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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.
Thanksgiving evening I was pleased to be able to go with some members of my sister’s family to the University of Texas Longhorns football game against the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs, although, of course, I was not pleased with the outcome. When I lived in Austin I used to go to games regularly, and I had not been to a game since two Thanksgivings ago. This Thanksgiving game included senior day, the 98th birthday of the Bevos, and a farewell to U-T’s President Bill Powers—things that, along with the usual spirit and traditions, made the game all the more emotional. I was reflecting further on the game while studying today’s Gospel Reading for this sermon, as one of the commentators I consulted likened the shouts of the enthusiastic crowds in the Gospel Reading to “catch phrases” of such sporting events (Mann, ad loc Mk 11:1-11, 436). Of course, such sporting events are not limited to U‑T games but include those of Texas A-and-M, Baylor, Mississippi State, and countless others. Yet, instead of shouting in favor of one’s team and in disfavor of the opposing team, the crowds in today’s Gospel Reading are shouting about Him Who comes and about the coming Kingdom. So, I have taken as the theme for our reflection on the Gospel Reading this morning “Shouting about Him Who Comes and the Coming Kingdom”.
Today is the first Sunday in Advent, and so we begin a new Church Year, and, for the year, we switch to a different Divine Service setting and to a different primary Gospel account in our three‑year cycle of appointed Readings. Jumping right into the eleventh chapter of St. Mark’s Divinely‑inspired account seems odd, unless we realize that we are not using the account chronologically but as it corresponds to the emphasis of the Church Year. Today we have St. Mark’s account of what is usually regarded as Jesus’s “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, a past coming of Jesus that is “the promise and guarantee” of His future comings, especially His final coming (Pfatteicher, Commentary, 207). The vivid account, perhaps from Peter as an eye‑witness, tells how Jesus sent for and then rode a colt into Jerusalem. The animal was appropriate for its sacred use (Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3; 1 Samuel 6:7), and the disciples and the people, as had been done for King Jehu (2 Kings 9:13), rolled out the red carpet of their day, spreading on the road their cloaks and leafy branches cut from the fields, honoring Jesus and submitting themselves to Him. And, drawing from the psalms used in the Passover liturgy (specifically Psalm 118:25-26), they were repeatedly (and likely antiphonally or responsively) shouting about Him Who comes connected with the Lord’s revelation and about the coming Kingdom connected with the highest heaven. The coming One and the coming Kingdom both go together: the Descendant of David rules or reigns in fulfillment of all the promises pertaining to Him (2 Samuel 7:11-14; confer Psalm 89).
I said that drawing from the psalms used in the Passover liturgy, those who went before Jesus and those who followed were shouting “Hosanna!” Bible commentators debate just what the word “Hosanna!” meant in general at the time and what the people meant in particular by using it. “Hosanna” can be a request for salvation, and the people in the Gospel Reading may well have known that they were sinners in need of salvation, as we are sinners in need of salvation. Like the people of today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 64:1-9), we have sinned and have been in our sins a long time (in fact, from the very moment of our conceptions). We all have become like those who are unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like polluted garments. We rightly ask about our salvation. We rightly plead the Lord not to be terribly angry, not to remember our iniquity forever, but to look on us with His favor as His people. In Jesus Christ, God has acted for those who wait for or trust in Him. When we repent and believe in Jesus, then God meets us who joyfully work righteousness and remember Him in His ways.
As Bible commentators debate the meaning of the word “Hosanna!”, so they also debate the related matter of how much the enthusiastic crowd knew and was confessing about Jesus, even debating what and who Jesus might have wanted to know. Whether or not the crowd realized it, in Jesus every Messianic expectation would be realized. To be sure, Jesus was on the Mount of Olives, a place the Messiah was expected to appear, and He was going to Jerusalem to “act for those who wait for [or trust in] Him”. Jesus had just told His twelve disciples that in Jerusalem He would be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, that they would condemn Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles, that they would mock Him and spit on Him, and flog Him and kill Him, and that after three days He would rise (Mark 10:32-34). At such a place and in such ways, Jesus came not to be served but to serve by giving His life as a ransom for all (Mark 10:45). Out of His great love for you and for me, Jesus died for you and for me, for your sins and for mine. When we repent and believe in Him, then God forgives all our sin, whatever it might be, even our natures sinful from our conceptions.
Although St. Mark’s account of Jesus’s “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem does not make an explicit reference to God’s prophecy through Zechariah, St. Mark’s account does seem to allude and be linked to that prophecy—we heard a part of it in today’s Introit and Gradual (Zechariah 9:9). Truly Jesus is our King coming to us, righteous and having salvation. Yet, instead of His coming humbly mounted on a colt, the foal of a donkey, He comes humbly in the Words of His preached Gospel. He comes humbly with water and His Word in Holy Baptism. He comes humbly in the words of a pastor’s individual Absolution following private confession. And, He comes humbly with His body and blood in bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar. In these ways, set in the historic Christian liturgy, with its “catch phrases”, we, by grace through faith in Him Who comes, receive both Him Who comes and His coming Kingdom, namely salvation, eternal life. He Who comes and the coming Kingdom both already are blessed by God, to Whom They belong, and we add our blessing or praise as we acknowledge our reception of them and subject ourselves to them. We, too, rejoice greatly and shout aloud. We shout “about Him Who Comes and the Coming Kingdom”.
In our time of Catechesis this morning we talked about the Conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, with its statement that the Kingdom is God’s, and we remember(ed) that the Second Petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks for His Kingdom to come (Matthew 6:2; Luke 11:2). Today’s Collect likewise prayed the Lord to come so “that by [His] protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by [His] mighty deliverance”. Truly, as we confess with the Small Catechism, the Lord and His Kingdom of Grace, the Church, come to us “when our Heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time”. But, there is also His and His Kingdom of Glory’s—the Church and angels in heaven’s—coming for eternity. We also pray for Him and His Kingdom to come in that way and to come in that way soon (Revelation 22:12, 20).
Those of us who this past week enthusiastically used the designated “catch phrases” to cheer our favorite teams only to have them lose the games understandably were disappointed. However, no such loss and resulting disappointment are in store for those who faithfully shout about Him Who Comes and the Coming Kingdom and so wait for them. As we live each day in the forgiveness of sins, with repentance and faith, the victory over sin and its resulting death is already ours. As St. Paul wrote by Divine‑inspiration in today’s Epistle Reading (1 Corinthians 1:3-9), God, by Whom we are called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. That same coming Lord Jesus Christ will sustain us to the end, guiltless in His day.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +