O Lord, How Shall I Meet Thee?
St. Matthew 21:1-9
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Matthew 21:6-9 6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… The Christ is coming. That was the focus of the entire Old Testament, from Genesis 3:15 all the way to the last words of the prophet Malachi. Throughout the Old Testament God sent His prophets to announce to mankind that the Christ was coming. After the first promise in the Garden of Eden, it took about 4,000 years for that word to be kept; and from the time of Abraham, about 2,000 years.
But it was kept. The Christ came. And you heard in today’s Gospel of His coming into Zion, into Jerusalem, on Palm Sunday, the King coming to His people. He was joyfully welcomed by some, but tragically rejected and crucified by the rest.
The Christ is coming. That’s also the focus of Advent: not Christmas music, not Christmas trees or decorations, not buying presents, and not even the birth of Christ. The main focus of Advent is the coming of Christ at the soon-approaching end of the age. Christ is coming; there’s no doubt, there’s no question about it. The only question that remains to be asked and answered is, O Lord, How Shall I Meet Thee? Will you, dear fellow redeemed, be looking for His coming or will you not care? Will you be ready for His coming or tragically unprepared? Will you flee to Him in joy or will you flee from Him in dread?
Each Sunday in Advent, with its Epistle and Gospel, is designed to prepare us all to welcome Christ with joy when He comes, even as the faithful crowds welcomed Him as He rode up to the gates of Jerusalem on that donkey. In today’s Gospel, the Lord gives you a good answer, if you’ll accept it – a solid, healthy answer to the question, O Lord, How Shall I Meet Thee?
Notice, first of all, who it is that initiates the Lord’s coming: it is Jesus Himself. No one forced Him to come to Jerusalem. No one paid Him. No one else earned His Advent, or even asked for it. He sent His disciples to get the donkey, which was the means of His transport. He set up everything, right down to the last detail, for His ride into Jerusalem.
And it will be the same when Jesus comes again. He has chosen the day. He has chosen the time. He has chosen the means of His coming – this time on a cloud, and not a donkey. He is setting the stage even now in the world as He rules over it from the Father’s right hand, getting everything ready for His coming, even sending forth His ministers to ready His people, to teach and to admonish, to encourage and to comfort them, to tell His people to wait and to watch.
Our Lord Jesus would have us remember who this Lord is who came and will come again. “Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you!” Now, Jesus wasn’t the King of Jews in any political sense; Herod was king. Caesar was king. A few days after His ride into Jerusalem, Jesus would tell Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” (Jn 18:36) No, He didn’t come the first time as the ruler of nations, but as the ruler of hearts and of souls. And the laws of this King don’t just govern man’s outward behavior, but also the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And everyone on earth, even the people of Zion, had broken the laws of the King, the Ten Commandments that demand that the subjects of this King love Him and His Word above all things, and that they live in love for one another. But instead, His Law reveals our love for ourselves first, our love for pleasure, for comfort, our love for the praise of men. According to the King’s own laws, His subjects should hear that the King is coming and be filled with sorrow and dread.
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But immediately His Gospel sends out the blessed disclaimer, “Your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey.” And the prophet Zechariah adds, “Just and having salvation.” (Zech 9:9) Jesus didn’t come in anger and wrath, but in lowliness and humility. He didn’t come to destroy sinners, but to give His life as the atoning sacrifice for all the sins of men. He didn’t come to punish, but to earn righteousness and everlasting life for everyone, even for His enemies.
And until the day when the King returns, that is the hope He holds out to the world: that God has given us all a time of grace, a grace period, right now, to escape condemnation in the court of the King by fleeing for refuge to the King who lowered Himself, who became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Now is the time for all men to flee to Him for forgiveness, while He still holds out the promise of justification by faith to all people everywhere.
But know this: when He does come again, it will not be in lowliness, and it will not be for the purpose of saving His enemies. Indeed, Jesus paid for the sins of all people when He came the first time. And He offers salvation to all now through the preached Gospel of His suffering and death.
But so many people refuse to repent and believe Him. So many people resist His Holy Spirit and His working. So many people go on living in their sin as if there is no final reckoning, as if there is no eternal punishment for those who reject the Christ and His gift of love. So many people don’t even have the time to care about the Palm Sunday King… and so they will be condemned in the judgment of the King of kings. When the King comes again, it will still be to save – to save those who believed and were baptized in this life from all the corruption and sadness of sin and to bring them into the blessed inheritance of the children of God. But for the rest, it will be a day of wrath and destruction.
How did the believers in Jerusalem meet their King? We heard it in today’s Gospel: “They spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!” In spite of their ignorance of so many things, in spite of their often weak and fickle faith, the Church insisted on meeting Jesus at the gates of Jerusalem with as much celebration, joy and praise as they could muster.
O Lord, how shall I meet Thee? It’s a vital question. As we heard St. Paul say in the Epistle, “Now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” Christ is coming. We meet Him properly then by repenting of our sins now. We will welcome Him with joy then by hearing and believing the Gospel of forgiveness now. We will praise Him then by learning how to praise Him now, as we do each and every week here in the Divine Service. And we will receive Him in love then by daily putting to death our sinful flesh and by living lives of love now.
Again, as St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
“Put on the Lord Jesus.” That’s how we meet Him: by wearing Him as a garment. And the good news is that WE don’t do that; He has put Himself on us in Holy Baptism. He has put Himself into us and continues to put Himself into us in His Holy Supper, through His body and blood for our forgiveness and strength. By wearing Him through God-given faith, God doesn’t see our sins, for they have been taken by Christ.
And by wearing Him every day, wherever we go, whatever we do, with the new obedience that His Spirit inspires, that all men may see and know by our words and deeds, we show to others what it means to be a Christian. This is what it means to hope in Christ! This is what it means to wait for His coming!
May God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit keep us in His grace and mercy. As He continues to give Himself to us in His Word and Sacraments, know that He makes us ready to meet Him with joy when He comes.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
