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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed new Church Year! With the new Church Year come a number of changes to our gathering here together on Sunday mornings. We at Pilgrim now are using Lutheran Service Book. We now are following a different setting of the Divine Service. We are now offering the Sacrament of the Altar every Sunday. And, following the 3-year lectionary series, the Gospel Readings are now primarily drawn from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. Those are some significant changes, but, of course, other more important things have stayed the same. Chief among the things that have stayed the same, through God’s Word and Sacraments, God continues to call sinners to repentance and freely to give those who repent the forgiveness of sins for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The centrality of Jesus’s death and resurrection for us is evident on this first Sunday of the new Church Year, the First Sunday in Advent, as it has been for hundreds of years. Each year, the First Sunday in Advent’s appointed Gospel Reading—whether from the account of St. Matthew, St. Mark, or St. Luke—tells of Jesus’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Rather than being an odd place to start the year and its season of Advent from a chronological perspective, the Reading of Jesus’s fulfilling prophecy of God’s Messianic King’s coming to Jerusalem then assures us that, as prophesied, He both continues to come to us now and will come a final time. In short, as in this sermon’s title, “Your King is coming to you”.
I mentioned that in this new Church Year our Gospel Readings are now primarily drawn from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. You may know that Matthew, sometimes called “Levi”, a former tax collector, was one of Jesus’s Twelve disciples turned apostles. His divinely‑inspired Gospel account may well have been the first of the four accounts recorded, perhaps in the 50s, in the Holy Land itself or in Syrian Antioch. He seems to have intended the account primarily for people with a Jewish background, though he by no means limits salvation to the Jews. More than the other accounts, his account notably points out how Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecy, as we heard in today’s Reading, for example. The account largely consists of five discourses of Jesus, as a group both preceded by an introduction, including the events of His birth, and followed by the events of His death and resurrection. Each discourse is itself introduced by a recital of deeds that both prepare for the discourse and are interpreted by the discourse. Today’s Gospel Reading, for example, comes between the fourth and fifth discourses.
“Your King is coming to you” is a fair summary of the “meat” of the Gospel Reading. Prophets said the King would come; the King came; and people received the King’s coming. In a sense, the rest is “gravy”. Although, St. Matthew’s three mentions of the donkey and her colt might make them the Reading’s “potatoes”, and also important (as “seasoning” or “vegetables”?) is our recognizing parallels to the comings of other kings in the Old Testament, for example connections to donkeys as with Saul (1 Samuel 10:1-9) and Solomon (1 Kings 1:32-40), and the honor and submission of spreading cloaks on the road as with Jehu (2 Kings 9:13). Prophets said the King would come; the King came; and people received the King’s coming—or, at least some of them did.
The crowd surrounding Jesus in the procession seems to have received Him as their King, but, when He entered Jerusalem, His reception there was mixed at best. One Bible scholar says Jerusalem was not ready to receive this entry of the long‑promised King. The English Standard Version read said the city was “stirred up”, and the Greek word St. Matthew uses is the origin of our English word “seismic”—the city was shaken, as if by an earthquake, incited, as it were, to a riot. With Jesus’s publicly claiming to be the Messianic King and the crowd’s receiving Him as such, the entry challenged Jerusalem then to decide Who this Jesus is.
In our time, many think they on their own are able to decide to Who Jesus is, to decide to follow Him, as it were, to come to Him. Lutheran Christians know better; they know they cannot by their own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. And, today’s Gospel Reading clearly indicates that reality. The prophet Zechariah was told, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you’”. The daughter of Zion, Jerusalem, the New Testament Church, and even people in general, on their own do not recognize the King without the Word’s first identifying Him for them, telling them how to recognize Him. Your King is coming to you; you do not come to Him. He seeks you; you do not seek Him. Those who declare Him and their declaration come from Him, not from you. Your faith comes from Him, not from you. Everything that works faith within you comes from outside of you, and apart from Him you are left in your sin, rightly sentenced to death, followed by eternal torment in hell. Even with Him, we still need to hear St. Paul’s call in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 13:11-14) for us to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; to walk properly, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy; to make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. In some ways, even with Jesus now, we are no more prepared for His coming to us today in His Word and Sacraments or on the Last Day, than the people of Jerusalem were prepared for His coming in triumph to them then.
The season of Advent, originally a period of preparation for those who would be baptized on Epiphany, is for us a season of penitential preparation for the commemoration of our Lord’s coming in the flesh, His coming to us now in Word and Sacrament, and His coming on the Last Day (or the day of our deaths, whichever comes first). Yet, even outside the penitential season of Advent (or Lent), God calls us daily to turn in sorrow from our sin and to believe He forgives our sin. When we so repent, then He forgives our sin, whatever our sin might be. He forgives it all, for Jesus’s sake.
Jesus came humbly—He was made man, was crucified, suffered, and was buried—for us and for our salvation. Yes, the Gospel Reading tells us how as a King the God‑man Jesus “ruled” with all‑knowing “commands” to His “generals” to acquire transportation for Him, but He entered Jerusalem humbly, mounted on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of an ordinary beast of burden. He did not ride in as a victor on a majestic steed. He was not a political revolutionary as charged, sentenced, and executed by the Romans. Out of His love for you and for me, He was a King Who humbly went to His death, even death on a cross, to save us from our sins. And, with His resurrection from the dead, Jesus fulfilled everything expected of the Coming One, the Messiah. The Gospel Reading tells how most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, honoring Him by placing something representing themselves under His feet. Like the crowds who received Him that day, we in faith receive Him, Who first comes to us, and, by His enabling, we submit ourselves to Him. Other “kings” expect their subjects to come to them and to give them taxes and such, this King comes to you and to me and forgives us.
This King comes to you and to me and forgives us through His Word and Sacraments. The prophecy of the King coming to you was God speaking then by the prophet Zechariah, and God continues to speak in His preached Word today. Your King is coming to you in the Triune Name of the Lord in the water of Holy Baptism. Your King is coming to you in the words of individual absolution that a pastor speaks with Christ’s authority. Your King is coming to you in bread and wine that is His body and blood, given and shed for you and for me for the forgiveness of sins and therefore also for life and salvation. Your King is coming to you in all these ways—preaching, Baptism, Absolution, Communion—and all who in faith receive Him thereby rejoice. A few verses after today’s Gospel Reading, St. Matthew tells how in the Temple Courts even children, model disciples, continued to sing “Hosanna to the Son of David”, calling out for salvation and fulfilling the prophecy that infants and nursing babies can believe in and so praise God (Matthew 21:15-16). More curious is Jesus’s statement a few chapters later when He refers to people of Jerusalem not seeing Him again until singing the song “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord” that had already been sung on Palm Sunday (Matthew 23:39). Very early on, the Christian Church used that Palm Sunday song in its liturgy, as we do this day, and some of the people of Jerusalem may well have seen then Jesus with the eyes of faith in the Supper, as we do this day. For, from the Christian Church goes forth the peace-giving Word of the Lord, as Isaiah describes in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 2:1-5), until it is fulfilled in eternity.
So, despite all the changes we experience on this first Sunday of the new Church Year, the First Sunday in Advent, let us live today and every day with the season’s repentance and faith in the King Who came, is coming to us now, and will come a final time on the Last Day. As surely as He came, so He comes and will come again. By God’s grace, let us prepare.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +