Ad Te Levavi, the 1st Sunday in Advent + Matthew 21:1-9 + December 3, 2017

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1)         “Behold, your king is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” You might ask why the season of Advent, and the beginning of a new church year for that matter, begins with such a text. It does seem curious that the season before our celebration of Christ’s birth starts with the account of Jesus’ arrival into the Jerusalem the week of His suffering and death. This text makes perfect sense on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, since the events in the Gospel lesson happened on the actual Sunday before Christ’s suffering and death. But three weeks before Christmas? At the beginning of a new church year? On the first Sunday in the season of Advent? But in that one word lies the answer. The season which we enter today is called Advent, meaning “coming” or “arrival.” It is not so much a season of preparation for Christmas. We do look forward to celebrating Christmas because that was Christ’s first Advent. But this season is not so much about preparation for that celebration. The season of Advent teaches us this singular fact: “Behold, your king is coming to you.” Behold, your King who came in the flesh two thousand years ago to suffer and die to atone for the sins of the world. Behold, your king who continually comes to you even now, through the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments. Behold, your King who will come again on the Last Day to judge the quick and dead and take His faithful ones into the bliss of everlasting life. The season of Advent is not so much a preparation for Christmas Day. The world is busy preparing for its version of Christmas during this season. The Church, however, uses Advent to prepare herself for Her Lord who has come and will comes again.

2)         Christ’s first advent, His coming in the flesh, was one of humility and patience. That is where the Gospel lesson appointed for today takes us. The Patriarchs and prophets foretold the coming of the Christ and He came! He advented among the Jews, not in glory and splendor, but in humility and lowliness. Christ Jesus is the Word of God, the Son of God, the second person of God the Holy Trinity, yet He does not come demanding service and worship. He says, “I am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22:27). His nativity was marked by humility; born of a virgin, laid in a feeding trough, heralded by mangy shepherds, persecuted by the king. His life was marked by lowliness and humility, eating with tax collectors and sinners, inviting them to repent of their sins and trust His mercy for the forgiveness of all their sins. His entry into Jerusalem was humble. He rides into the magnificent city on a borrowed donkey. There in Jerusalem He endures scoffers and sinners, blasphemy and betrayal, and finally the most shameful end of death on the cross. Even in burial He is humble, being laid to rest in another man’s freshly dug tomb. Christ’s first coming was in gently, calling sinners to repent. His first advent was humble, for He came for the purpose of living a perfectly righteous life under God’s Law for our sake. His first advent was lowly, for He came with the purpose of sacrificing Himself to atone for the sins of the world. As He was at His birth, so He was in life. As He was in life, so He was in death. By placing this Gospel lesson at the beginning of this season, and at the beginning of the Church’s new year, the Holy Spirit reminds us that the entire calendar, not just Christmas, is about Christ’s arrival in humility to atone for our sins, “and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

3)         At Christ’s first advent He rode into Jerusalem on a beast of burden, a humble instrument. And though He suffered, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, Christ still comes to us. Christ comes to us through the humble instruments of His Word and Sacraments. He is present among us when we read and contemplate His Holy Word. Christ is truly present among us when His Word is purely preached. He comes to us in His Words, this humble instrument, to give us the promise of the Gospel that all who trust Christ’s mercy have their sins blotted out and covered by the innocent blood He shed upon the cross. During His first advent Christ said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” He says the same thing to us in the Gospel. He calls all who labor under the heavy burden of sin. He promises rest from the guilty conscience by promising to forgive your sins when you confess them and trust that His merits are yours by faith. Instead of being burdened with the yoke of having to do enough good works to please God and earn heaven, He gives all believers His yoke and burden, which is simply faith that in Christ Jesus all our sins are forgiven.

4)         He does this through His Gospel when it is preached, but also through His Sacraments. Sacraments are simply Words of God that have been attached to visible elements. So He promises to forgive our sins in the waters of Holy Baptism, which is simple water combined with His Word. But that promise of forgiveness attached to the water makes it a “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). He advents among us in Holy Baptism, whether it is given to us as infants or adults, and comes to us through the water and Word to forgive our sins, create faith in our hearts, and adopt as children of the heavenly Father. The water of Holy Baptism is Christ’s beast of burden, His humble instrument, for coming to you to cleanse you from all your sins give you His innocence, righteousness, and blessedness. His other beast of burden that He uses to come to you is the Sacrament of the Altar, the Lord’s Supper. In the humble instrument of simple bread and simple wine, Christ physically comes to you to forgive your sins and unite with you in a mystical way, thus fortifying and strengthening the faith He gave you at baptism. These are simple instruments, which is why many despise them. Many do not consider that Christ has attached His Word of promise to the water of baptism or to the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, so they neglect them, cast them aside, and even blaspheme them. Yet through these “visible words” of Jesus, He still advents among us today to forgive us and cleanse us from sin. This means that each time you enter into this building to hear the Word preached and to receive the Sacrament, it is as if you are hearing the words of the prophet yet again: “Behold, your king is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

5)         The One who advented among us in human flesh two thousand years ago; the One who continually advents among us through His Word and Sacraments, has promised to come to us once more on the Last Day of this creation. On that day, Christ will not come to us in humility and patience. On that Day He will come to us in great power and the fullness of His divine glory. On that day, there will be no more forgiving of sins because that is the purpose of His adventing now through the Word and Sacraments. That is why St. Paul tells the Romans, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). As long as it is “today,” He bids us repent and walk properly, trusting in His Christ’s mercy to forgive our sins. When He comes again in glory there will be judgment on those who have not repented and trusted Christ for their salvation, those who have not known the time of their salvation. But for those who believe the Gospel and nourish their faith through the continual hearing of the Word and partaking of Christ in the sacraments, those He will take to their heavenly home, that sweet and blessed country, the home of God’s elect beyond the stain and sin and the pain of death.

6)         It is because of His final advent on the Last Day that we prepare ourselves now. We prepare ourselves by doing what many did during the days of Christ’s first advent when He entered into Jerusalem on His humble instrument of the borrowed ass. Believing Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, many laid down their garments and “spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.” So ought we to prepare for Christ’s final advent by daily putting off the Old Adam, that is, our sinful nature, and laying it at Christ’s feet in repentance. We put off the Old Adam, our sinful nature, each day by confessing our sins to our Father in heaven and believing the Gospel that our sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. We put off the Old Adam like a garment by denying our sinful flesh the gratification it desires, or at St. Paul writes, we “make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:14). Our heavenly Father has given us a great gift and treasure by which we can daily fight the sinful nature and put on Christ. That treasure is our Baptism. For “we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). This is how we take off our garments and spread our clothes at his feet in preparation for His final advent.

7)         Putting of the Old Adam, and putting on Christ, with the multitude that day, we also rejoice as they rejoiced: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Rejoice that God has come in human flesh to win your redemption and atone for all of your sins. Rejoice that Christ comes to you today once again in His Word and Sacraments to rescue you from the threatening perils of your sins and save you with His mighty deliverance. Rejoice that He will come again at the culmination of the age to take you to your everlasting abode. It is that Day, not December 25 that the Christian looks forward to this season of Advent, for that is the day of our final redemption. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.