Holy Gospel: Matthew 21:1-9
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 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. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Ad Te Levavi (Advent 1)
Matthew 21:1-9
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
December 1, 2024
“Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” With these words, the prophet Zechariah not only perfectly predicted Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem 500 years before it happened, but he described Jesus’ entire earthly ministry. Jesus comes to His own in great humility. Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 20, “The Son of Man came not to be served by to serve, and give His life as a ransom for many.” (vs. 28) Except Scripture told us that He would come in this way, we would never believe it. This is not how we would expect a great king, let alone our God to come to us. We do not treat each other in this manner. Rather, when we are offended, we lord it over the one who offends us. If someone does us wrong, we hold it against him and cut him out of our lives. If my brother sins against me, I’m not going to seek him out to be reconciled with him, rather, I’m going to wait for him to come groveling back to me to apologize. And if I think he is sorry enough, then I just might forgive him. But if not, he’s dead to me. That’s how we want to treat each other. We aren’t patient. We aren’t understanding of others’ weaknesses. We remember their sins. We get frustrated that they don’t understand things as we understand them. Although we are all men and women of the dust, who have our own sins, and will soon return to the dust, we exalt ourselves above others instead of treating them with humility and kindness.
Yet, not so with Christ. He is the very Lord of heaven. By Him all things were created and are held together. He shares equal glory and honor with God the Father and Holy Spirit. He is worthy of worship from all angels, humans, indeed, from all creation. Yet, He comes to us lowly, in great humility, to us who have sinned against Him in every way imaginable and deserve His just wrath against us. For us, Christ was born in a stable and endured rough straw for His first bed. He was raised in poverty, often fleeing from danger with His mother Mary and His foster-father Joseph. He endured hunger, thirst, and temptation for us. He had no place to lay His head to rest. And finally, He endured the shame of the cross, willingly, for our sake. He came to His own, who had rejected Him. Sought out the lost sheep. Welcomed sinners into His embrace. And He died for them. All this is summed up in those words of Zechariah, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble.” The Son of God came in human flesh as a descendant and rightful heir of King David, so that He might serve us and lay down His life for us.
Yet, this prophesy does not only describe Jesus’ coming in human flesh to gain our salvation through His obedience and death. This prophesy describes the manner of Christ’s coming to us now in grace. The daughters of Jerusalem and Zion are not the inhabitants of the city Jerusalem, but the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, the Holy Christian Church. As Jesus humbly rode into Jerusalem upon a donkey, He now rides into His holy Christian Church to be greeted by her inhabitants upon the humble forms of water, bread and wine, and upon the lowly voice of His ministers. Jesus promised His Church that He is with us always, even to the end of the age. He attached this promise to His command to make disciples by baptizing, teaching, and doing all that He has commanded us. So, we believe that when we hear the Gospel preached, we are hearing the very voice of Christ, that in Baptism God clothes a sinner with Christ, and in the Sacrament of bread and wine, Christ’s true body and blood are eaten and drunk, and when we read our Bible, our Lord Jesus is speaking to us.
And why does Jesus come to us in such a humble manner? So that we may receive Him in faith. If Christ were to come to us in His glory, we could not receive Him. As the people of Israel begged Moses not to let God speak to them again through thunder and cloud lest they died (Exodus 20:19), so would we melt and die if Christ were to reveal Himself to us in full majesty and glory without us first being clothed in His righteousness through faith. Jesus comes to us in humility, because that is the only way poor, lowly sinners can receive Him. Just as the inhabitants of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago did not need a heavenly army to come and wipe out the Romans, but rather they needed a heavenly Victim to come to atone for their sins, so we cannot endure His majesty and glory, until we first receive His grace in humility and faith.
Yet, our sinful flesh begrudges Christ for coming to us in such a lowly manner. Our flesh belittles the water in Baptism and the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, and it despises the preaching of Christ. Instead of thanking God that He recognizes our weakness and comes to us in a manner we may receive Him, our flesh despises Christ and His means of grace for coming to us in a way we think is beneath us. That is why so many ignore their Bible and its teaching and avoid receiving Christ in His Word and Sacrament. If an earthly king or billionaire were to invite them for dinner, serve them food prepared by a Michelan star chef, and sent them home with thousands of dollars in cash as a departing gift, few would ignore the invitation. But here the King of heaven invites us to eat the food of immortality, to dine with the Lord of heaven, and sends us away with forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and a certain inheritance in heaven, but since these treasures are veiled in humility and can only be recognized through faith, most ignore them.
And so, we must do as St. Paul exhorts us in Romans 13 and wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. As the crowds that met Christ stripped off their coats and spread them on the ground, so we must cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. The Holy Spirit works through God’s Word and Sacraments, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. But what does it mean that Christ dwells in our hearts? It means that Christ reigns as king in our hearts.
Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem presents a helpful illustration. He enters Jerusalem with two donkeys, an old jenny, and a young colt upon which no one had yet ridden. The old donkey represents your old sinful nature. The young colt represents your new self, made in the image of Christ. Saints Mark, Luke, and John tell us that Jesus sat upon the colt, being its first rider. The old donkey then, being tethered to the colt, would have been led by the young colt upon which Jesus rode. This is a great illustration for you to consider. When you confess that Jesus dwells in your heart through faith, you are calling yourself that young donkey’s colt upon which Christ rides. Yet, as long as you live on this earth, that old donkey, what we call the Old Adam, remains tethered to you. For Christ to dwell in your heart through faith means that He will ride you into Jerusalem, while your old donkey stubbornly resists following along, frequently stopping, braying, and otherwise making an ass of itself, pun intended.
Dear Christian, this is the tension you feel on this earth. Your new self, baptized into Christ Jesus, is ridden by Christ and He is riding you into the heavenly Jerusalem. He rides upon the lowly and humble, because only they will receive Him. Your old self is the old donkey tethered behind. It doesn’t want to humbly go with Christ, but is stubborn and obstinate in its own way. Your old self wants to drive you away from Christ, away from the heavenly Jerusalem, to insist on its own way, to indulge in the sins of the flesh. That is why you lust and crave that which God has forbidden from you. That is why you are not satisfied with what God provides for your body and soul. This is your old self warring against your new self.
But for Christ to dwell in your heart through faith means that Christ is driving you. He drives you to humility and repentance. He drives you to His forgiveness and grace found in the promises of His Word and Sacraments. He drives you into the heavenly Jerusalem, where you are kept safe from the attacks of Satan and the World. And He drives you to the cross, where your old sinful self is crucified daily, so that you may walk in newness of life. He drives you to the cross, where you find your only Savior, who paid for your sins with His blood.
Christ comes to us meek and lowly through His Word and Sacraments, so that we may receive Him through faith. Yet, our prideful old-donkey-self despises this humility and stubbornly refuses it. So, we must recognize when we are being pulled by our old sinful self, so that we may repent and let Christ drive us to salvation.
Christ comes to us now disguised in humility in the pages of Scripture and the voice of His ministers and under the elements of water, bread, and wine. This is His advent of grace (advent means coming). But Christ will not always come to us in humility and grace. The hour is fast approaching when He will come to us in glory and majesty. Every eye will see Him and every knee will bow. Those driven by the old donkey, the old sinful self will by found guilty and sent to hell. But those upon whom Christ rides, that is, in whose hearts Christ dwells and reigns as king, they will lift-up their heads to see their Redeemer come with salvation. Psalm 118, in which we find the words, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” was part of the Jewish liturgy during Passover. They sang it in anticipation of Christ’s arrival with salvation. And one day, as they sang this song, Christ came to them as Scripture foretold. This is what we should expect as we sing these same words. Hosanna means, “Save us now!” We sing these words in joyful anticipation for Christ’s return with salvation. Even as He comes to us today with His grace in humility, even so will He come soon with His glory in majesty. And if Christ is driving us in humility, so that we repent of our sins and receive His forgiveness through faith, then we will be prepared to welcome Him in His glory. For the humble He will exalt, but the proud He will cast down. So, let us sing our Hosannas to Christ with joy and great anticipation, with the sure and certain hope that He will return soon with salvation for us. Amen.
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 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. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Ad Te Levavi (Advent 1)
Matthew 21:1-9
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
December 1, 2024
“Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” With these words, the prophet Zechariah not only perfectly predicted Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem 500 years before it happened, but he described Jesus’ entire earthly ministry. Jesus comes to His own in great humility. Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 20, “The Son of Man came not to be served by to serve, and give His life as a ransom for many.” (vs. 28) Except Scripture told us that He would come in this way, we would never believe it. This is not how we would expect a great king, let alone our God to come to us. We do not treat each other in this manner. Rather, when we are offended, we lord it over the one who offends us. If someone does us wrong, we hold it against him and cut him out of our lives. If my brother sins against me, I’m not going to seek him out to be reconciled with him, rather, I’m going to wait for him to come groveling back to me to apologize. And if I think he is sorry enough, then I just might forgive him. But if not, he’s dead to me. That’s how we want to treat each other. We aren’t patient. We aren’t understanding of others’ weaknesses. We remember their sins. We get frustrated that they don’t understand things as we understand them. Although we are all men and women of the dust, who have our own sins, and will soon return to the dust, we exalt ourselves above others instead of treating them with humility and kindness.
Yet, not so with Christ. He is the very Lord of heaven. By Him all things were created and are held together. He shares equal glory and honor with God the Father and Holy Spirit. He is worthy of worship from all angels, humans, indeed, from all creation. Yet, He comes to us lowly, in great humility, to us who have sinned against Him in every way imaginable and deserve His just wrath against us. For us, Christ was born in a stable and endured rough straw for His first bed. He was raised in poverty, often fleeing from danger with His mother Mary and His foster-father Joseph. He endured hunger, thirst, and temptation for us. He had no place to lay His head to rest. And finally, He endured the shame of the cross, willingly, for our sake. He came to His own, who had rejected Him. Sought out the lost sheep. Welcomed sinners into His embrace. And He died for them. All this is summed up in those words of Zechariah, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble.” The Son of God came in human flesh as a descendant and rightful heir of King David, so that He might serve us and lay down His life for us.
Yet, this prophesy does not only describe Jesus’ coming in human flesh to gain our salvation through His obedience and death. This prophesy describes the manner of Christ’s coming to us now in grace. The daughters of Jerusalem and Zion are not the inhabitants of the city Jerusalem, but the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, the Holy Christian Church. As Jesus humbly rode into Jerusalem upon a donkey, He now rides into His holy Christian Church to be greeted by her inhabitants upon the humble forms of water, bread and wine, and upon the lowly voice of His ministers. Jesus promised His Church that He is with us always, even to the end of the age. He attached this promise to His command to make disciples by baptizing, teaching, and doing all that He has commanded us. So, we believe that when we hear the Gospel preached, we are hearing the very voice of Christ, that in Baptism God clothes a sinner with Christ, and in the Sacrament of bread and wine, Christ’s true body and blood are eaten and drunk, and when we read our Bible, our Lord Jesus is speaking to us.
And why does Jesus come to us in such a humble manner? So that we may receive Him in faith. If Christ were to come to us in His glory, we could not receive Him. As the people of Israel begged Moses not to let God speak to them again through thunder and cloud lest they died (Exodus 20:19), so would we melt and die if Christ were to reveal Himself to us in full majesty and glory without us first being clothed in His righteousness through faith. Jesus comes to us in humility, because that is the only way poor, lowly sinners can receive Him. Just as the inhabitants of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago did not need a heavenly army to come and wipe out the Romans, but rather they needed a heavenly Victim to come to atone for their sins, so we cannot endure His majesty and glory, until we first receive His grace in humility and faith.
Yet, our sinful flesh begrudges Christ for coming to us in such a lowly manner. Our flesh belittles the water in Baptism and the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, and it despises the preaching of Christ. Instead of thanking God that He recognizes our weakness and comes to us in a manner we may receive Him, our flesh despises Christ and His means of grace for coming to us in a way we think is beneath us. That is why so many ignore their Bible and its teaching and avoid receiving Christ in His Word and Sacrament. If an earthly king or billionaire were to invite them for dinner, serve them food prepared by a Michelan star chef, and sent them home with thousands of dollars in cash as a departing gift, few would ignore the invitation. But here the King of heaven invites us to eat the food of immortality, to dine with the Lord of heaven, and sends us away with forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and a certain inheritance in heaven, but since these treasures are veiled in humility and can only be recognized through faith, most ignore them.
And so, we must do as St. Paul exhorts us in Romans 13 and wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. As the crowds that met Christ stripped off their coats and spread them on the ground, so we must cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. The Holy Spirit works through God’s Word and Sacraments, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. But what does it mean that Christ dwells in our hearts? It means that Christ reigns as king in our hearts.
Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem presents a helpful illustration. He enters Jerusalem with two donkeys, an old jenny, and a young colt upon which no one had yet ridden. The old donkey represents your old sinful nature. The young colt represents your new self, made in the image of Christ. Saints Mark, Luke, and John tell us that Jesus sat upon the colt, being its first rider. The old donkey then, being tethered to the colt, would have been led by the young colt upon which Jesus rode. This is a great illustration for you to consider. When you confess that Jesus dwells in your heart through faith, you are calling yourself that young donkey’s colt upon which Christ rides. Yet, as long as you live on this earth, that old donkey, what we call the Old Adam, remains tethered to you. For Christ to dwell in your heart through faith means that He will ride you into Jerusalem, while your old donkey stubbornly resists following along, frequently stopping, braying, and otherwise making an ass of itself, pun intended.
Dear Christian, this is the tension you feel on this earth. Your new self, baptized into Christ Jesus, is ridden by Christ and He is riding you into the heavenly Jerusalem. He rides upon the lowly and humble, because only they will receive Him. Your old self is the old donkey tethered behind. It doesn’t want to humbly go with Christ, but is stubborn and obstinate in its own way. Your old self wants to drive you away from Christ, away from the heavenly Jerusalem, to insist on its own way, to indulge in the sins of the flesh. That is why you lust and crave that which God has forbidden from you. That is why you are not satisfied with what God provides for your body and soul. This is your old self warring against your new self.
But for Christ to dwell in your heart through faith means that Christ is driving you. He drives you to humility and repentance. He drives you to His forgiveness and grace found in the promises of His Word and Sacraments. He drives you into the heavenly Jerusalem, where you are kept safe from the attacks of Satan and the World. And He drives you to the cross, where your old sinful self is crucified daily, so that you may walk in newness of life. He drives you to the cross, where you find your only Savior, who paid for your sins with His blood.
Christ comes to us meek and lowly through His Word and Sacraments, so that we may receive Him through faith. Yet, our prideful old-donkey-self despises this humility and stubbornly refuses it. So, we must recognize when we are being pulled by our old sinful self, so that we may repent and let Christ drive us to salvation.
Christ comes to us now disguised in humility in the pages of Scripture and the voice of His ministers and under the elements of water, bread, and wine. This is His advent of grace (advent means coming). But Christ will not always come to us in humility and grace. The hour is fast approaching when He will come to us in glory and majesty. Every eye will see Him and every knee will bow. Those driven by the old donkey, the old sinful self will by found guilty and sent to hell. But those upon whom Christ rides, that is, in whose hearts Christ dwells and reigns as king, they will lift-up their heads to see their Redeemer come with salvation. Psalm 118, in which we find the words, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” was part of the Jewish liturgy during Passover. They sang it in anticipation of Christ’s arrival with salvation. And one day, as they sang this song, Christ came to them as Scripture foretold. This is what we should expect as we sing these same words. Hosanna means, “Save us now!” We sing these words in joyful anticipation for Christ’s return with salvation. Even as He comes to us today with His grace in humility, even so will He come soon with His glory in majesty. And if Christ is driving us in humility, so that we repent of our sins and receive His forgiveness through faith, then we will be prepared to welcome Him in His glory. For the humble He will exalt, but the proud He will cast down. So, let us sing our Hosannas to Christ with joy and great anticipation, with the sure and certain hope that He will return soon with salvation for us. Amen.
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