Ad Te Levavi, The First Sunday in Advent
Jesus
and His disciples draw near Jerusalem. They come to the village of Bethphage at
the Mount of Olives. There Jesus tells two of His disciples—which two doesn’t
matter—to go to the village. There they will find a tethered donkey and a colt.
Jesus didn’t sent scouts into the village. Being God in human flesh, He sees
all things and knows all things. By telling His disciples what they will find
when they enter the village, Jesus wants to teach them—and us—that He truly
knows all things. He tells them, “Loose
them and bring them to me,”as if these animals were in fact his, because as
the Lord God in human flesh, they are His. He said in Psalm 50:10, “Every beast of the forest is Mine, And the
cattle on a thousand hills.” Then He tells the two disciples, “If anyone says anything to you, you shall
say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will sent them.” Jesus
knows all things and in His divine foreknowledge arranges all things for a very
specific purpose. The purpose? “That it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: ‘Tell the daughter
of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sittig on a donkey, a
colt, the foal of a donkey.’” In His divine foreknowledge, Jesus knows all
things and uses that knowledge to bring about the fulfillment of the Word He
spoke through the prophet Zechariah. This is the first thing the Holy Spirit
wants to teach us. Christ Jesus foresees all things and uses them to bring
about what He has promised, so that not one of His promises falls to the ground
unfulfilled.
As
we begin the Church Year anew with the season of Advent, this teaching is
foundational. Christ has promised to return in the way He departed. He will
come with the clouds with great power and glory “and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him” (Rev 1:7).
He has promised to return. The signs He foretold would precede His coming—false
messiahs, false prophets, wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences,
and earthquakes in various places, and persecutions—will most certainly happen.
In fact, those signs we see already, and have seen since 70 A.D. when the
Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its temple. Jesus foreknew all these things, not
just in general, but specifically. He promised these would come so that we do
not lose heart and imagine, as the unbelieving world imagines, that He is not
returning. Having foreseen these evils, He foretells them to us so that we
contemplate how “all
things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28). He has
promised, upon His return, to judge the living and dead, after which the
unbelieving “will go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). In this we hear His promise of
the resurrection to an eternal life of blessedness, peace, and glory for all
who are righteous in this life by faith. Just as He would not let a promise from
the prophet Zechariah remain unfulfilled, so all He promises about His second coming will most certainly come to
pass.
The
second thing the Holy Spirit wants to teach us is the manner of Christ’s
arrival in this life. Understanding His arrival—His advent—is foundational for
preparing one’s heart for His return in glory. How does He arrive in Jerusalem?
“Behold, your King is coming to you,
lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” He comes as
King, for the Lord promised through Jeremiah, “David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of
Israel.” As King He brings His kingdom with Him. But His kingdom is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit” (Rom 14:17), so He arrives in lowliness and gentleness. He does not
come to be served but to serve His people. He comes to be their priest, for the
Lord had promised through Jeremiah, “Nor
shall the priests, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt sacrifices before Me,
to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.” He comes as High
Priest to offer Himself as the victim upon the altar of the cross, so that by
His sacrifice He might pay for our sins, and the sins of the whole world. He
offers the benefits of His sacrifice to all who truly repent of their sins and
want to amend their lives. The way He arrives in Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday—gentle and lowly—characterized His entire first advent in the flesh. He
preached, “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” (Matt 11:28-30). He remains gentle and lowly of heart as He
advents among us through the preaching of His Word and the giving out of His
sacraments. He invites us to see what our sins deserve, temporally and
eternally, and repent them so that He might give us true rest for our souls in
His kingdom, which is “righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). Until He returns in glory
for judgment, He continues to arrive among us in the same manner He did the
Sunday before His passion: in gentleness and lowliness, offering us the
benefits of His passion. It is only by daily repentance and receiving these
benefits by faith that we are prepared for His return.
The
third lesson the Holy Spirit wants to teach us is the life that is then lived
by those who receive Christ’s arrival in repentance and faith. The multitude
around Jesus, seeing Him fulfilling the Word of the Lord spoken by the prophet,
“spread their clothes on the road;
others cut down branches from the trees”—John 12:13 tells us they were palm
trees—“and spread them on the road.”
They cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of
David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
This is the Christian life, the life of all who receive His advent in
repentance and true faith. What do they do with their garments? They remove
them and lay them before Christ. This signifies the daily repentance from sin.
In Holy Baptism “you have put off the
old man with his deeds,” Paul says in Colossians 3:9. Every day those
baptized into Christ put off their sinful desires and deeds, laying them at
Jesus’ feet for forgiveness. The baptized have also “put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image
of Him who created him” (Col 3:10). This is signified by the palm branches
that are cut down and laid before Jesus. Palms are the ancient sign of victory
over one’s enemies, and that is precisely what Jesus gives us each day. John
writes in 1 John 5:4, “Whatever is born
of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world
-- our faith.” Only by faith in Christ are we are victorious over every
temptation and impulse to sin, because faith turns away from the temptation to
sin and turns to the identity Christ gives us baptism. By faith we see the
wickedness of the world as defeated by Christ’s return. By faith we see that
tribulation, illness, and hardship “is
working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor
4:17). Living by faith in Christ, living in His gospel, and enjoying the
victory He gives us, we offer Him the sacrifice of praise. This is signified by
the crowd’s praise of Christ, “Hosanna
to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna
in the highest!”
This is how we begin the season of Advent and a new Church year. We know that Christ as God has forseen this coming church year from eternity. He knows precisely what will happen to you, your family, and our congregation. Having foreseen all things He uses them to make sure that not one of His promises to you falls to the ground unfulfilled. Even those things that the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh intend for evil against us, God uses for our eternal good, for all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28). We begin another year of grace in which Christ promises to come us in the gentle and lowly means of His Word and Sacraments, to richly and daily forgive the sins of the penitent believing. We begin another year of grace, knowing “that our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” With that in mind we put off the old man each day with the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, the Lord Jesus Christ. Wearing Christ’s perfect righteousness by faith, living in our baptismal identity as sons of God who have died to sin and live to righteousness, we “make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” We daily put off the old by repentance and put on the new—Christ Himself—by believing the gospel of complete forgiveness, and do it with a song of praise on our lips and in our hearts, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” This is our preparation during the season of Advent. This is our entire life throughout the Church’s year. Amen.
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