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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. (Amen.)
Today’s Gospel Reading, about Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem to die on the cross and rise from the grave, events that we generally associate with the later seasons of Lent and Easter, admittedly seems like an odd Gospel Reading to start the new Church Year and its first season of Advent. While our three-year series of appointed Readings gives us an option to begin the new Church Year as we ended the old Church Year, with a Gospel Reading about Christ’s final coming with power and great glory (Luke 21:25-36), the way that we follow the series has us hear St. Matthew, St. Mark, and this year St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired accounts of Jesus’s triumphal entry on the first Sunday of their respective years of the series of Readings, and then we hear St. John’s Divinely‑inspired account of Jesus’s triumphal entry on Palm Sunday in each of the three years. And, the repeated use of the probably somewhat‑familiar general narrative of Jesus’s triumphal entry can have different nuances on the two different occasions, for example, today the narrative sets the tone not only for the Advent season but also for the entire Church Year (Stuckwisch, LSB:CttS 206‑207). The season’s name “Advent” has to do with a “coming to”, and the Son of God’s past “coming to” us in the flesh of the man Jesus, as on a colt riding into Jerusalem, in a sense guarantees both His present “coming to” us in His Word and Sacraments and His future “coming to” us in glory to judge the living and the dead. This morning we consider “The ways this King comes”.
To better understand “The ways this King comes”, some Old Testament background is helpful. First, when King David had his son Solomon anointed king over Israel, David had Solomon ride his own mule (1 Kings 1:33, 38, 44), and, second, when Elisha had Jehu anointed king over Israel, the commanders of the army took their outer garments and put them under Jehu on the bare steps, signifying their subjection to him (2 Kings 19:13). So, in today’s Gospel Reading Jesus’s riding a colt into Jerusalem and the multitude of His disciples’ spreading their cloaks on the road are both recognizable as ways that kings come. In Solomon’s case, King David had them blow a trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon” (1 Kings 1:34, 39), and, in Jehu’s case, the commanders of the army also blew a trumpet and proclaimed Jehu king. In Jesus’s case, the people began to praise God with a loud voice, saying, “Blessed is the King Who comes in the Name of the Lord!” The people realized that Jesus was blessed by God, and they subjected themselves to Him as their coming King (Beyer, TDNT 2:762).
Likewise you and I should subject ourselves to Jesus as our coming King, but do we always so subject ourselves to Him? We do not subject ourselves to Him each time we fear or trust someone or something else more than we fear or trust Him. We do not subject ourselves to Him each time we misuse or fail to use rightly the Name in which He comes. We do not subject ourselves to Him each time we neglect to study His Word or to receive His Sacraments. We do not subject ourselves to Him each time we do not love and obey our parents and other authorities, such as the government. We do not subject ourselves to Him each time we hurt or fail to help a neighbor in physical need. We do not subject ourselves to Him each time we do not lead a sexually pure and decent life. We do not subject ourselves to Him each time we take someone else’s money or possessions. We do not subject ourselves to Him each time we tell lies about our neighbor or fail to defend him or her. We do not subject ourselves to Him each time we are not content with the material goods and living beings that God gives to us. For all of those times that we do not subject ourselves to Him, as for our sinful nature itself, we deserve our coming King’s condemning us both to death here and now and to torment in hell for eternity.
One thing that the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke’s account of the Lord’s triumphal entry lacks, perhaps because of its primarily-Gentile original audience, is the detail of the people’s shouting “Hosanna”, Hebrew essentially for “save us”. Yet, the people in the Gospel Reading still had been moved by the Holy Spirit to recognize their sin and find their forgiveness and salvation in their coming King, as we have been moved by the Holy Spirit to recognize our sin and find our forgiveness and salvation in our coming King. As our King, Jesus conquers all of our foes: not imaginary enemies in a video game, not rivals on an athletic field, not opponents in politics, but Jesus conquers all our foes of sin, death, and the power of the devil. At the Son of God’s birth in human flesh, a multitude of the heavenly host praised God and said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace!”, and, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, at the Son of God’s entry into Jerusalem, His disciples praised God and said, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” The Son of God came in the flesh in order to die on the cross and so bring about peace between God and us His fallen people and thereby glorify God. His death in our place satisfies God’s righteous wrath over our sin and reconciles us with God. So, when we repent, then we are forgiven. As prophesied in today’s Old Testament Reading, the Lord is our righteousness, and so we are saved and dwell securely (Jeremiah 33:14‑16).
God forgives us in the Church through the ministry of His Means of Grace, His Word purely preached and His Sacraments rightly handed‑out. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus sent two disciples to go and bring the colt. Now, Jesus sends pastors to read and preach His Word to groups such as this and to apply His Gospel to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us in the Holy Supper. In all of these ways, we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation, and so we ourselves are blessed as we come and are gathered in the Name of the Lord (confer Matthew 18:20).
In all of these ways, the Lord Himself does what the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul prayed for in today’s Epistle Reading, namely, make us increase and abound in love for one another and for all and so establish our hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Our King Who came once to die, comes now to prepare us for when He will come a final time to judge the living and the dead. Even though we continue to sin before He comes that final time, with daily sorrow over our sin and trust in God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins and extend our forgiveness of sins to one another. So, we do not fear His coming in judgment but look forward to it as our full and final deliverance from all of our foes. We have the serious and sober expectation of His coming, but we also have peace and joy already now, though we know that we will experience that peace and joy more fully on the Last Day, in, if necessary, resurrected, and, certainly, glorified bodies.
Maybe today’s Gospel Reading, about Jesus’s triumphal entry is not such an odd Gospel Reading to start the new Church Year and its first season of Advent, after all. For, having considered today’s Gospel Reading, we have realized “The ways this King comes”, namely, in His Word and Sacrament in order to save us by grace through faith in Him. Let us praise God for all the mighty works that we see! Blessed is the King Who comes in the Name of the Lord, and blessed are the people who know the festal shout, a joyful reaction to the good news of God’s salvation (TLSB, ad loc Psalm 89:15, p.933). Rejoice greatly and shout aloud, for, as today’s Introit and Gradual reiterated, your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +