The sermon for November 28 was based on Matthew 21:1-9.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the Gospel this morning from St. Matthew, Jesus begins the week in which He hands Himself over to the cross and offers Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of the world. It is for this sacred purpose that Christ your King came. He came to take up the cross and die in your place. By His death He is crowned and from His cross He reigns as your King.

Before Christ came, as Luther writes in his Large Catechism, "You had no Lord or King, but you were held captive in the devil's power (citizens of his hellish kingdom), condemned to die, bound up in sin and blindness."

But then your King draws near, who comes to you righteous and having salvation, who comes to you meek and humble on the back of a donkey. He comes to place His cross upon you, that He might claim you as His own. As Luther goes on to describe with beautiful words:

"There you lay in disgrace with God and under His wrath, sentenced to the eternal damnation which you had brought upon yourself and thoroughly deserved. For you there was no counsel, help or comfort, until the one eternal Son of God in His boundless mercy pitied your misery and wretchedness and came from heaven to help you. All those former tyrant jailers have now been routed. Into their place stepped Jesus Christ, the Lord and King of life, righteousness, and every goodness and blessing, who has rescued you, a poor, lost sinner, out of the jaws of hell; He one you, freed you, and brought you back into the grace and favor of His Father, your Creator. He has taken you beneath His shield and shelter to reign in you with His righteousness, wisdom, power, life and bliss."

It seems strange that Advent begins with the "Palm Sunday" Gospel, with the entry of the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem on the brink of His death. But the Church has done so for centuries, that She might remember why the Christ-Child came: born of the Virgin Mary, born under the Law, that by His cross He might redeem those who were under the Law.

St. Matthew hints at the birth of the Lord in the Gospel this morning: the people greeted Christ as the "Son of David," the same title St. Matthew had already used in his genealogy of Jesus [1:1] and in the visit of the angel unto Joseph [1:20]. The whole city was shaken by the entrance of King Jesus, just as the same city was troubled by the visit of the Magi at the time of His birth [2:3]; and He was described by the multitudes as the Prophet from Nazareth [21:11], recalling His earthly heritage and childhood home.

Approaching the birth of Christ from the perspective of His entry into Jerusalem helps you to understand that the season of Advent is far more than simply a time of Christmas preparations. You remember that it is certainly more than decorations and baking, parties and presents; you know to keep Christ in Christmas. But this still misses the point. Advent is more than Christmas preparation time.

"Advent," means "coming," and in the Church refers to the coming of Christ. But there is a three-fold coming of Christ to which the Church gives attention during Advent, a three-fold coming that sets the stage for the Church's entire liturgical year and for your whole Christian life.

Here is the shocking truth: the coming of Christ that first Christmas is the LEAST significant focus of Advent. Not that Christmas is unimportant; by no means! It is truly good, right, and salutary that you should remember and give thanks for the birth of your Lord, not only during Advent and at Christmas, but at all times and in all places. Indeed, His becoming flesh by the Blessed Virgin Mary is necessary for everything else, for your salvation, and for His other Advents.

But neither Advent nor Christmas are merely nostalgic memories of days gone by. They are a celebration of the present, and a hope for the future. But this celebration and hope depends on the coming of Christ in the flesh, not only then and there, but here and now, to you and for you, and hereafter, when He shall come again in glory to call you from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven.

The most significant Advent coming is the coming of Christ to you in this place at this time. He does so in much the same way as He retrieves the needed donkey in the Gospel: sending His disciples as the ministers of His Word to speak and act for Him, coming in the Name of the Lord also now to you, in His stead and by His command. He sends them to find those who are bound, to loose them from their sins and to bring them to Himself. For this task He gives to them His Word of command and promise, the cleansing waters of His Baptism, and the Body and Blood of His Holy Communion. In this ministry of His Word and Sacraments, He comes to you now, to prepare you for His coming again in the future. This is the special focus of Advent.

Your King comes to you in these three ways - then at Christmas, now by His Holy ministry, and hence at your Last Day -by and from His cross. Your celebration of His birth, your receiving of His coming to you now, and your rejoicing in the hope of His coming to you then all find their foundation, heart, and center in His holy cross and suffering. Then He came in humility and meekness. He came to save you from your sin. He came, not on a warhorse, but on a beast of burden, which is what He Himself became in bearing the burden of your sin. As Luther writes:

"Look at Him! He rides no stallion, which is a war animal, and He comes not with fearful pomp and power, but sits on a donkey, which is no war animal but which is ready for burdens of work that will help human beings. Thereby He shows that He does not come to terrify people, to drive or oppress them, but to help them, to carry their burdens and take them on Himself."

He bore all this to the peak of His humility and meekness on the cross. He humbled Himself unto death, even the death of His Cross, where He meekly bore the judgment and wrath of God against your sin, in order to rescue you from the damnation that otherwise would await you on the Last Day.

If you examine yourself according to the Ten Commandments, as the Catechism instructs, so that you might confess those sins that you know and feel in your heart, you shall find nothing in yourself but sin and death, from which you can in no wise set yourself free. That is your condition apart from Christ. You have not loved your neighbor as yourself. You have made provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts; you have been angry and hateful in your heart; you have wasted the gifts of God and withheld them from your neighbor in his need, loving money more than people; you have not trusted God to provide for you in every need; you have gossiped and complained against your fellow Christians, even against your Pastors; you do not regard God's holy Word and Sacraments as central to your life; you have burned with envy and jealousy for the house, spouse, livelihood and property of others. In all these ways and countless others, you have lived in the darkness of sin and are deserving of death and hell.

But hear now the Holy Gospel. All that Jesus did and suffered took place "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet." [4] For "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." [Rom 13:10] And God is Love; and so He has fulfilled the Law by His own Son, who loves you with an everlasting love. He has been faithful to His adulterous Bride. He has given life to His murderous children. He has given all things to those who have greedily wasted His gifts of creation. He has trusted God above all things. He has defended you, spoken well of you, and registered His own good works to your credit and account. He has not desired to deprive you of your life and health and strength; but He has taken your sin and death upon Himself, that He might give you His forgiveness, His righteousness and eternal life.

It is Love incarnate in Christ that has fulfilled the Law of God, both for you and on your behalf. He does you no harm, but draws near to bring you salvation. He does so, by giving you nothing less than Himself - clothing you with Himself and His righteousness in Holy Baptism. So St. Paul invites you to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ," [Rom 13:14], recalling the daily and lifelong significance of your Baptism. Christ draws near to you and feeds you with Himself, with His own Body and Blood, that you might become what you eat, that your poor flesh and blood, your body and soul, might be transformed and renewed in His divine image.

So your King comes to you from His cross. He comes to rescue and deliver you from the threatening perils of your sin, of death and the devil, and to save you by His mighty deliverance. But His mighty deliverance is accomplished for you in the humblest of ways and means: He was born for you in a stable on the outskirts of a tiny, little, no-place town; living homeless with no place to lay His head; ridiculed, tormented, and convicted to die by His own citizens, the very people He has come to save; crucified, dead, and buried. Even following His resurrection, in the ongoing life of His Church on earth, He sends the lowliest of men to be His apostolic ministers, the Pastors of His flock; and He equips them with such humble, ordinary means -words and water, bread and wine.

And yet, in all these ways, by all these means, He is your King who comes to you - to be your Savior from sin by the forgiveness of His Blood; to slay death forever, to conquer hell, to trample Satan underfoot and crush his serpent-head. He has done everything for you. He shares with you His mighty deliverance by uniting you with Himself in His death and resurrection, by cleansing you in the waters of His Baptism, by speaking to you His Spirit-filled Word of Absolution, and by feeding you with His own sacrificed Body and Blood.

You may be thinking: Don't these Pastors know anything else than the Word and Sacraments? God help us if we should ever preach anything more. Words and water, bread and wine; holy Absolution, holy Baptism, Body and Blood - these are what He has given; these means are where and how your King comes to you with the treasures of His cross, to save you and deliver you and help you. He comes by nothing more impressive than words and water, bread and wine. But these humble means, being the things of Christ, are no less real, no less divine, no less powerful than to give you His divine Life! His humility and meekness are the power and wisdom of God; they are your righteousness and salvation.

Rejoice, therefore, O daughter of Zion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King is coming to you, here and now! Greet Him with your glad "hosannas" of faith; sing three times your "blessed in He." Together with the Church of all ages receive Him as the Christ, your Lord and Savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the crucified and living King of all creation! Amen.

The Peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Last Updated: 7/15/2008