Bible Text: Matthew 21:1-9 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
The prophets prophesied until John the Baptist and they all prophesied the same thing – the Christ would come (Christ means “anointed one” because they made men kings by anointing them with oil, so when they call Jesus the Christ, it is the same as calling him a king, but not just a king, the king. The Christ is the king who would usher in everlasting peace, and rule from the River to the Sea and from the sea to the sea (Zechariah 9). The government would be upon His shoulders and of the increase of his government and peace there would be no end (Isaiah 9).
Zechariah, one of the last of the prophets, prophesied that this King would come into Jerusalem lowly, riding on a donkey. Zechariah got it right because his words weren’t his. They were God’s. They are God’s words still. These prophecies didn’t come from men, from their opinions and their studies and their conjectures. They came from God. And they have the imprint of God, because they aren’t at all what human reason would or could guess. The King, the Mighty One, who is to usher in everlasting peace, comes lowly on a donkey. This is not what you expect of a king.
Beautifully, because God is the author of history and He is a beautiful artist, there is a great historical contrast to this scene of Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a donkey. Some 360 years earlier in the year 329 BC, Alexander the Great entered Jerusalem, also surrounded by crowds and shouts. Alexander was a conqueror. He had demolished the Persian army, sacked Tyre and taken Gaza, and was on his way to conquering the known world. And there’s no doubt when he entered Jerusalem, he was riding his horse and he looked nothing resembling humble and lowly. We know the name of his horse, it’s one of the most famous horses in history – it wouldn’t let anyone ride it except Alexander. He named it Bucephalus, ox head, and it was huge. Alexander would tower well over ten feet high on that horse and look down on everyone.
That’s what you expect from a king riding into Jerusalem. It’s not what you get with Jesus. Why? This Advent we need to answer that question not only with our heads but with our hearts. Jesus is God and man. He is God, begotten of the Father from eternity. And He is man, born in time of the virgin Mary. He is God. He owns everything. But he has to borrow a donkey to ride into Jerusalem. He dwells in unapproachable light which no man has or can see, and yet little children look him in the face without fear and sing hosannas with smiling faces.
There was an atheist – he’s dead now, so he’s no longer an atheist – who was fond of saying in debate, if God really wanted to make Himself known, then why would he come on a donkey into an obscure city in Palestine to die on a cross? I love that question. Because only the humility of a Christian can answer it. And the answer to a Christian is so obvious that the idea of God making Himself known to us in some other way seems strange and horrible.
Here we are on this earth. It’s beautiful. I went skiing yesterday. The trees and the snow and the buck mule deer. God is an amazing Creator and He puts us on this beautiful earth to enjoy. It doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to God. He made it. He entrusted it to us and with it he gave us our own lives. And He has shown how He wants us to live on this earth with the lives He gave to us. It’s been written on our hearts and God wrote it on stone in the Ten Commandments. And what have we done? We’ve forfeited any right, all of us, have forfeited any right whatsoever to keep on living on His earth with the lives that He gave us. He told us to love our neighbor – you heard it in the Epistle lesson – and we have loved ourselves instead. He has invited us to praise Him for all the kindness He has shown us and we have instead doubted Him and spent more time worrying about people praising us than about our duty to praise our God and Maker.
So how would we like Him to come to us? Seriously. With all power and glory? Sure, if we want Him to destroy the wicked, our enemies, those we don’t like. But what if we are the wicked ones? Do we want Him coming with power and vengeance then? Is that how we want Him to show Himself to the world, to us?
People today and we can include Christians in this, expect the wrong things from God and from Jesus all the time. We blame the disciples for not recognizing why Jesus was going to Jerusalem, even though he told them repeatedly, but it’s the same thing with us. We expect the wrong thing from Jesus all the time. If it’s the bleeding heart, he expects Jesus to right every social wrong on this earth. Because that’s what the bleeding heart thinks is the problem. There’s poor people. Fix it, Jesus. If it’s the political conservative, he expects Jesus to establish law and order and get rid of woke weirdness. Because that’s what he thinks is the problem. If it’s the religious zealot, he expects Jesus to have a very clean church, without Christians drinking or falling into gross sins like pornography and filthy language. And there’s some merit to all this – these things do need fixing, Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, and then He will come in power, and in the end he will right every real social wrong, there won’t be poverty in the resurrection, and there certainly won’t be lgbtqia agendas there either. And Jesus does give His Christians the power to resist sin and teaches them to overcome temptation and progress in goods works. And on the last day there will be no sin and the church will be perfect finally.
But if your idea of Jesus is that He’s come to fix things outside of you, you’ve got it all wrong. Behold, your king comes to you lowly and riding on a donkey. That’s how you want Him coming to you. The great problem Jesus comes to fix is not, first of all, out there. It’s not in him or her. It’s not in society. It’s not in politics. It’s not in other Christians not being Christian enough for you. It’s in you. And that’s why you need to know with your mind and feel in your heart why God has shown Himself in this way and no other, why He comes lowly and riding on a donkey.
Because He comes to you, who have ignored His Word and decided for yourself what your best interest is. To you who have ignored others because you were too busy caring about yourself. To you who succumbed again to temptation and committed the sin of which you are now ashamed. To you who are sorry and want forgiveness from your God. Look and see, He comes to you lowly, riding on a donkey.
He comes to die. Because it’s not enough that your sorry and you want to do better or that He wants to forgive you – of course He does, He loves you. Sin, evil, it has to be atoned for, it has to be dealt with, it has to be washed away, and your God came to you lowly because He came to take it all on Himself. He is a man, your brother, and so He stands as your substitute before God, He takes your place; and He is God, because when God suffers and God dies and God bleeds, it wipes away all your sin and it is gone forever. So that God can give this earth back to you and your life back to you, and you can be counted worthy to live on it now, and eternally, when it is remade in perfection, not because you have deserved it but because your King came to you lowly and He won you the right to be called children of God. And so you are.
So welcome Him. Praise Him. Give him all glory. Worship Him. Throw your cloaks, your possessions, your everything to His feet. Sing your Hosannas to Him. He is worthy of it, of all the praise of all creation, but especially of your praise, because He is your Savior. And when you sing your praise and you raise your Hosannas to Him, you will see Him. He comes lowly and forgives your every sin and feeds you with the body and blood that live forever. And when He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead, you will lift up your head and you will recognize your Savior and your King and you will continue to praise His holy name forever and ever. Amen.