In the Name of Jesus
Matthew 21,1-9
The 1. Sunday in Advent, Populus ZionGuenther, Bishop of Regensburg, Germany. † 938
28. November 2010
1. O Conquering Christ Jesus, we render unto You praise and adoration for You have fulfilled the words of the Prophets and triumphed over the evil and satanic forces of this fallen world. On Palm Sunday You rode into Jerusalem with enthusiastic cheers, but at the end of the week jeers of ,,Crucify him!” sounded forth in Jerusalem’s courts. You endured such suffering and humiliation for our sakes and in doing so You redeemed us back to our Heavenly Father and have opened unto us the joys and treasures of Your eternal reign of Divine glory. Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew where the holy evangelist writes: And when they approached Jerusalem and went to Bethphage to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them: ,,Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you will say: The Lord has need of them, and he will immediately send them.” And this has happened so that the word spoken by the prophet was fulfilled: »Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your King comes to you gentle and having mounted on a donkey and on a colt the foal of a donkey.« And the disciples went and did just as Jesus instructed them. They led the donkey and the colt and they laid their garments upon them, and Jesus sat upon the garments. And many in the crowd spread their garments upon the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds going before and those following were crying out: ,,Hosanna to the Son of David; the One coming in the Name of the Lord is blessed; Hosanna in the highest.“ This is our text.
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4. Jesus’ first advent culminates in His crucifixion and resurrection. Thus, the Historic Gospel Reading for the 1. Sunday of Advent is Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The events of Holy Week draw to fulfillment the ministry of Jesus’ first advent.
5. Today’s Introit summarizes why Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. The Prophet Zechariah speaks these words of Yahweh, »Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and saving, humble and riding on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a donkey« (Zechariah 9,9). Jesus rides into Jerusalem as the heir of David, the King of Israel, and He brings with Him righteousness and salvation.
6. Each Sunday we prepare ourselves for the Divine Service (Gottesdienst) with the Service of Confession and Absolution. In this service we acknowledge and confess that we are sinners who need deliverance from our many iniquities. In the Holy Scriptures, Yahweh continually arrives to redeem His people. He promised us a savior. He sent this savior to be born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. This savior rode up to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a donkey. This savior bore His back and was whipped for our transgressions. This savior spread out His hands to be nailed to the cross.
7. We normally think of divinity in terms of power and miracles, but God often reveals His divinity with humbleness and humility. He wrapped Himself in flesh and blood and was born into our world as a baby, just as all of us experienced. He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, gentle and humble. He was cheered and heralded as a prophet, but He never boasted in that title. He suffered, died, and was buried in a grave, which is the ultimate humility we human beings can face. Christ did all of this for us because we cannot save ourselves from our sins. Jesus must save us, and save us He did.
8. Everything is at stake with who is our lord (Nagel 5:10). If we trust in our own works to save ourselves from our sins, then we have another god besides Christ Jesus. If we trust in other methods besides the cross of Christ to merit the forgiveness of our sins, then we have other gods besides the Son of God. The First Commandment reveals idolatry as the sin most common among sinners.
9. In contrast, the first and chief article of the Church is Christ crucified. ,,This is the most joyous of all doctrines and the one that contains the most comfort. It teaches that we have the ... mercy and love of God“ (Luther 280). God enfleshed in our midst brings us divine mercy and love.
10. The disciples of Jesus on that first Palm Sunday rejoiced and called Him a prophet. The Prophet Zechariah rejoiced and called Him Israel’s King. The disciples also proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of David, which is a messianic title for the Christ who is God’s chosen one to save men and women. Jesus is all of these (prophet, king, and the Christ), and He is so much more but we simply call Him Jesus. He was promised to us long ago in the pages of Holy Scripture, beginning in Genesis 3. His first advent arrived nearly two thousand years ago. This Sunday we begin the journey anew, remembering all that God has promised us and rejoicing in all that He has fulfilled for us in Jesus Christ.
11. Jesus humbly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and He ascended into heaven as a victor and a conqueror (Christus Victor). He is our Victor and our Conqueror over sin, death, and the devil. He is our God and our Christ who draws unto Himself all of us poor, miserable sinners who have failed to save ourselves. We are drawn into His presence and we rejoice, for Christ is righteous and saving. He has given us His own righteousness, and He has saved us from our sins. What Christ has done is ours by faith. His righteousness is our righteousness by faith. He saves us by His merit and we receive it by faith.
12. Therefore, the heart of a Christian should be a continuously open road where Christ lives and walks; therefore our whole life should be a continuous endeavor festively to adorn the way of our Savior with thanksgiving and voluntary love (Walther 20). So Christians should spread out everywhere the fruits of the tree of their faith (Walther 20). ,,Because we have taken hold of Christ by faith, through whom we are righteous, we should now go and love God and our neighbor. Call upon God, give thanks to Him, proclaim Him, praise Him, confess Him. Do good to our neighbor, and serve him; do our duty. These are truly good works, which flow from this faith and joy conceived in the heart because we have the forgiveness of sins freely through Christ“ (Luther 133).
13. Rejoice! Our Savior has arrived. Jesus’ disciples cried out »Hosanna to the Son of David; the One arriving in the Name of the Lord is blessed; hosanna in the highest!« Today we the 21st century disciples of Jesus also cry out ,,hosanna“. Yes, we call out for Jesus to save and deliver us from sin, death, and the devil. At His first advent, Jesus conquered sin, death, and the devil, for Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus was the sacrificial lamb offered up on behalf of every sinner. He has instituted for His Church the Sacrament of the Altar whereby He gives us the forgiveness of sin and victory over death and the devil, for Jesus is a male lamb, a ram with powerful horns, who has fought and defeated our great spiritual enemies. At His second advent, Jesus will arrive in the full splendor of His divine glory and might to usher us into His eternal reign. On that last day Jesus will make us pure and sinless, and He will cast death and the devil into hell for Jesus is Christ the Victorious by the cross and the empty tomb. Amen.
14. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal King of Zion, send us the Holy Spirit to keep our eyes focused upon the crucifixion and resurrection of Your first advent and our eyes heavenward in expectant waiting for Your second advent so that we may receive the perfection of beauty that culminates in the day of resurrection. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Matthew © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12th Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 26: Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 1-4 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Copyright © 1963 Concordia Publishing House: Saint Louis.
Nagel, Norman. ,,Where are the Angels“. A sermon preached at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis in 2006/7.
Walther, C.F.W. Selected Sermons. Tr. Henry J. Eggold. Copyright © 1981 Concordia Publishing House. With the liturgical season of Advent, we begin a new Church Year. The Liturgical Year begins with a focus on the first advent of Jesus and His birth in Bethlehem. The Liturgical Year concludes with parables that describe the second advent of Jesus which ushers in the everlasting, resurrected life.
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