The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Mark, the 11th chapter:
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And 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!”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It’s odd, isn’t it, that the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem should also be for us the traditional first Gospel reading in the Advent season. Yet, Advent and Lent, Advent and Holy Week are so inextricably linked, that it begins to make more sense the more we look at it.
The incarnation, the Son of God taking upon human flesh, was necessary in order that God might die, for a spirit only can’t die, but a body can. Christmas and the Cross are together there. Advent looks back towards the hope of the incarnation, forward to the second coming, and Lent encourages us to look back on the passion of Christ as well as look forward to the day we will need no longer repent. Advent is about the second coming of Christ when He returns to dwell with His people bodily forever, Holy Week begins where Jesus comes into Jerusalem to die, bodily, for His people forever.
The two seasons, Advent and Lent, and what they lead into, Christmas and Easter, are so linked, the Church has often put the same readings in at the same time to make the point. Thus it is we find ourselves on Palm Sunday today.
After all, we Christians are awaiting the end of all things in this life so that we might be saved out of it, right? We want our Lord to come down, take His vengeance upon the earth that has forsaken Him, and return it to the state of perfection that He created it in. We want our deliverance. And we will have it.
If this is what you want, then this is really what God had in mind all along. The people in Jerusalem who welcomed Jesus into their city by shouting hosannas and waving palm branches wanted a different kind of deliverance. They wanted Jesus to be the conquering king, who was going to come in and finally cast the Romans out of the Promised Land. How dare these heathens take over the land given to them by their God, forget that their ancestors worshipped false gods, idols, lived like the heathens around them and so God took His presences out of the Temple and away from them. They wanted Jesus to wield that sword, cut off some heads, shoot first and ask questions later.
But they wouldn’t get that. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, an animal tied with honor and royalty, even if we don’t see them that way today. The king, returning from war, the war won and his enemies trampled, the king returns on an animal that no one would ride to war. It would say to all people that there is no more fight, the strife is over, the battle done. If the king’s on a donkey, there’s no more need for the horse. And so, when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the donkey, He is saying that the battle is over, the war done, the time of peace is at hand.
The people assumed He was riding in to finally do what they wanted; He, in fact, was riding in to have those same people kill Him. Our first inclination, I think, is to always look to get what we want. We prayed today that God would rend the heavens and come down. We want Him to rip open the skies and do our bidding. We want Him to remove the Republicans. We want Him to take out the Democrats. We want Him to take down the people who do us wrong, who make bad decisions, treat us badly, work against us. We want our God on a puppet’s strings.
But, our Lord does not work that way, at least not on our time. He will come back, He will rend the heavens, and He tells us to pray this way. But, it won’t be for our purposes, it’ll be to do His will. When we pray that He would come, we will get what we’re praying for, but it may be some time before the Lord relieves us of the circumstances we’re praying about. And He will. You see, our Lord will remove our enemies, make things okay. And that day, for sure, will come. It may come soon, it may come on the day of the Resurrection, but it will come.
That’s what Advent really is all about… the waiting. It’s waiting for the second coming of the Christ. We look back to the first coming, when our Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself human flesh in order that He would bear our sin and be our Savior. We learn from Him. We seek after Him. We grasp onto His teachings, follow Him to the cross, we find forgiveness of sins and the promise of the resurrection, we forsake ourselves to serve our neighbors out of love from Christ. And then we look forward. We look forward to the day when He returns, when He comes again, not as an infant lying in a manger, but as the triumphant Lord.
We look forward to the day when He returns and all shall see it. The strife is over, the battle done, now is the Victor’s triumph won, now be the song of praise begun, alleluia! Our Lord began all of this with His resurrection from the grave, His ascension into heaven, and He will come in glory to judge both the living and the dead. The dark night of winter will break open when the Light of the World shines forth upon us all and the world is remade to the perfection He had given it in the beginning.
We cannot wait for this day. This is why we always pray, Come, Lord Jesus. We want Him to come, to take away the enemies of the Church, to take away the world, sin, death, and the devil. We want Him to come and set things right. And we will have to wait for that day, unless He returns. As we wait, we work. We work in the same spirit of His righteousness. We do this, not to win salvation, but to bring salvation to those who need to hear.
Our Lord sends us out into this dark world that we might reach those who are lost, to be angels, messengers, to gather His people into the fellowship of the Church. The Light of the world is coming, and He is to be found in this place. When people want to see, the Church is the light; you are the light, shining forth the light of Christ to a world in pain, a world in need, a world ready to be remade.
Just as our Lord was escorted into Jerusalem with the people who flocked to see Him, so shall He be escorted to this world when He descends from heaven. We shall meet Him and cry out, Hosanna! Save us! Save us now! Save us please! And so He will. And with us, thousands, millions shall come. Our Lord will not come to this earth to do battle, that was won on the cross. Instead, our Lord is escorted in victory, the enemy defeated, put under His feet. Our Lord is victorious, He needs no war steed. He can come on His donkey, He can come driving a Pinto if He wants. It’s all been won, and it is all over. That day is coming. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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