Sermon: Ad Te Levavi - 2021

28 November 2021

Text: Matt 21:1-9 (Jer 23:5-8, Rom 13:8-14)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“Behold, your king is coming to you.”

Jesus came to us “humble, and mounted on a donkey, a beast of burden” when He came to Jerusalem to be enthroned on the cross “for us men and for our salvation,” an innocent Man who was perceived to be guilty.

But some three decades earlier, Jesus had come to us even humbler, mounted as a fertilized egg in a young woman, whose condition was a scandal – an innocent women who was perceived to be guilty.

Kings of the earth typically come into the world with men making great celebration: sons of the king.  But “your king is coming to you” with no earthly father, the descendant of a king of a thousand years earlier, whose country is now under the domination of the Romans, a King whose mother was unmarried at His conception, and whose birth necessitated His lying in a manger: a food trough for animals, for beasts of burden.

And yet, there was great celebration at this King’s birth, as shepherds and angels rejoiced at His coming.

He will come into Jerusalem some three decades later, riding a beast of burden, to the acclaim of men shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”  But in five days, He would come as a convicted criminal, carrying His own cross, to the cursing of men who spat on Him, beating Him with their fists, and with a sign that condemned Him as “King of the Jews,” bearing the burden of the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”

Behold, your king is coming to you, lying in a manger, and lying in a tomb – worshiped by men and angels, scorned by men and demons. 

So how do you receive your king, dear brothers and sisters?

Your king comes to you in His Word, in Holy Absolution, in the preaching of the Gospel, in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion.  He comes the same way that He came to Bethlehem and to Jerusalem – humble, rejected by most people, and yet, coming as your Redeemer, your Savior.  He still comes again and again, coming to you with His nail-scarred hands, offering you mercy and eternal life – an offer bought by His blood – whether you receive Him and His gifts, or whether you scorn Him and reject His offer.

He comes to you not only in mercy, but in love: perfect love that sacrifices Himself for the sake of His beloved. 

We receive Him with Advent hymns and Christmas carols, with trees and ornaments, with changes in the liturgy.  But we also receive Him with an awareness of our sins, with confession and repentance and with the church’s ongoing prayer of “Lord have mercy upon us.  Christ have mercy upon us.  Lord, have mercy upon us.”

We receive Him as a distracted people, spending more time and energy focusing on the holiday rather than the Holy One, thinking more about buying gifts than receiving the Gift that comes to us without price and by God’s grace, concerning ourselves more with food and drink for parties than the food and drink that gives us eternal life by His command and by His promise.

So it is fitting that Advent, while a joyful time, is also a penitential time, with hymns that remind us of the “reason for the season,” to bring to the forefront of our minds that His coming is not about buying more stuff, nor of stuffing ourselves, nor of the hustle and bustle and frustrations of standing in line and spending money.  For Advent is about our Lord’s coming, and for remembering why He came to us “humble and mounted on a donkey,” and humbly “incarnate of the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”

It is fitting that we call to mind the “Hosanna” of His coming to Jerusalem, and it is also fitting that we hold off on singing the “Gloria” of His coming to Bethlehem until we actually celebrate His birth in a few weeks. 

And it is fitting, dear brothers and sisters, that we receive Him yet again, in His flesh and blood, in the bread and wine, as He comes to us, humble, under these simple elements for us to eat and to drink.  For by receiving Him, we have eternal life as He has promised.  Let us remember the preaching of the prophet Jeremiah, who says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely.”

Let us “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” as St. Paul invites us, “and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.”

For just as our Lord came to us at Bethlehem in the manger, and just as He came to us in Jerusalem at the cross, and just as He comes to us here at our altar in the elements of Holy Communion, and even as He comes to us here from the pulpit in His Word, let us not forget that He is coming again.  St. Paul reminds us “that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.  For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”

“So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

This is indeed a time to repent, dear friends.  It is a time when we ponder our Lord’s coming – not only in the past, not only in the present, but also in the days to come.  We know neither the day nor the hour.  But we do know this: He is coming.  And next time, your King will not come to you humble, neither as a child, nor on the cross.  You will not receive Him as bread and wine, but rather in the fullness of His glory and His might.  He will return to the world to take vengeance upon those who rejected Him, upon those who oppressed His bride, the Church.  He will come to judge the world, but our judge will be merciful to those who receive Him, who repent, who are baptized, who believe.

And so we wait.  We wait like the prophet Jeremiah.  We wait like the Virgin Mary.  We wait like the early Christians who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Jews and the Romans.  We wait amid our own struggles with sin, death, and the devil.  We wait still singing, “Hosanna” and crying out “Lord, have mercy.”  We wait hearing His Word, rejoicing in His forgiveness, and receiving Him in His body and blood.  We wait with joyful expectation, and we wait knowing that His coming is as inevitable as the coming of the day of Christmas, whether we are ready or not. 

And it is fitting that we wait, humble, knowing that we do not deserve His mercy, but knowing that He gives it to us anyway.  And we know that of all the gifts we give and the gifts we receive, the gift of Christ is the greatest gift of all: for in Him we have forgiveness, life, and salvation.

For we are guilty, but are to be perceived to be innocent.  And so we sing, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest!”

“Behold, your king is coming to you.”

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.