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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
There were 7-point-4 and 6-point-1 magnitude earthquakes early last week in Japan; there was a 6‑point-5 earthquake Friday in China, and, closer to home, there were three earthquakes Friday in Oklahoma, one of which was as high as 4-point-3 on the Richter scale. The earthquakes in Asia are probably due to tectonic shifting, while the ones in Oklahoma are being attributed to oil and gas production. On this First Sunday in Advent, there is “seismic” activity in the Gospel Reading, too, attributed to the Advent or “arrival” of the Lord. (The English word “advent” has its roots in the Latin word for “coming to”, and the Greek word St. Matthew uses that is translated as “stirred” is the origin of our English word “seismic”.) In fact, St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account uniquely reports what the English Standard Version translates as the “stirring” or “shaking” of the whole city of Jerusalem: the city asks “Who is this?” and the crowds of visiting pilgrims answer “This is the Prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.” Jesus’s coming to Jerusalem shakes the city as by an earthquake (Filson), exciting it as if to riot (Bornkamm, TDNT 7:196-200), essentially dividing it in judgment, as the prophet Zechariah had foretold of the Lord’s coming (Zechariah 14:4-5), but, as we believers consider the Gospel Reading this morning, we realize that “The Coming One saves us.”
We begin a new Church Year this day, and our three-year series of Readings draws our Gospel Readings primarily from St. Matthew’s account, beginning, as it does in each of the three years, with an option on the First Sunday in Advent for reading the account of Jesus’s Palm Sunday entrance in Jerusalem. We may think of this Reading as more appropriate for the Palm Sunday Processional Gospel, but today the Reading about Jesus’s past coming in humility to save all people especially serves as a guarantee of Jesus’s future coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. Jesus’s past coming truly was in humility: riding on a donkey like King Solomon (1 Kings 1:32-40) with garments strewn before Him like King Jehu, whom we recently discussed in our Midweek Bible Study (2 Kings 9:13). We also hear about the Lord’s coming in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 2:1-5), which describes people of all nations being drawn to the Lord’s house, and the Lord then coming to judge, bringing to people typically ravaged by war an era of peace (Gieschen, 17).
To some extent, the people of Jerusalem, asking what to make of Jesus, were not ready for His coming (Meyer, TDNT 5:587-588), while at least some people in the crowd were willing to confess Jesus, despite the danger of doing so at the time, risking, for example, at least excommunication from the Jewish religion (Kretzmann, ad loc Mt 21:10-11, 116). Are you and I ready for Jesus’s coming? Obviously I am not asking about His past coming in humility to save all people, but I am asking more about His future coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. Are you and I willing to confess Jesus, despite the danger of doing so in our time, risking, for example, being socially cut off from differently‑believing or un‑believing family and friends? At least part of our both being ready for Jesus’s Final Coming and confessing Him is realizing that we need Him to come to us first, that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in or come to Him (Small Catechism II:6) and that without repentance and faith in Him we deserve nothing but death here in time and torment in hell for eternity.
But, the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel and enlightens us with His gifts (Small Catechism II:6), so, drawn to Him, we, with repentance and faith, call out for salvation, as we did this morning in the words of the Introit, excerpted from the same Psalm (118) that the crowds of people in today’s Gospel Reading sang responsively. Like them, we recognize that “The Coming One saves us.” We turn in sorrow from our sin, we trust God to forgive our sin, and we want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin—our sin of not being ready or of failing to confess Him or of whatever our sin might be—God forgives our sin not because we have repented, but because Jesus came to save us.
Today’s Gospel Reading tells us that Jesus’s sending two disciples ahead to find a donkey and its colt to lead back to Him took place to fulfill what God spoke by the prophet Zechariah (9:9) about the Lord’s coming as a humble King mounted on a donkey, but fulfilling the prophecy was not only about details such as the King’s being mounted on a donkey but also about His coming to save His people in the first place. The crowds of people then were shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David!” asking David’s descendant for salvation. They were shouting “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord” praising the promised Coming One and recognizing Him as the Lord God Himself. They were shouting “Hosanna in the highest!” urging the heavenly creatures to echo their refrain. For His part, Jesus had spoken as an all-knowing and all-powerful King and identified Himself as the Lord, but, for us and for our salvation, He humbled Himself to be born into human flesh, to enter Jerusalem on a donkey, and to suffer and die on the cross. Though God in human flesh, Jesus is gentle and lowly in heart, and in Him we find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). Earthquakes accompanied Jesus’s death and resurrection (Matthew 27:51; 28:2, 4), and they will accompany His Final Coming (Matthew 24:7), but we do not need to be afraid, for “The Coming One saves us” and so prepares us for that Final Coming through His Means of Grace.
To be sure, God works through His ministry of Word and Sacrament. God spoke through Zechariah in the Old Testament, and Jesus worked through the disciples He sent with His authority. They went from untying donkeys to forgiving sins (the same Greek word is used for both [for example Matthew 16:19; 18:18]). They used a foal of an animal under the yoke to help proclaim Jesus as the promised Coming One, and then they and their successors themselves were put under the yoke of God’s ministry. Those the Lord sends put His Triune Name upon us with the water and the Word of Holy Baptism, and they individually absolve us in that same Triune Name when we privately confess the sins we know and feel in our hearts. Under their service, we welcome the One Who comes with His Body in bread and His Blood in wine in the Sacrament of the Altar, singing even in the liturgy of Divine Service, Setting Four, “Hosanna in the highest” and praising the One “Who comes in the Name of the Lord” (Lutheran Service Book 208). And, there the One Who comes to save us does save us most concretely. There the Coming One not only saves us but also brings forth from us the fruits of faith, such as those we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 13:11-14): casting off the works of darkness, making no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires, but putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, the armor of light, and walking properly as in the daytime.
“The Coming One saves us.” Again at the beginning of this Church Year and always we remember that Jesus in the past came humbly in order to save all people, that He comes to us now in His Word and Sacrament to give us that salvation, and that He will come in the future in glory to judge the living and the dead. Every present earthquake is a reminder of those in the past and those in the future, but, as we live each day in repentance and faith, we have nothing to fear, for from Him Who was, is, and is to come, we have grace and peace (Revelation 1:4).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +