Matthew 21,1-11. Populous Zion

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The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

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Matthew 21,1-11     0119

Populus Zion; 1. Sonntag im Advent  01

Bibiana, Virgin Martyr at Rome, ✠ 363 

2. Dezember 2018 

1. О Lord, our Heavenly Father, we give You most humble and hearty thanks for the consolation ministered to us in the gift of Your dear Son Jesus Christ, whom You did send to be a King and Savior, to redeem His people from their sin and to deliver them from the might of Satan and the power of everlasting death. We beseech You to grant unto us Your Holy Spirit to enlighten, govern and sanctify our hearts, so that we may truly acknowledge Him as our King and Savior, and perpetually cling to Him; and at all times grant unto us a true and living faith, so that we may not stumble at His humiliation, Word and Reign, which the world esteems so lightly.  Amen. (Löhe 119)  

2. »Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and arrived at Beth-phage, at 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 shall say: ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.“ This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying: »Say to the daughter of Zion: „Behold, your king is drawing near to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.“« [Zechariah 9,9] The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and He sat on the cloaks. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting: „Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who arrives in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!“ And when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying: „Who is this?“ And the crowds said: „This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.“« 

3. The 1. Sunday in Advent begins the new Church Year with the historic reading from the Palm Sunday account in the Gospel according to Matthew. The 4 weeks in Advent prepare us for the incarnation and birth of Jesus the Christ. Advent, therefore, begins with the emphasis on justification and salvation, and we traditionally refer to Jesus’ Palm Sunday procession as His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus was born into this fallen world to justify and save sinners. John the Baptizer prepared the way for Jesus, and thus Zechariah proclaims the Lord’s salvation.  

4. The Lord our Triune God is a God of action. First to Adam and Eve, He promised to send a savior for His fallen mankind. This promise was given to Abraham and Sarah, childless at the time, that through their son would descend this savior of mankind. At Sinai, the Lord chose Isaac’s grandson Levi as the priestly tribe. Zechariah was a Levite descending from the clan of Abijah (my Father is Yahweh). Zechariah attended to the holy things of the Lord for the holy people of the Lord. Zechariah’s firstborn son, John, was the great herald for Jesus the Christ. Zechariah was a priest in the temple. He was the father of John, older cousin to Jesus. This John would become known as John the Baptizer three decades later. Human frailty prevented John and his wife, Elizabeth, from having children. Both were old, and Elizabeth was barren. They were in the twilight of their years and the shadow of death encroached ever upon them. 

5. At the birth of his son John, Zechariah proclaimed: »You will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who are seated in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace« (Luke 1,76-79). He is recalling both the words of the Psalmist and the Prophet Isaiah: »Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil, for Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me« (Psalm 23,4). »Arise, shine, for your Light has arrived, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you« (Isaiah 60,1). 

6. Darkness envelopes the human heart corrupt in its sinfulness. From such wicked hearts arise fear, prejudice and hatred. Human suffering is the result of wicked hearts that is born out in hurtful words and atrocious deeds. The grave and abandonment in hades awaits the sinner .  

7. Zechariah knows that the advent of the Messiah shall be as glorious as the sunrise giving light to the night. Jesus is this Messiah and Morning Star. Cynewulf writes in his Anglo-Saxon poem of Christ: 

 Hail Morning Star, Brightest of angels Thou, 

 sent unto men upon this middle-earth,  

 Thou art the True Brilliance of the sun, 

 radiant above the stars, and from Thyself 

 illuminest forever all the tides of time! 

 And as Thou, God indeed begotten of God, 

 Thou Son of the True Father, wast from aye 

 without beginning in the heavens glory, 

 so now Thy handiwork in its sore need 

 prayeth Thee boldly, that Thou send to us 

 the Radiant Sun, and that Thou come Thyself 

 to enlighten those who for so long a time, 

 were wrapt around with darkness and here in gloom, 

 have sat the lifelong night; shrouded in sin 

 death’s dark shadow had they to endure. 

 Hopeful now we trust in the salvation 

 brought to the hosts of men through God’s own Word, 

 which was in the beginning co-eternal 

 with God, the Almighty Father and is now 

 flesh void of blemish, that the maiden bare 

 to help the wretched. God was seen ’mong us 

 in all His sinlessness; together they dwelt 

 the Creator’s Mighty Son and the Son of Man 

 in peace on earth wherefore as it is meet 

 we may well thank the Lord of Triumph aye, 

 that He vouchsafed to send to us Himself (Crist 104-129). 

8. Jesus Christ is the Morning Star, Splendor of the Eternal Light and Sun of justice: He draws near and gives light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. John the Baptizer is the messenger for the Messiah, lesser light of the Eternal Light and moon of repentance: he arrives to bear witness about the Light and to prepare a people ready for the Lord (John 1,7; Luke 1,17). 

9. The father becomes the son, and the son becomes his father. Zechariah proclaims the advent of the Messiah and 30 years later John proclaims as his father did 3 decades earlier. Their dual message is: the Lord shows mercy and remembers His covenant by redeeming His people and guiding our feet into the way of peace. 

10. Jesus gives light to those seated in darkness and in the shadow of death. For those in the darkness Jesus is the Light, and for those in the shadow of death Jesus is the Life. The Apostle John speaks of this Divine Light and Life in his Gospel: »In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The True Light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world« (John 1,4-9).  

11. John prepared the way for Jesus by preaching: »Repent, for the reign of heaven is at hand« (Matthew 3,2). This reign of heaven was manifested on Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem where 5 days later He would be crucified in the place of sinners and raised as the first fruit of their resurrection. The reign of heaven is solus Christus (Christ alone) who entered Jerusalem as her rightful king who died as a cursed sinner and rose three days later as our Victorious Redeemer. We rejoice in this Savior’s first advent and we await his second.  Amen. 

12. Let us pray. O God, You shine forth from Zion and are the perfection of beauty; help us prepare for Jesus’s advent with repentant hearts so that when we celebrate His birth we may do so with joyful hearts certain of our forgiveness and eternal life.   Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.     

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith. Copyright © 1902 Frank Carroll Longaker.