Advent 1
Dear friends in Christ. Today we begin a brand new Church Year with the First Sunday in Advent. The fact that we are entering a brand new Church Year today is not because of some command of God. Instead, it rests upon an old Church custom—but one that makes so much sense that we joyfully observe it today.
It’s a good thing that in the Church we celebrate the beginning of the new Church Year over a month earlier than we do the secular New Year. This lovely fact reminds us that, unlike the people of the world, we Christians ought not set our thoughts on secular news, new plans, new hopes, etc. but rather that we should above all things seek a new heart, to get a new, firm spirit, to become new creatures. In short, that like Jesus [Mt. 6.33] tells us in His Sermon on the Mount: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
We Christians are citizens of two different kingdoms—the kingdom of the world and the heavenly kingdom; we are citizens of both Church and state. So, yes, we look at our lives in both secular and Church Years. Today, as we begin the Church Year well over a month before the calendar year, this serves us as a reminder that we should always consider the heavenly vastly more important than the earthly. As citizens of the kingdom of heaven, the Church, we have gathered together today to enter the new Church Year. Just like the Palm Sunday crowds of today’s Gospel gathered to welcome Jesus, coming into Jerusalem as King so today we gather to welcome Jesus coming to us in this new Church Year in word and sacrament.
As we examine today’s Gospel we will see just what sort of King Jesus is who comes to us once again this new Church Year. And we will see what sort of subjects His dear Christians are who welcome Him.
1. St. Matthew records the prophecy: Tell the daughter of Zion: Look, your King comes to you. Notice that Jesus comes already as king. The king is coming. It’s not thatthe Palm Sunday crowd made Jesus a king, it's not that we make Him/ appoint Him King. Instead, He comes as King to us. In fact, St. Matthew points us to this fact already at the beginning of his Gospel when he tells us of the Wise Men coming to worship the Baby Jesus. When they came to Jerusalem what did they ask? [Mt. 2.2] Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? When Jesus was born He was already King. Normally one is not born a king; usually one is born as a prince and then only later becomes king. But Jesus is born already as King; He comes into the world as King. And why? He is the almighty God, the Son, the Second Person of the holy Trinity. This is God, the almighty King of heaven and earth, entering Jerusalem that day.
Why does the King come? Is it in wrath? Is it to punish? No! This is a day of mercy. This is a day of joy! The people who were longing for God, the Savior/ God the Messiah to come—the OT faithful—heard the announcement: Look, your King comes to you. And God wants that announcement to be heard: Tell the daughter of Zion; tell the faithful, those waiting expectantly that their King has come—and far from coming in wrath and judgment, the King comes in mercy to bring about and to give gifts of greatest mercy: the forgiveness of sin, peace with God and heaven.
Tell the daughter of Zion: Look, your King comes to you. This prophecy is a prophecy of Palm Sunday, but it also has meaning for us today. That’s because Jesus, our King, still comes to us. That day He rode the lowly donkey colt; today He comes to us “riding” the simple bread and wine of Holy Communion; He comes to us “riding” His holy word. He comes to us and also for us, for our spiritual good, in mercy, giving us, too, these gifts of mercy that He, the King, won for us by His holy life and His suffering and death.
Precisely when Jesus was coming already as King into Jerusalem, we see He was not coming as an earthly king. Yes, He came humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. But that was the tip of the iceberg. In the OT we have examples of earthly kings riding donkeys so it’s not too extraordinary that Jesus rides a donkey colt. But that He did so and did not come on some noble steed or a mighty chariot gives us a taste, glimpse, a picture of His humility and His work. It shows us Jesus did not come as an earthly king to set up an earthly kingdom. What was Jesus’ crown? Was it a simple crown of gold? Was it much more ornate and perhaps jewel encrusted? No! It was a crown of thorns. What was His throne? Was it a mighty imposing thing, intricately carved made from precious woods and metals? No! It was a cross. Jesus’ enthronement was when He was raised up on the cross. And precisely by Him pouring out His blood, Jesus established His kingdom. Jesus told the crowds [Jn 12. 32,33]: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” This [noted St. John] He said signifying by what death He would die.
Like Jesus clearly told Pilate [Jn 18.35]: My kingdom is not of this world. Jesus set up His kingdom, the Church, by coming to this world, humble and lowly, and suffering and dying. That’s not an earthly king; but His is not an earthly kingdom. His is a heavenly and spiritual kingdom and He is calling us into it. Again, Jesus didn’t just come 2000 years ago and that’s that. Instead, yes He came humble and lowly, to suffer and die, and set up His kingdom and now still comes to us in His holy word and sacrament to call us into His kingdom, the Church, and to give us the gifts and blessings He won and earned for us. That’s what He’s doing for us now in this new Church Year. Just as He has in the past Church Years, so He will again come in grace to us in the new Church Year and pour out on us His graces and blessings. What a glorious year awaits us here around His word and altar.
Tell the daughter of Zion: Look, your King comes to you, humble… Here we see the great love and humility of our King, Christ Jesus. He came humbly that first Palm Sunday into Jerusalem where five days later He would suffer and die for the sins of the world. Jesus is humble. He is humble by His own choice/ by His own will. After all, He is the almighty God of heaven and earth and yet He comes into Jerusalem loaded down with the sins of the world; He is the almighty God of heaven and earth and yet in a matter of days He would suffer and die, as the world’s sinner, for all the sins of all the people ever to live on earth.
But it wasn’t just then on Palm Sunday or Holy Week that Jesus was humble. He came that day humble—Tell the daughter of Zion: Look, your King comes to you, humble—and He already came into this world humble, just like we sing of Jesus in the Te Deum: Thou didst humble Thyself to be born of a virgin. Jesus humbled Himself all throughout His earthly life. This means that as true man, Jesus did not always or fully use all His divine power, majesty and glory. He did that for us and our salvation—He humbled Himself so He could be tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin [Hb. 4.15], so that He could suffer and die for our sins.
Now Jesus continues to come to us, humble in His holy word and sacrament. He doesn’t come in all His glory and might but tenderly invites us to come into His kingdom as He promises us His grace and every blessing. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls [Mt. 11.28-29]. And yes, He can be and is, sadly, rejected. But let it not be said of us that we rejected and spurned His gracious coming to us in the Church Year that is before us. Instead, let us rejoice that He is humble and in grace comes to us. Let us, from our hearts, in this new Church Year welcome Jesus as He again comes to us humble.
2. Then, as we welcome our King coming humbly to us in word and sacrament, we show ourselves subjects of this King who sets up a spiritual and heavenly kingdom that’s not of this world. May our greatest joy this Church Year be the proclamation: your King comes to you! As we rejoice in this proclamation and receive it in faith, we show ourselves to be the subjects of this humble King, Christ Jesus. A very large crowd spread their outer clothing on the road. Others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them out on the road. The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed kept shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
What did this crowd do? It recognized in this lowly, humble Jesus, riding a donkey that there was their King, that there was the long awaited/ promised Messiah. They recognized Him and proclaimed Him their King. In other words, they had faith in Him. How did they come to faith in Him? How did they recognize that this lowly, humble Jesus is the long awaited Savior? From the word of prophecy to make it clear He was the one it was talking about: This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: Tell the daughter of Zion: Look, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Certainly by looking at Jesus, humble, riding on a donkey there was no indication He is the true God and Savior of the world. But from the prophecy—from the word—they recognized Him. Of course Jesus went out of His way to fulfill this OT prophecy: This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet. So to put it differently, Scripture reveals Who Jesus really is; it reveals His hidden glory. What we cannot know by our own reason or ability, the Holy Spirit reveals to us in the word.
He revealed it to the crowd via the prophecy and in Holy Scripture He still reveals to us Who Jesus is—the true God and our Savior. That’s why for this new Church Year we need to make it our goal to be faithfully in Church around our Lord’s word and Sacrament and to daily read, ponder, study our bibles and solid devotional works. Then we, too, will join the crowds in recognizing and welcoming Jesus as He comes.
But it doesn’t stop there. If Jesus is who He says He is, if the Scriptures that proclaim Him and His hidden glory are true, that demands a response from us. Look at the crowd’s response that first Palm Sunday: A very large crowd spread their outer clothing on the road. Others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them out on the road. The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed kept shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! By the work of the Holy Spirit, the crowd was convinced by the prophecy and Jesus literally fulfilling that prophecy before their very eyes. This was an act of royal homage—they were declaring their submission to Jesus as their king. And in grace Jesus received from the crowd that act of homage. He didn’t have to. He could have said it wasn’t enough or good enough—after all that was probably a rag tag bunch, certainly not made up of the high and powerful religious leaders.
Since we, dear Christian, know in the certainty of Spirit worked faith that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world, how do we declare our submission/ homage to Him? We have a nice tie in with our text: a very large crowd spread their outer clothing on the road, and from today’s epistle from St. Paul: Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give any thought to satisfying the desires of your sinful flesh. We lay down our clothes, that is, we put off our life of sin and strive by the power of the Holy Spirit to fight against sin and to live a life of faith and good works, a life grounded and rooted in our baptism where we were clothed with Christ. We live a life of confessing our faith—both by our deeds and our words. And certain of His promise, we follow after Christ as He leads us finally into the heavenly Jerusalem with all believers as we join the whole company of heaven eternally in that song of praise: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! INJ Amen