Sermon -- 1st Sunday in Advent (December 3, 2023)

MARK 11:1-10

SEE HOW YOUR KING COMES TO YOU.

In the name + of Jesus.

     We have begun a new church year.  It is our annual walk through the life of Jesus Christ.  The words and works of Jesus are the focal point of our faith.  They are the source of our forgiveness and the reason for our salvation.  So, again we ponder Jesus’ coming (Advent), Jesus’ birth (Christmas), Jesus being revealed as the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Epiphany), Jesus’ sufferings and death (Lent), Jesus’ resurrection (Easter), Jesus ascending to heaven and seated at the right hand of God (Ascension), and Jesus pouring out his Holy Spirit to gather people into the Church (Pentecost).  This review keeps us mindful of all that Jesus has done to secure our eternal life with him.  While there are many parts of Scripture to supply practical advice and can prove beneficial to us, salvation does not come through practical advice.  It comes only through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  If this does not remain central to our worship, we will end up focusing on the wrong things.

     Today’s Gospel reading details Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  That is the first day of Holy Week, more than three decades removed from the Bethlehem manger.  If it seems like our timing is off, it’s because we know that Jesus did not enter the world as a thirty-three-year-old man.  He entered the world as all people do—by a mother giving birth to him.  But we focus on Jesus’ Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem to remember why Jesus came: He came to suffer and to die.  He came as a sin offering for all people.  See how your king comes to you.

     The crowds who welcomed Jesus were very enthusiastic.  They surrounded Jesus in his procession down the Mount of Olives and up the hill into the city.  “Those who went before and those who followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!  Hosanna in the highest’” (Mark 11:9-10)!  Jesus was received as a king.  He was not the first king to enter Jerusalem, however.

     Jerusalem had seen its share of kings come through.  The first was David who established Jerusalem as his city and made Israel a great power.  Other kings followed David.  Some were good; some were bad.  Years later, King Jehoash (1 Kings 14) from the northern tribes of Israel came to Jerusalem and tore down a large portion of their city wall, leaving the city unprotected.  Later, King Sennacherib of Assyria surrounded Jerusalem.  He was prepared to destroy it, but the Lord provided relief.  Then Nebuchadnezzar leveled the city and reduced it to ashes.  Later the Greeks came, then the Romans.  Jerusalem had seen a fair number of kings come to their city.  More often than not, it spelled bad news.

     What would a king want with Jerusalem?  To establish power.  To demand tribute.  To subjugate its people.  Why else would kings advance their own kingdoms?  They seek to dominate as much as they can to satisfy their insatiable appetites.  So, when kings came to Jerusalem, they came to overpower, to exact tribute, to demand allegiance, and if negotiations failed, to go to war, to destroy, and to kill.  From Nebuchadnezzar, to Xerxes, to Alexander the Great, to Caesar Augustus, and even to Herod the Great, that was the goal.  See how those kings came.

     Now see how your King comes to you.  If Jesus had intended to strike fear into the hearts of the people and the powers of Jerusalem, he did a terrible job of it.  Jesus did not come with an armed guard; he came with twelve disciples.  Jesus did not come with a war cry; he was surrounded by singing.  Jesus did not come with a battle-tested horse eager to charge.  He came on a donkey, and a borrowed one at that.  Jesus did not come to declare war, but to bring peace.  And he did not come to slaughter, but to be slain.  See how your King comes to you.

     The crowds sang their praises.  “Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!  Hosanna in the highest” (Mark 11:9-10).  Jesus did come to establish a kingdom.  He came to be exalted to a throne, and his position would be superior to every power and authority that exists.  Jesus is the Lord God Almighty.  He came in the name of the Lord to do the work of the Lord.  It was not a lust for power; he already had that.  Jesus did not come to take prisoners, but to release us from sin and death.  See how your King comes to you, and why.

     Many people do not want a king.  We enjoy our freedoms which allow us to mock our leaders and protest against their laws.  If enough people demand it, laws get changed.  It had been ensconced in the constitution of the state of Michigan that abortions were illegal.  To perform one or to obtain one was criminal.  But a referendum on the ballot just a few years ago not only made abortions permissible, they made them a guaranteed constitutional right.  There are other examples where laws have been completely reversed because people’s ideas of good and evil have changed.  (To be fair, some reversals have been evils that were corrected.)  But when people’s morals and ideals change, we can get our laws changed.

     This is not the case under kings.  If you lived under a king, you would not have the liberty to mock him or protest his laws.  That would be met with swift and brutal retaliation.  The word of the king is final.  In the days of Daniel, his enemies tried to remove him not just from office but from the face of the earth.  They recognized that the only way to trap him would have to do with his faith.  They hatched a plan that no one should pray to any god other than King Darius for 30 days.  This flattered King Darius who believed that he was at least partially divine.  They said, “Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked” (Daniel 6:8).  This was the policy—that a law drafted by the Medes and Persians could never be altered.  After all, to revoke the law would suggest that the king made a mistake.  And if the king is divine, there is no way he could admit a mistake.  Such is the nature of kings.

      Now, if an earthly king’s word could not be altered or repealed, how much more firm is the word from the King of heaven and earth!  The laws of the Medes and Persians came to an end when their empire was conquered by another king.  But the kingdom of God will never be overthrown.  Therefore, his word endures forever.  As Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).  God’s word and God’s will are eternal, unalterable, and irrepealable.  That’s because the Lord does not change.

     Since he is King of heaven and earth, all people are subject to his word.  Complaining about the word of the Lord will not change it.  Protesting God’s Commandments or mocking the Lord who gave them will only incur the King’s wrath.  We can complain that God’s word is hard to do.  We can insist that we have found a better way.  We can even argue that the Lord is not our King if we don’t like what he has to say.  None of that changes his word.  None of that excuses us from keeping it.  And none of that terminates the King’s rule.  So, what does a king do to traitors and rebels?  He will deliver a crushing, damning blow to all who have fought against him, turned away from him, or have failed to serve him.  This is why Sennacherib attacked Jerusalem, and why Nebuchadnezzar and the Romans destroyed it.

     But see how your King comes to you.  Jesus shows you the heart of the Father.  “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  God the Father gave his Son to death.  Jesus came willingly and knowingly to Jerusalem to be the sin offering which appeases the wrath of God and which atones for all sins.  The eternal judgment deserved by sinners would be taken by the eternal Son.

     What a marvel!  Kings do not go forth to die for their subjects; kings send their subjects forth to die for them.  But see how your King comes to you!  He comes meekly so that you will not fear him.  He comes humbly so that he may serve you.  He comes as a lamb to the slaughter—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Your King comes to be slain, to appease God’s wrath, and to satisfy all the demands of God’s Law.  In doing so, he brings you pardon and peace.  He who went into death for you has conquered death for you, too.  Jesus lives and he reigns eternally over all things.  And he lives and reigns to serve you, to bless you, and to save you.

     See how your King comes to you.  Jesus still comes to you in the Holy Sacrament.  When we celebrate it, we join in the songs of the worshipers of old: “Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  … Hosanna in the highest” (Mark 11:9-10)!  For he comes to us in the name of the Lord.  Jesus is the Lord, and he comes to do the Lord’s work: to save sinners.  So, the Lord comes to us in bread and wine, declaring, “This is my body.  This is my blood.”  He still veils his glory here, but he delivers all he has won for you.  The body that bore your sins is given to you for your pardon.  The blood which was shed for you is given to you to grant you peace.  See how your King comes to you—to bless and to save, and to establish an eternal kingdom of life and peace.

     When we enter a new calendar year, the first page on your calendar says “January.”  It is named after a mythical god, Janus.  Janus is depicted as having two faces—one looking forward and one looking backward.  Well, we have entered a new Church year.  We do not honor Janus, but we do copy his image in that we look forward and we look backward to prepare for Jesus’ coming.  We look backward to marvel how our King first came to us.  He came in humility to suffer and die in order to redeem us from sin and death.  But we also look forward.  We know that Jesus will come again.  This time, he will come in glory to judge the living and the dead.  Thanks to Jesus’ first coming, we no longer fear his second coming.  Rather, we sing and yearn and pray for it.

     See how your King comes to you.  He will come again.  As we look backward, we cry, “Hosanna in the highest!”  As we look forward, we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.”  And he will. 

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.