The First Sunday in Advent – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Matthew 21:1-9 “The Humble King Comes to Shouts of Hosanna”
December 1, 2024 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank You, we bless and praise You forever, that You sent Your Son to rule over us poor sinners, who for our transgressions justly deserved to remain in the bondage of sin and Satan, and that in Him You gave us a meek and righteous King, who by His death became our Savior from sin and eternal death. We beseech You so to enlighten, govern and direct us by Your Holy Spirit, that we may ever remain faithful to this righteous King and Savior, and not, after the manner of the world, be offended by His humble form and despised Word, but, firmly believing in Him, obtain eternal salvation; through the same, Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, by Veit Dietrich, p. 147)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 21st chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
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 coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, who is in the midst of you, serving you in the Means of Grace, and He will come again to restore you fully into eternal glory, dear fellow redeemed:
What makes a person having power and authority so special? We will run into people who say, “I have no reason to seek power”, yet as we hear that statement, everyone is looking for a person who has power and authority. In our country, we take pride that we don’t have a King ruling over us, yet when you look at the office of the President, it can sometimes look like they are a king. To find the answer to this question, we only need to go back into Scripture. For starters, we see that the world is created by God. With humans being His creation, it is in His creation we see there is someone who reigns over us. Since the fall, the power that He has is power we now crave. A strong leader means that we have stability, we have strength, and we have safety. Now there are two directions we can go to find this. We can go after those who have their own interests in mind. Or, we can look and see that one of the rulers who has authority comes to us. He comes because He cares, and this is what He has been doing for our entire existence. The humble king comes to shouts of hosanna.
Now it may be confusing as to why on the first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of the festival half of the church year, we always hear a text about Jesus’ triumphal journey into Jerusalem? This happens because the event that is taking place in our text for today is an event that is happening now and it is an event that will happen in the future. So, as we see our Savior come, we need to analyze His first coming. 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.” Jesus knows the difficult journey that lies ahead. He knows what awaits Him at the end of the week. These thoughts don’t distract Him from His heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. So, He carries it out and He reveals to His people who He is, He is the King.
This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” Here is the fulfillment of the Prophet Zechariah. Jesus begins His journey knowing what He needs, a donkey and her colt. He knows right where they are and He sends His disciples to get them. The prophet prophesied Jesus is the coming King and like His ancestor Solomon, He is riding into Jerusalem. The problem with the whole scenario for the people is the fact that Jesus is completely fulfilling this prophesy. He is coming to them humble. The people do not want a humble king. They want a king of victory. The victory they have in mind is not the one Jesus has in mind. Scripture reveals this as their thoughts and chants completely change at the end of the week.
Why do the crowds change their minds? They have everything going for them right now. This is the promised Messiah here to save them. They are shouting about it. Everything is pointing to Jesus being the guy, it shouldn’t seem possible for the people to scream for His death later. We can’t point fingers because people are all alike. The people of the Old Testament watched as their God came to their rescue, using His Almighty hand to bring them out of Egypt. Look how many of them died in unbelief. In our text Jesus has all the marks of the king, what they wanted Him to be, but His message is not a message they want to hear. Most people do not want to hear the message that Jesus is still bringing us today. Some are under the assumption that the King is not around anymore or maybe He will change His mind on some of the earthly things that are relevant today.
So, the teachings of Jesus have not changed. Jesus doesn’t change with times. The Scriptures continue to point out He is the King. The problems that arise with our coming King is that we can continue to have expectations on what He is supposed to do. Our minds like every mind in human history still change. There are some days we are so excited that our king continues to come to us. There are other days when we are caught in our sins, and it would be better if He just stayed away. Back and forth and back and forth we go. Could you imagine if Jesus did that? What if He would go back and forth on wanting to save us? Here is God the Son, Redeemer of the world, actively coming down to take our place. If He would say no at any point to come to us, we would be in trouble. In our changing of trying to obey God’s law and then going on to do sin, we have failed one too many times. As we can be faithless, our King stayed faithful to the plan in coming to us, remaining humble, and hearing our shouts of hosanna.
The people had that part right. They needed to shout out for their King to save them. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” You have the people shouting for the coming king who has made Himself known to save them. This is the promised Son of David, He will reign on the throne of His father’s, and His kingdom will have no end. This is the correct moment for the Savior to come to them. The work is almost done. He even knows that they have the shouts wrong and He continues on to save them.
The coming King continues on, answering the shouts of Hosanna. Thankfully by His grace and humility, nothing will be able to stop Him. Of course, His enemies will try. They throw everything they can at the King. They hope to overwhelm Him with suffering. He watches as the shouts change, forgetting the pleas to be saved, to shout of “crucify Him!” Out of all the heartache, God never gave up on His people. He sent His Son; the King comes and gives up His life on the cross. As the King comes and dies for His people, this wasn’t the end. The King wouldn’t leave them forever. He tells them He will remember them. St. Paul writes, But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His.” (2 Timothy 2:19a). He sees who are His and He continues to come to them and clothe them in His righteousness.
In this season of Advent, you continue to see how you are clothed in the King’s righteousness. As the King continued to come to the aid of His people, He hears your cries and confession. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” You are here because He answers your cries. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords vanquished His foes and reigns on high. You are also here today because of His reign as He said to His disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). You know these words as they come before the baptismal command. The way in which your king marks you and clothes you. In your baptismal grace you have been marked an heir of His kingdom.
It is with this mark you will access the true kingdom of your Lord. You might be wondering what or where is it then? It isn’t on earth, and it will never be noticeable. Jesus tells you, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:20b-21). You pray for it, and it certainly comes to you through the Holy Spirit when you believe His Word just as St. Paul writes, For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Coming to you now, He reveals to you how He is still steadfast. Your King and Savior humbled Himself for you. He hears your cries because of your sins. He redeems your shouts of “Hosanna” with His cry on the cross, “it is finished!”
Now it is indeed finished, the world has been redeemed, and Jesus’ kingdom established for all. In His coming, the world can be a part of it. As Zechariah prophesied, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he” (Zechariah 9:9a), with a change of hearts they can be brought in. They can be clothed in the same righteousness and hold the same salvation. The King is here before all coming in the Means of Grace. And as His kingdom is in your midst, Isaiah is right, and it will last longer than this. “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this (Isaiah 9:7). With authority He will reign and as your king forever, where you will never cry again. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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