Luke 19:28–40
“The Messiah Comes to Save”
A blessed Advent season to you. Advent means “coming”, and of course
Christmas is coming – and for many it’s been here since November 1st,
especially in our ants-in-the-pants American culture.
But the Church is more patient and orderly. We take our time approach the celebration of
Christ’s birth. And so, the season of
Advent. A mournful longing that takes us
back to join the Old Testament people of God who prayed and waited and watched
for the fulfilling of God’s messianic promise.
And much like Lent strikes a sober and even somber note of repentance
which prepares us for the seriousness of Holy Week and the joy of Easter –
Advent makes us liturgically ready for Christmas joy and celebration.
Advent also carries forward the reminder that yes, Christ
has come, and yes, Christ is coming again!
Once he came in humility as the Babe of Bethlehem. But his Second Advent is at hand – he will
come again, but in glory, to judge the living and the dead. We heard quite a bit about the last day, the
end times, and the judgment day in the last few weeks. Now that same theme reverberates in Advent –
Christ is coming, and coming soon. Here
we even use blue paraments, in part, to remind us when he comes again it will
be in the sky – and all will see him.
But there are other Advents.
There are the Old Testament advents – when he came and appeared in the
burning bush, the pillar of cloud and fire, and as the Angel of the Lord. There was the wrestling match with Jacob by
the Jabbock River. There was the visit
to Abraham with the two angels. Even
when he stood in the road and blocked Balaam’s donkey.
And then in the New Testament, perhaps you wouldn’t call it
an advent but simply an appearance – but the Ascended Christ appeared to Saul
on the road to Damascus, and to John on the Island of Patmos.
But today, the lectionary invites us to consider his
triumphal advent, his kingly arrival on Palm Sunday. Accompanied by the fanfare of the crowds, the
cries of Hosanna, the palm branches strewn and the garments spread out before
him. He’s welcomed as king – as Son of
David – and really, as Messiah. The one
who comes in the name of the Lord!
It’s a beautiful and celebratory event in Christ’s ministry
that infects us with joy even today, as we see it as a foreshadowing of his
great and final Advent in glory at the close of the age. Christ is coming, and coming to save. “Hosanna, save us now!” the church still
prays, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus”
And yet not everyone took kindly to such adulation and praise. The Pharisees said to him, “teacher, rebuke
your disciples”. And this is something
maybe we need to examine a little further.
Well, for one thing, Jesus never responds well when other
people tell him who to rebuke. Do you
want us to call down fire and brimstone on those cities, Lord? No.
Send these annoying children away.
Oh, then Jesus gets indignant.
Send this woman away, she keeps crying out after us! But Jesus engages her in conversation, and
eventually grants her petition. He’s a
Lord of mercy, after all, and loves to welcome needy sinners into his good
favor.
To be sure, Jesus does rebuke people. He rebukes Peter, who would point him away
from the cross, “no, Lord, this shall never happen to you”, “Oh Yeah? Get behind me, Satan”. He rebukes the disciples, “Let the little
children come to me and do not hinder them”.
He rebukes the crowd who wanted to stone the adulterous woman, “Let the
one without sin cast the first stone”.
But he will rebuke on his timetable, and in his own way, those who need
a rebuking. Usually it’s those who
oppose his word, and would stand in the way of the gospel, or keep people from
receiving his grace. It’s those who,
like Satan himself, would turn Jesus away from his mission to the cross – if
only they could.
The Pharisees here on Palm Sunday understand well the
implications of the crowd’s celebration.
They would have been right in seeing all this messianic hubbub as pure
blasphemy – if Jesus wasn’t, in fact, the Messiah. If he was just some teacher, even a great
teacher. If he was only a man. If he was anything but the One promised
deliverer, David’s Son and David’s Lord.
But he is all that, and much more.
And he deserves the praises of the crowd, and much more.
Palm Sunday, as we’ve said, is a foretaste of the great
Second Coming of Christ. When he comes
in glory, and all his angels with him, then the fanfare will be even more – it
will be heavenly. Then he will come to
his own, not just his holy city – but to his holy bride.
Jesus replies to the Pharisees, “If these were silent, even
the stones would cry out” Let’s unpack
that a little bit, too.
On one level, he is accepting and validating their worship
of him, as he always does. Jesus rarely
claims his divinity directly, but certainly never refuses the worship and
praises of the faithful. He is God,
after all, and will never lie about himself.
But when God is praised and worshipped in the Scriptures, it
is less often for who he is, and more often for what he does for his
people. Their shouts of Hosanna, a form
of worship, are at the same time a confession that he does, in fact, “save
us!” They may not fully understand how
this will happen, they may be confused about what or whom they are being saved
from – but the truth still stands. The
Son of David is on the scene. And he
comes to save.
That we need saving is also part of that confession, and we
can say it just as much as the Palm Sunday crowds. We need saving from sin. We need saving from death. We need saving from the devil. We need him to be the savior because we can’t
save ourselves. And so we rejoice that
the Messiah has come to save.
Praises are due.
Worship must be given. Honors are
afforded. Rejoicing is only
natural. It simply must be said. And if the people didn’t say it, even nature
itself would be forced to bear witness.
The stones would cry out. The
Messiah has come to save.
There’s one more advent we haven’t mentioned, and that is
his coming among us today. Jesus has
arrived, and is here. He is among us,
for 2 or 3 and more have gathered in his name.
He is present, by his word of absolution and Holy Gospel. He is preached and proclaimed to you from
this pulpit. And soon he will be in our
midst in a most wonderful way, in, with, and under the bread and wine of his
Holy Sacrament. Here, too, the Messiah
has come to save.
And here, today as well, those who are saved break out in
songs of praise. Think about what we do
liturgically. Before we receive Sacrament,
we sing the Sanctus, which connects the song of the angels, that God is “holy,
holy, holy” with the “Hosanna in the highest” of Palm Sunday. We’re rehearsing and echoing the song of the
crowd that day, in the song of the church through the ages when the Messiah
comes to save. And we sing after –
“Lord, let your servant depart in peace…. For my eyes have seen your
salvation”. We depart from his
sacramental presence with the peace of his salvation – because here he has come
to act – to forgive – to save.
And if we didn’t recognize – even the stones might cry
out. In fact, that’s sort of what
happens anyway. Think about it. What’s more dead and inert than a stone. What’s more lacking life, than something like
a stone that has never even been alive?
One answer might be: the human
heart, born into the corruption of sin.
And yet our Lord Jesus Christ, by his Spirit working through the Gospel
and the water of Baptism, creates in me and you a new heart, and a right
spirit. He brings life from the dead,
even, as we are buried and raised with Christ.
John the Baptist once tangled with the Pharisees, too. He anticipated one of their arguments, “We
have Abraham as our father”. John was
not impressed, he said, “God is able from these stones to raise up children for
Abraham.” And surely, that is what God
does, through the miracle of the Gospel.
He raises up hard-hearted, stone-dead people of sin into fully new
creations, alive and well, who shout and cry out their hosannas of praise to
the Messiah who has come to save.
His Advent is, or should we say his advents are – at hand. He came in the flesh, he came to his holy
city, he came to the cross, he came to life again. He comes in the word, he comes in the meal,
and he will come again in glory, to judge the living and the dead. But for his people, the Messiah always comes
to save. Thanks be to God.
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