AD TE LEVAVI (ADVENT 1)
29 November Anno + Domini 2009
"Behold, Your King Is Coming to Youâ€
Matthew 21:1-9 (Jer. 23:5-8;
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The world celebrates holidays all backwards. Have you ever noticed that? All of the celebrating is virtually done before the day ever arrives. This is especially so with Christmas. All the feasting, the decorating, the nostalgia are done up front. You've got Christmas movies and Christmas music and Christmas parades not only before Advent, but even sometimes before Thanksgiving! By the time the actual holiday arrives, Christmas seems almost anti-climactic. By December 25th, you're tired of the songs and the phony holiday cheer and you're ready to move on, especially if things didn't quite live up to expectations.
That's the way it is with the world because that's the way the world looks at life. You live for a while, you have your fun, and then you die and it's all over. So you better make your time now count. First there's life and then there's death. But with the church, it's the other way around. First there's death and then there's life, both with our Lord and with us. Life really begins when we are freed from sin's curse and are with our Lord in the resurrection. So our days in this world are lived differently, as preparation for that coming time when the celebration will really begin.
This faith is reflected in the way we observe Christmas. The church doesn't celebrate a holy-day, a holiday until it actually arrives, and in the days following. The 12 days of Christmas that you hear about in the carol are the days from Christmas to Epiphany on January 6th. That's the real Christmas season. What we're in now is the Advent season. And Advent is a time of penitent and hope-filled preparation. In the early church, Advent was a time for fasting, believe it or not. This is a time not for mere sentimentality but to dwell more fervently on the Word of God to make ready the way of His coming to us. We eagerly anticipate Christmas, but now's not the time for the full celebration. In the liturgy, this is marked by putting aside the Gloria in Excelsis during Advent. We don't sing the "Glory Be to God on High" yet in the liturgy, for that's the song of the angels that doesn't come till Christmas Eve. And, this year, we are marking this also by the way we've decorated the church, as you may have noticed. We've returned to the historic and traditional liturgical color of purple, to better remind us of the penitential nature of the season of Advent. We've put up some Christmas symbols, like the tree and the Nativity scene, to remind us of what we're looking forward to celebrating, but we'll not light the tree or see the Nativity scene in full until Christmas. This is not because we have a bad case of Scrooge-itis, but because now is the time for waiting and discipline and focusing on the coming of our Lord in the flesh to save us.
That's why we have
the Gospel we have today. The Lord's triumphal entry into
Note that there
are two donkeys Jesus rides, an older one, the mother, and a younger one, a
colt, the mother's foal. These two donkeys represent God's Old and New
Testament people. First, Jesus rides the old, to show that He is the
fulfillment of all that
And let us not forget that we are the donkey, a very stubborn animal, hard-headed, set in our sinful ways, eager to go our own direction, or else just sitting back on our haunches refusing to budge. And so we must be driven. Christ rides us and gently but firmly drives us toward the cross. He drives us to die with Him, to die to ourselves, so that we may also rise with Him to new life, real life. He drives us to repentance through the Law so that through the Gospel we may have His full and free forgiveness.
The people
spread their clothes on the road before Christ. This is a fitting sign of
their repentance and their faith in Him. For we must all lay aside our
clothing.
Be rid of such garments and receive by faith the clothing that only God can provide. "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." For He is your righteousness, as Jeremiah says. Jesus wore all of your dark, sin-stained clothing. He took that all upon Himself and made it His own so that you would be free from it. Jesus Himself became the beast of burden, bearing and carrying the sin of the whole world to the cross. He became Sin for you, so that you would become righteous before the Father by His holy sacrifice. Jesus perished in the darkness so that you might wear His garments of light and be robed in His holiness and live as children of the Day.
That's the sort of king you have in Jesus, not one who coerces His subjects to serve Him, but one who lays down His life to serve His subjects. Every other king sends out soldiers into battle to fight on His behalf. But this King goes into battle Himself to fight on your behalf. He rides not on a stallion with glittering armor, but on an ordinary donkey, an animal of peace-for He comes to bring you peace, as the Christmas hymn sings, "Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled." This King will ascend His throne not by wearing a crown of gold, but a crown of thorns, not by defending Himself, but by becoming defenseless, dying so that you may live and escape from the enemy's grasp. This is the King who is coming to you.
And notice that He's the One doing the traveling. You don't have to go out searching for Him, as though He were some far-off guru sitting high atop a Himalayan mountain. No, Jesus searches you out and comes to you. Martin Luther put it this way: "Jesus is a king like no other. You do not seek Him; He seeks you. You do not find Him; He finds you. For the preachers come from Him, not from you. Their preaching comes from Him, not from you. Your faith comes from Him, not from you. And all that your faith works in you comes from Him, not from you."
You don't - indeed, you can't - come to God through your own spirituality or works or emotions. But God can and does come to you in His grace, 100% of the way. Without our asking or help, He came down from heaven right to where we are, right into our very body and soul, taking up our human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. He even went so far as to come into contact with the slime and the slop of our sin and death on the cross, so that we might be cleansed and rescued from them by His precious blood.
And our Lord
still is coming to us now to dish out all the benefits He won for us. You
must learn to recognize the donkey on which Christ is riding to you.
Don't look for glitter and fanfare. You must learn to see the meek and humble
ways in which Jesus still enters into this place and into your lives.
This church is
If the world understood this, they would flock to Christ's Church in a heartbeat. If many who claim to be Christian understood this, they would never dream of turning worship into an hour of emotion-driven, man-pleasing entertainment. But you do know this, dear friends. You know that your Lord and King does come to you here in His Holy House to gift you with forgiveness, life, and salvation via His precious means of grace, His Holy Word and Sacraments.
Let us, then,
come forth to meet our King Jesus with heartfelt Hosannas. Hosanna means,
"Save us now." It is a
penitent cry of praise which is confident that the Lord will help us. We
know that Jesus comes to us here, to give us poor beggars His royal and divine
treasure. While the world madly rushes by seeking to create a perfect
moment of nostalgia and earnestly searching to find peace and comfort, let us
receive Him who alone gives real peace and lasting comfort, who comes to you
humbly and lowly. "Daughter of
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.