Your King Comes to You!

Matthew 21:1-11 This lesson from Matthew’s Gospel is read two times in the church year.  When it is preached on Palm Sunday the emphasis is on what Jesus rides into Jerusalem to do:  to suffer and die and rise again for the sins of the world.  When it is preached on the first Sunday in Advent the emphasis is on who it is that rides into Jerusalem that day.  It answers the question that we hear from the citizens of Jerusalem:  “Who is this”?

Matthew gives a four-fold answer to that question.  He shows Jesus to be the Lord—the God of Israel en-fleshed. He shows him to be the promised King of Israel.  He shows him to be the Savior of the world and he shows him to be the prophet who truly speaks the Word of God.   

As we reflect upon God’s Word to us this morning we will see what each of these pictures of our Lord’s person and work means for us and what our response ought to be as Jesus comes to us in Word and Sacrament just as surely as he came that day to the people of Jerusalem.  The Bible says that:

When they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth-phage, to the Mount of Olives, then 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." 

            Because we live in a very different time and place, the importance of how Jesus refers to himself in these verses is lost on us.  During his earthly ministry Jesus’ favorite title for himself was “Son of Man” but as he rode into Jerusalem to suffer and die, he called himself “the Lord.”

            When we hear that title “the Lord” we tend to think of our word “master” and of course Jesus is our master—the One to whom we yield every part of our life in holy obedience.  But for the people of that day, the title “the Lord” meant much more than just master—it was the name of God himself.  Let me explain.

The Old Testament covenant name of God that was given to Moses to take to the Israelites is comprised of four consonants in the Hebrew—it is called the “tetragrammaton”.  Sometimes in old hymns we see this covenant name of God rendered in English as Jehovah or more recently Yahweh.  The point is this:  the word that was used by the Jews for the covenant name of God was:  Lord.

People who say that Jesus never claimed to be God are either ignorant or intentionally deceitful.  When Jesus called himself the “I am” who existed before Moses, the Jews knew exactly who he was claiming to be and picked up rocks to stone him for blasphemy. Here he called himself- what his fellow Jews called- God.  Jesus claimed to be, and was indeed, the one true God of Israel clothed in human flesh. 

Jesus’ divine identity completely changes how we see what happens as he rides into Jerusalem and dies on the cross and rises again.  It is not just a great king or wise teacher or good man who does these things—it is God who takes on flesh and saves us.  His “humility and suffering and death” take on a whole new dimension when we see who he truly is-- and that knowledge invites our worship and love and trust.

That is why God came to us in the humility and frailty of human flesh of Jesus—so that we could love him and trust him and have a relationship with him. 

Throughout the Old Testament, to come into the presence of God was to know only fear and death because his holiness and our sin.  But God revealed himself in Jesus of Nazareth so that the fear that separated God and man from the time of Adam and Eve would be done away with and we could come to him in faith and love. 

To know Jesus is to know God--and to believe in him-- is the only way to have a life with God.  There has always been just one way of salvation—even back on the days of the prophets and patriarchs—and that is faith in God’s Messiah.  Matthew makes that connection between Jesus and the Messiah promised in Hebrew Scriptures. He writes:

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.' "The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.  They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.  Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 

            Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry and especially during Holy Week—everything that happened—down to the smallest detail-- had been foretold by Hebrew prophets.  Hundreds of prophecies were fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus—including the way he rode into Jerusalem that day. 

            Jesus was the fulfillment of the promised king who would set the prisoners free by the blood of his covenant--shedding his life’s blood upon the cross to set the world free from sin and death.  He was the promised king who would speak peace to the nations—peace between God and all men through him.  He was the promised king whose rule would extend from one end of the earth to another in human hearts everywhere. 

The humble king who rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey was not just any king—but THE king from David’s line who had been promised to the people of Israel.  The bible says that:

The crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David!

            The humble king that the people of Jerusalem welcomed that day was the direct descendant of David—the One whom God had promised would rule over his people forever.  The disciples understood at least that much and they did what you do for your king—they obeyed him.  Matthew tells us that "The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.  The guy who owned the donkey understood it too.  When the disciples came to him asking for his donkey—he gave it because the Lord needed it. 

As the King of the world, Jesus has the right to expect our obedience in all things.  He has the right to use our possessions for his mission.  The point is this:  the identity of Jesus that the Holy Spirit reveals to us today is not some theological speculation far removed from our day-to-day lives but has the deepest implications for how we live our lives.

In every moment of our lives- and in every decision that we make -and in every dollar that we spend-- it is to be our King’s voice that we are to be obey.  But when we are honest with ourselves we see that his word is not always the final word in our lives—that oftentimes we live our lives or some part of our lives in open rebellion against our rightful king-- and for that we deserve what every traitor deserves:  death. 

But the Good News for us today is that Jesus is not only the God in human flesh—he is not only our king—but he is also our Savior.  That’s what the people of Jerusalem were confessing that day when they said:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"  And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" 

The Hebrew word “hosanna” means “save us now” and it reveals that there were at least some people there that day who understood who Jesus was and what he had come to do—that he had come to save the world from sin and death.  And in crying out “hosanna in the highest” they called upon the voices of heaven to join their own just as they had at Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. 

The Holy Evangelists portray this scene in their Gospels because the Holy Spirit wants us to join our voices in confessing Jesus as Lord and King and Savior who fulfilled all the promises of God to save the world. 

But the Holy Evangelists also paint this scene for us so that the citizens’ questions of “who is this?” would continue to resonate in our ears because that question is still being asked by the world today and we Christians are the only ones who have the correct answer—the answer that saves.

Of course there are all kinds of people who have all kinds of answers to the questions about Jesus.  They say Jesus was a great man and a great teacher and a great moral example but those answers won’t save anyone if that is all they know.  Only we in the church have the answer that bestows salvation:  that Jesus of Nazareth, David’s descendant, is God-- and that faith in his death for our sins and his resurrection that gives life is the only way that God has provided for salvation.

When we hear those voices in the Jerusalem crowd asking “who is this” the Holy Spirit would, by these words, open our ears to the same questions being asked today by those around us in this community.  He would open our eyes to the great harvest field that lies before us.  And he would open our hearts so that we might be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have.  An answer from God’s Word.  Matthew writes:  And the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."

            After being identified as Lord and King and Savior maybe it seems to be a bit of a letdown to hear Jesus identified as “the prophet”.  But whether the people that day realized it or not, this title conveys one of the deepest truths as to the identity of Jesus that John brings out in the very first chapter of his Gospel: 

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

            As the en-fleshed Word of God, Jesus was truly THE PROPHET.  He was the voice of the prophets and the content of the prophets and the hope of the prophets.  Everything that is written in the Old Testament is written about him.  The writer to the Hebrews says it this way:

In many and various ways God spoke to his people of old, but now in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.

The person and work of Jesus is God’s last Word to mankind and to know God and to have a life with God all that is needed, is to know that the answer to the question: “Who is this?” is Jesus—our God and our King and our Savior.  May God grant us this saving faith that we might welcome him aright during this Advent Season.  Amen.