Advent of New Life :: Matthew 21:1-9
Then the crowd, those going before him and those following, continued to cry out to the Son of David, saying, Save us, please! Blessed is the One Coming in the Name of the Lord! Save us, please, in the Highest Heavens!
Yes, Come Lord Jesus! Save us now!
Today we begin a new year of looking forward to this Advent of our Lord, the day he will forever and finally come to save us!
BEHOLD, JESUS IS ALWAYS COMING TO FULFILL THE ADVENT OF HIS BLESSINGS
1. We generally are always eager to see the advents of our lives fully realized.
There are many advents in our lives. The word advent literally means “coming” or “arrival.” Advent is generally a positive term. That’s because advents normally are filled with hope, peace, love, and joy. So, like expectant mothers, we look forward to their arrival.
To the world, perhaps no advent is bigger than the secular new year ... the day we put away the old and hope for something better in the new. Every year, the media makes a big spectacle of this, with lots of pomp and circumstance. We spend a week talking about the past, then a lot of people like to party like it’s 1999. Personally, I think it is much to do about nothing.
As seasons go, I look forward to the advent of fall. Fall has always been my favorite time of the year. It is filled with color and abundance ... and low humidity. But perhaps as God’s people, we should look forward to the advent of spring, with its new signs of life. Spring is the time that aligns with the Lord’s annual advent announced in Exodus 12. There, God marks the advent of new life. He said, (the month of Nisan) will mark for you the beginning of months; it will mark the first month of the year for you.
2. Which begs me to ask, why are we so eager to celebrate Advent now?
It’s tempting to say Advent is all about getting ready for Christmas, but that’s not entirely accurate. Advent does remind us that God has come to us in the flesh, and that God will come again in the flesh … but you won’t hear Christmas bells in our Advent Gospel readings.
As church seasons go, Advent is more of a season of repentance and preparation. Take today’s Gospel ... Jesus knows where he is going, and he is eager to get there. First, we see him sending two disciples ahead of him to prepare the way. He is making his entry into the city of peace, Jerusalem ... to be rejected, condemned, crucified, all events he has already foretold three times ... he is coming to people who will deny him. Our Lord is coming to die. Like the kings before him, he places himself under the yoke in preparation to come and sit in majesty on the cross. Along the way, we will hear him preparing us for the day he comes in power and might, on the clouds in glory.
Behold, your king is coming ... in the flesh ... He is coming to give us word and sacraments. He is coming to redeem you this way. We shouldn’t look for another. Jesus is the man. Jesus is our God. He is coming to deliver the forgiveness of your sins.
This is what advent is about! Jesus is coming! Hosanna in the highest!
3. Our Lord is always eager to deliver this to us. But first, he must lead us into repentance to receive the forgiveness of sins through his means of grace.
Do you look forward to the advent of these holy days we observe every week, when we return to our baptism, hear absolution, and receive the Supper? Do you remember how these sacraments, commanded by our Lord, give you hope, peace, love, and joy, knowing that through the fulfillment of his Advent in Word and sacraments he is able to lift you out of this valley of sorrows unto himself in the highest heavens? That’s what his sacraments are for.
Baptism is not simply a symbol of the past or a hollow ritual designed to memorialize your life in Christ. It is a glorious means of grace, through which the Holy Lord God comes to us and blesses us with faith in Christ. We should keep his font at the center of our lives. His advent through water and word seals us and marks us as one of the redeemed, one of the chosen ones to whom he has come. At this font we remember he is coming.
Behold, this baptism saves us now! (1 Pt 3:21) As Luther wrote: Not only do the Holy Scriptures teach, but we firmly believe that baptism works the forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal life to all who believe (SC).
Then out of the waters of baptism, Christ leads us to the advent of the Divine Service, where behold, your king continues to come to you at this altar, proclaiming his absolution and delivering his Supper, a feast that has no end, a feast for the many, a feast of forgiveness for you.
I always look forward to the advent of the Lord’s feast. Here, at his altar, he provides the finest bread ... his own body ... and the finest wine ... his own blood ... given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. It saves us now ... because where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation. On account of this, the Lord’s Supper is indeed called a food of souls, which nourishes and strengthens the new man, who rises daily through baptism, until we arrive in the eternal life God prepared for you.
Yes, Lord Jesus! Save us now!
4. Jesus is always eager to come to you through these means.
Brothers and sisters, in Christ, that’s why we are here today. Our congregation was established for this, to host public divine service. More than that, our confessions urge us to receive them weekly. Here, God enables us to lift up (our souls) as we sing in our Introit. And that’s why the lectionary brings us back to see Jesus enter Jerusalem today.
The world around you continues to reduce Jesus to be simply a good man with a good word about good living. That’s what the people in Jerusalem were doing when they cried out, Hosanna to the son of David. The Hebrew word hosanna had lost is original meaning. Is that what you do? Properly speaking, their cry Hosanna literally means, Save us, now ... or Save us, please. But their words belie them. The people saw in Christ only a man. Is that who you see? As Matthew reports in verses 10 and 11, immediately following our reading. When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying, Who is this? And the crowds said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee (vv. 10-11). Yes, just a man.
How have you been doing the same?
Have you reduced Jesus and his word to something less, denying his power and grace to save you now ... spurning his word, ignoring his sacraments, declaring that you can save yourselves?
5. Brothers and sisters in Christ, repent now, because your king is coming.
The world has denied the divinity of Christ for too long. They look right past all of the miracles that prove he is the author of life. They deny his true nature ... true God and true man ... the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. They deny his true innocence. They repeatedly crucify him, denying him, slandering him, betraying him.
Instead ... Behold, your king is coming to save you!
Confess your sins and your need for a savior who continually comes to you.
6. To be sure, Jesus eagerly came once in the flesh to save his people.
That’s what his first advent was for. God lived in the flesh for you. God in the flesh suffered for you. God in the flesh bled and died on the cross for you. God in the flesh has risen from the grave for you. And God in the flesh has ascended into heaven to prepare a place for you before he comes again to take you from this valley of sorrows to himself in heaven.
Until then let us always be eager to receive all the blessings of God. God desires all men to come to the knowledge of this truth.
But what a comfort it is to realize that Jesus is eager to come to help and sustain us ... to refresh and heal us ... to save us and make us whole through the proclamation of his word and the administration of the sacraments! On account of all that our Lord does for us, we who live in our baptisms have every reason to join the people of Jerusalem evermore shouting for joy, singing Hosanna to the son of David in truth. Blessed is the one coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest! For as often as we eat his body and drink his blood, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
You may find yourselves being pulled in many different directions throughout the year. You may find yourselves being pulled away from our Lord’s house. We crave rest, but we don’t find it within ourselves. We won’t find it in our numerous activities. If anything, we become more tired and stressed out than before.
So let us come and celebrate in eager anticipation of his Advent of New Life. As Saint Paul said, You know the hour has come to wake from your sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed (Rm 13:11).
He is coming without any merit on your part.
He is coming to comfort you.
He is coming to bring you eternal peace.
Thanks be to God ... Jesus is always coming to deliver the mercies of God every day.