptismal gifts – we start the service with that blessing, and you all get one at the end in the benediction because as you go out this week you go as those truly blest in the name of the Lord.

    Behold the wondrous reality. God loves you. And though your own love will fall short and fail because of sin, God shows love for you. Christ Jesus comes down, and He fulfills all love, fulfills all the law, and He does this for you, taking away sin and death, and giving you forgiveness and life and strength. And this is what He always does – because He came down from heaven to win you salvation by going to Jerusalem and dying and rising for you. And this He has done, it is finished. In the Name of Christ Jesus our Advent King +