Rejoice! Your King Is Coming!
St. Matthew 21:1-9
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Matthew 21:9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is Hs who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… I love Advent. It’s a fresh start. We switch the colors in the church to purple, which is a nice change after many Sundays of green. It’s the beginning of a new Church Year, where even though we’re nearing the end of the calendar year, at least in the church we start fresh. And don’t forget the Advent candles that are lit in the chancel, which are another tool for teaching people about Jesus and His coming.
With the exception of the scrooges in our world, I think most Christians appreciate Advent. They appreciate it because of what comes next. In fact, Advent means “coming”, and we’ve learned (understandably) to link the season to what is soon coming: that, of course, is Christmas! Yet, just as we get the yearly reminder that there is a true meaning of Christmas, so also do we learn the true meaning of Advent – that it isn’t about what is coming, but who is coming – Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Advent is focused intently on the coming of Jesus. Of course, we’re not waiting for Him to be born, even though the birth of Jesus is what we hear about at Christmastime. Advent does become a time of anticipation and excitement about Jesus’ coming. But we’re not anticipating his arrival as a child in a manger, because that already happened. We look forward to his final Advent when he shall come in glory to judge both the quick and the dead, as we confess in the Creed. The King of kings and Lord of lords will return as judge on the Final Day.
In our Gospel for this First Sunday in Advent, we hear about another coming of Jesus: “Behold! Your King is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey.” For the entrance of a king into the city, you would think that the scene would be more grandiose. Where’s the army behind him? And a donkey? Where’s the armor-plated warhorse? A donkey is not very impressive. I mean, in a world where “might makes right,” our Lord’s humble entry into Jerusalem mounted on the foal of a donkey – and a borrowed donkey at that – almost looks like a mockery of the expected power and might.
Kings don’t ride around on donkeys; at least earthly kings don’t. And they certainly don’t ride into the city without an army behind them; at least earthly kings don’t. But when it comes to the King of the universe, Christ Jesus – the eternal Son of God – it’s a good thing that He didn’t come in a display of power and might. Take comfort, dear hearers, in knowing that your King entered the city with humility and on a donkey, for this is the only way that He could come to his people and give them life.
The way that Jesus rode into the city fulfilled what was foretold by the prophets. In particular, it was a fulfillment of Zechariah, 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Yahweh God had spoken centuries earlier about the coming of the Messiah, the Son of David. In our Old Testament reading for the day from Jeremiah 33, he is described as the righteous Branch of David who would be called Yahweh our Righteousness and would rule wisely and justly in the land.
So, why does He enter the holy city on a donkey? Why does He ride in on a beast of burden, an animal of peace, and not on an armored stallion? He did so because He came to the people of Jerusalem not to conquer them… but to be killed by them. He rode into Jerusalem on that very first Palm Sunday in order to prepare for Good Friday. He entered a final time into the holy city of Jerusalem to die. Sadly, the people of Jerusalem, who were the daughter of Zion, did not receive Him or believe in Him. On the contrary, they went out of their way to kill Him.
But it is a great comfort, dear Christians, to know that this is the way in which the Lord comes to His people. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (Jn 1:11). Christ Jesus came to His own people – the Jews – and they would not believe in Him. So, did He punish them on the spot for their rejection? Did He summon fire and brimstone upon the city of Jerusalem, as He had upon Sodom and Gomorrah?
No. Christ Jesus, true God and true Man, didn’t destroy Jerusalem; He wept for Her. The Lamb of God who had come to His people to redeem them cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Mt 23:37)
Dear friends, it’s a good thing that Jesus still comes to us according to His grace, in humility and mercy. If He were as impatient as we are, He would have gotten tired of coming to His people and being greeted with their sins and rejection. He would have stopped coming to His people on earth according to His grace and would have come in judgment long ago. It is a good thing that He continues to come to His people in grace and mercy, because if He dealt with us according to our deeds and according to our hearts, we would most certainly be in serious trouble. As we pray in Psalm 130, “If You, O Yahweh, should mark iniquities, O Yahweh, who could stand; but there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.”
Our Lord did not immediately destroy the city of Jerusalem for her rejection of her King, but the city including the temple were eventually destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. So complete was the destruction of the holy city that not one stone was left upon another. And yet, the Lord doesn’t visit the same destruction upon you and me today.
It is a good thing that the Lord Jesus came to His people and comes to us, because we could never come to Him. We cannot come to Him, we cannot seek Him, we cannot ask Him to come into our hearts. We cannot open our own hearts to Him because of the utter blackness of our sinful hearts and the fruits that follow them – sin and disobedience. Our own hearts condemn us, having God’s perfect Law written upon them, which shows us our sin.
We continually transgress our Lord’s commandments. We do not fear, love and trust in God above all things. We do not keep His name holy at all times. We despise preaching and God’s Word. We dishonor our parents and other authorities. We murder others with our words. We do not honor marriage as we should. We have stolen our neighbor’s stuff. We constantly speak unkindly of others. We are never fully content with what we have, and sinfully seek to get what God has not given to us.
We know from Scripture that our sins deserve nothing but death and eternal punishment. But God doesn’t chastise with a lightning bolt and execute swift justice. Nor does He come to the unrepentant with immediate destruction and death. The Lord comes to the people of this world continually with love, patience, and the promise of forgiveness. How comforting this is, especially when we realize our predicament as creatures who, despite our best efforts to lead God-pleasing lives, live in constant defiance of our Lord.
God doesn’t come to you, dear Christians, and give you what you deserve. He doesn’t come to you in His holy wrath and chuck you into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. He comes to you and gives you what you don’t deserve, which is the offer of full pardon and forgiveness for all your sins. Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem that Palm Sunday for you. He went there for the final time as the Lamb of God for you; He went there to be crucified and have His blood shed for the sins of the world, including all of yours.
Your King came into the city and was delivered into the hands of men to be crucified, so that He wouldn’t have to come to you in His righteous wrath and justice. Having made full atonement for your sin – having paid the price – He now comes to you in peace and love. Because you are justified by God-given faith, you now have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ. He has saved you by His grace, and He comes to you to give you His grace continually.
The Lord Jesus rode into Jerusalem not in a show of triumph and splendor, but on a humble animal, a borrowed donkey colt. And He continues to come to you every Lord’s Day, but not in a glorious display or in an emotional frenzy of excitement in worship – which would be unnecessary and distracting – but in the humble means of His Word and Sacrament.
Who would have thought that this carpenter, riding on a donkey, could be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? But He is. And who would think that God would attach His saving Word of promise to water, of all things, for the forgiveness of sins and washing of regeneration of the soul? But He does in Baptism. Who would think that God would deliver His Word to you through your pastor, who is a mere man, instead of through a booming voice from the sky? Yet He promised to do just that when He gave to His apostles the authority to forgive the sins of the penitent and to retain the sins of the impenitent.
Who would have thought that after Jesus’ bodily ascension into heaven that He could still come to you and be truly present with you unto the end of the age, as He promised? Well, He is when He gives you His holy body and precious blood in a tiny wafer of unleavened bread and a sip of grape wine.
The church has recognized all of this in the communion liturgy. In the Sanctus, we sing the same words uttered among the followers of Jesus who lined the street leading into Jerusalem: “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest—blessed is he who cometh in the Name of the Lord.” For just as these believers rejoiced at the coming of their King to save them, so also does the church rejoice at her King’s coming through the Holy Supper, as ordinary and unimpressive as it may seem week after week.
There has never been anything especially impressive about the ways that Jesus comes to his people, at least not by worldly standards. But He never had our impressions in mind; He isn’t interested in emotionalism. He came to His people under the humblest circumstances and in the humblest ways to save them. He comes to you through His humble, chosen means. And He promises to be with you according to His humble grace and mercy until He comes again; only then it will be in power and great might.
Rejoice, therefore, O daughter of Zion, and give thanks to the Lord for coming to you in the ways He does. Lift up your hearts to Him in anticipation of his second Advent, while continually remembering the joy and blessings of his first Advent in Bethlehem.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
