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Text: Matt 21:1-9 (Jer 23:5-8, Rom 13:8-14)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
We begin Advent not by approaching the manger, but by approaching the cross.
Listening to our Gospel reading, we welcome our Lord into Jerusalem as King on the first day of the week, the last Sunday before Easter. On the sixth day, Friday, He will be crucified in a most extraordinary and unlikely victory – forgiving sin, defeating Satan, and destroying death. And on the third day, Easter Sunday, He will appear in His risen glory, the world forever transformed, the universe beginning the first day of a new week of creation. And the Church has this great Good News to proclaim to the world.
Of course, the world would find it odd that we are already looking forward to Easter when the world has already been playing Christmas music since Halloween. And while it’s easy to complain about it, at least the world is hearing about Jesus – even in the most unlikely of places. Even unbelievers cannot ignore our Lord this time of year.
But unlike the world, the Church understands that there is a connection between the manger and the cross, between Christmas and Easter, between the baby King born in Bethlehem, and the crucified King who died at Golgotha.
And of course, Jesus is the Son of David, the Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. He was welcomed into David’s Royal City in a way that was both humble and majestic, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” But in addition to being humble, our Lord’s entry was also majestic, for He came as the Son of David, in the same way as King Solomon, the first Son of David, who first rode into David’s Royal City on the donkey of his father, the greatest king of Israel aside from the Messiah Himself.
The crowds confessed Jesus as their true Messiah and King: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
And we still sing this confession to this very day, dear friends, in our Divine Service. For our Messiah, our Christ the King continues to come to us with both humility and majesty: in humility under the forms of bread and wine, and in majesty as the truly present King of the Universe, who comes to us in His risen glory, forgiving our sins and strengthening our faith in the Holy Sacrament, fulfilling His own words of promise: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
And just as “once He came in blessing” in the past, as a baby lying in a manger, and just as comes to us in the present, in His Word and Sacrament, He is coming again in glory in a future Advent that could happen at any moment. For the prophecy of Jeremiah “behold the days are coming, declares the Lord,” have been fulfilled in Christ in the “now” of this age, and yet will also be fulfilled in Christ in the “not yet” of the age to come, when He comes again in glory, this next time without humility, but only majesty. For “He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
Jesus is the King, and His kingdom is here, but it is also yet to come in its fullness at the end of time. And just as God’s people of old waited for the Christ to come, so do we wait for the Christ to return.
And so as we wait, as forgiven sinners, as those whom Christ has saved by His grace and by His blood, “all our sins redressing,” how are we to live? St. Paul exhorts us: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” And so we strive to keep the commandments, for this is how we love our neighbor.
But what’s more, St. Paul says: “Besides this, you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” For every day that goes by, dear friends, is one day closer to our King’s return, to the completion of our redemption and re-creation, to eternity.
And like the children of Israel before that Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, we wait patiently, but we wait expectantly. Our palm branches are ready, and we have already started singing: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” St. Paul warns us: “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
He is calling us to repent, for in this time of waiting for our King to return in the future, in this time of reflecting on our King’s Advent in the past, in this time of our Lord’s coming to us in the present – it is fitting for us to “cast off the works of darkness” and to “walk properly as in the daytime.”
Dear friends, let us do as the apostle bids us and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Let us rejoice in the salvation that the baby in the manger won for us at the cross, in the Good News that He ordained His minister to proclaim to the world, and in the promise of His return to rescue us from the increasing darkness of this world.
For,
Soon
will come that hour
When
with mighty power
Christ
will come in splendor
And
will judgment render,
With
the faithful sharing
Joy
beyond comparing.
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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