Advent 1

1  The King Comes with Justice and Peace

God made the children of Israel into a special people.

But it wasn’t their family tree that made them truly special. It was the Word of God that came especially to them.

That’s what the Word of God does wherever God sends it.

Israel alone could be fully certain of its god.

The Lord is the only true God, and any who worship Him must teach according to His Word,

the Word that He had given to the children of Israel.

There are some who suppose that it’s enough

when we give lip service to the God of Israel; that we can move on to other beliefs and speculations

that may interest us.

Israel learned the hard way that the Lord is a jealous god.

Isaiah 44:6, Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.’

This one, true God promised to send His Redeemer to Israel,

and the people who believed were waiting for that day.

This waiting upon the promise

is what makes a true Israelite.

Now, in our text today, the promise is fulfilled: He comes.

We do well to pay attention, and see how He comes,

because now the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

The King Comes with Justice and Peace.

So did He come in time past. So does He come in time present. So shall He come in time future.

2  Matthew 21:1–9

Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

All this was done 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 sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!”

2.1  So did He come in time past.

The children of Israel had promises that no other nation had.

God had spoken to Abraham,

promising to bless the whole world through him.

God had promised the same to Isaac and Jacob. When God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt,

He was demonstrating how the Messiah would

rescue His people from bondage to sin.

When God established the Temple and its sacrifices,

He illustrated

how the guilt of His people would be atoned by Christ, and how that forgiveness is received.

God promised David and Solomon

that a Man would sit upon their throne forever.

Through Isaiah and others,

God also described the suffering and victory of that man,

how He would die in the place of His people.

Now, if you talk to philosophers and many theologians,

they’ll accept the theory

that one man could be chosen to die for all.

They’ll understand the concept

of eternal life given to all as a result.

Yet this will all be in the realm

of “belief,” not fact. of mythology, not history.

That’s how many people consider religion in our time.

This is different.

Here, God has not given us a nice theory of atonement for sins. Instead, He entered His own Creation at a certain time,

taking human flesh and dying in a certain place on earth.

This is the sort of God we have:

not one who speaks only of beliefs or myths, but one who has entered our world in person.

The teaching that God became a man

has been heard in many cultures throughout the world.

But when I point to Jesus Christ, and say,

“This man is God!”

then there’s trouble.

If you want to know what kind of trouble,

consider what happened on the cross.

As surprising as it may be that this man, Jesus, could be God,

there is plenty of evidence for it.

His teaching, His miracles, His resurrection,

all agree that Jesus Christ is true Man, and true God.

This makes Him the rightful King

of Israel — to sit upon David’s throne forever, and of everyone who lives upon the world He made, and especially of those who belong to Him,

who fear Him, trust and keep His Word.

The Son of God came to His people, to His city.

He came to win eternal life, and to to teach the truth that gives life.

Through His suffering and death,

Jesus obtained two things between man and God:

First: justice before God’s law on our behalf,

suffering the full punishment for our sins.

Second: peace between heaven and earth

since God’s Law can no longer accuse us: it condemned Jesus, and now condemns no more.

It’s a matter of plain history:

The King comes with justice and peace,

so did He come in time past.

2.2  So does He come in time present.

So does He also come in time present,

though there are differences.

Then, the Son of God took on human flesh and entered Creation.

Jesus was present as we are present. He won our salvation.

Now, the Son of God comes to us with the Holy Spirit.

He is present — truly present — in His Word,

to instruct us the same way He instructed His first disciples, to call us to repentance and teach us the fear of God, to pronounce God’s forgiveness upon us when we repent.

He’s present in the application of plain water,

when it is connected to the baptismal Word He provided.

In that washing, His righteousness and merit

are truly present, and exchanged for our deadly sinfulness.

He’s present in the supper He established for His Church:

His body and His blood, as He said Himself. For those who receive it in faith and the fear of God:

A meal of personal forgiveness and remission of sin;

But for those who receive it in hardness of heart:

A meal of judgment upon their lack of righteousness.

Our text shows how Jesus came to His royal city long ago:

riding upon a humble donkey, welcomed by the mingled voices of all the common folk.

That was unexpected, and even scandalous

for those who knew what to expect from kings

or from messiahs.

How similar that is to the way He comes today!

The Gospel message is only a collection of humble words, Holy Baptism consists in mere water with spoken words, The Sacrament of the Altar looks like so little.

Who expects to find here the riches of eternal life? Who expects the remission of all their sins before God

through such humble means?

To claim it seems scandalous.

The words of the Divine Service are so appropriate! In those words,

We invite the presence of our Lord

with penitent and forgiven hearts, in the name of the Holy Trinity.

We implore His mercy,

and He blesses us richly with His saving Word.

How humbly He comes to bless us!

How precious is His blessing!

Before He presents to us His body and blood,

We welcome Him with the same words of holy scripture

found in today’s text:

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!

I said earlier that those who wait upon God’s promise

are the true Israelites.

So it is also when Jesus comes in the present.

All who believe Him are true Israelites:

God’s people on earth.

This is what He told His disciples (Mark 16:16):

He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

He truly comes to us, but only faith can receive Him.

So we hear the meaning of true justice in the thunder of God’s Law.

It threatens us all, and would surely kill us,

but we also hear what Jesus did, receiving it all in our place.

So we also hear the meaning of true peace in His Gospel:

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

So does the King come with justice and peace in time present.

2.3  So shall He come in time future.

So shall the King also come in time future.

though there are differences.

Now, He comes in humility as He came in the past.

Then, He will come in glory and power. Then, He will bring all the angels of heaven,

the dead will rise, and He will gather His own together

in the sight of all flesh.

But just as He comes in a surprising way now:

in the humble trappings of Word and Sacrament,

so He will also come in a suprising way in time future.

Jesus will come as a thief in the night,

when nobody expects Him.

Everyone will be in the middle of something,

like when somebody calls in the middle of dinner.

Only instead of a telemarketer or your uncle Joe,

it will be Jesus coming with the trumpets of heaven.

The nice thing about an inconvenient phone call

is that you can hang up and continue your dinner.

That won’t be the case when Jesus returns. It’s not optional,

and there will be no more second chances.

It will be Judgment Day:

the day of reckoning,

when all the evil deeds ever done will come to light.

This will be worse than a nightmare

for anyone with guilt attached to his name.

But it will be the best day yet

for anyone whose name is written in the Book of Life.

On that day all who have the peace of God

won by Jesus, received through faith alone,

will be recognized as the true Israel.

Though now we may suffer sorely,

hidden by the sin that still plagues our flesh,

then we will be free at last, forever.

Justice will be met.

Every sin against God will be matched

to its proper punishment.

But your sins have already met their match

in the cross of Jesus Christ.

So in the fear of God our Savior, we will enter our Peace.

Every time He comes to His people,

our King comes with justice and peace.

Let’s receive Him with hosannas,

for He has truly redeemed us,

now He truly forgives us,

and He will truly grant us life in heaven.

Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!