An Advent in humility, an Advent in glory

Sermon for Advent 1

Romans 13:11-14  +  Matthew 21:1-9

Come, Lord Jesus! Come, Emmanuel! That’s still our every-Sunday prayer, but especially now, in the Advent season. During this short season, we first place ourselves in the shoes of the Old Testament believers, whose earnest prayers for the coming of the Christ were first answered at Christmas. But we would be foolish to look forward to Christmas without, at the same time, looking back at the purpose of Christ’s birth and the fulfillment of His first Advent, which was His coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as He prepared to offer up His precious life on the cross. And then there’s that other Advent that we New Testament believers are especially waiting for, Christ’s second Advent at the end of this age. Today’s Gospel helps us to understand both Advents, to celebrate the one while anticipating the other.

Christ’s first Advent reached its fulfillment during Holy Week as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. That coming was in fulfillment of the famous prophecy from Zechariah 9, Tell the daughter of Zion, See, your King comes to you, meek and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the foal of a donkey. Meek. Lowly. Humble. That’s how Jesus came the first time, not just on Palm Sunday, but from His conception and birth to His burial on Good Friday. We call it His state of “humiliation” for a reason. He came, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. Not to judge, but to call sinners to repentance before the Judgment that will take place at His second Advent. Not to force anyone onto their knees by the power of His might, but to persuade sinners through preaching to bend the knee before Him willingly, to receive not punishment but forgiveness. He came in humility, allowing wicked men to ridicule Him and to torture and kill Him, so that, by His suffering and death, sinners might have a valid plea before God—the blood of Christ as the price of their atonement, already paid, once for all.

But Christ’s Advent in humility also meant that He did not come the first time to save mankind from sickness or from suffering or from oppressors (though He did that on occasion as a foretaste of what He will do at His second Advent!). He didn’t come the first time to reform society or to mete out justice for the righteous or against the unrighteous. Those things await His second Advent at the end of the age.

It’s relatively easy for us to see that distinction as we live in the time between the two Advents of Christ. It was much harder for the people of the Old Testament. When they prayed, Come, Lord Jesus! (or perhaps Come, Lord Messiah!), they didn’t always realize they were praying for two Advents. They thought Christ’s first Advent would be His only Advent, that it would accomplish everything God had prophesied in the Old Testament, that He would come and both make atonement for sin and restore justice to the earth all at once, that He would both rise from the dead and bring about the resurrection of all the dead at the same time.

But, no. First, He had to address the root problem underlying all the other problems we face in the world, the root problem of sin, mankind’s sins against God that brought God’s curse on this creation in the first place, which includes everything that’s wrong with this world, and with you and me. First, He had to make payment for sin and send out preachers of the Gospel, the Gospel of forgiveness through Baptism and faith in Christ. And then, He had to give the world time to hear the preaching and be converted by the working of His Spirit. He had to give at least two thousand years’ worth of sinners, in every nation, time to be born and reborn of water and the Spirit. He had to give us, here, a chance to live so that we might come to know Him during this life, during this time of grace, and so become heirs of eternal life.

Even though the people of Jerusalem didn’t understand all that as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, they did recognize Him as their King. They did celebrate His coming, waving their palms and singing their Hosannas and their Psalms, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Those who wanted Him for a Savior from sin got what they wanted, while those who weren’t interested in that kind of Advent, who were unwilling to wait for Christ’s second Advent, didn’t miss out on a little thing. They missed out on the chance to be reconciled with God, to have Him as a Father, to have Christ as a Savior, to escape from death and hell and to enter the kingdom of heaven.

The same is true for people today. If you want Jesus for a Savior from sin, who allows you to stand before God forgiven and accepted, you have it! If you want Him for some other reason, if you celebrate Christmas for some other reason, if you’re in church for some other reason, then you will miss out on all the benefits Christ came to bring at His first Advent, and all the benefits He will come to bring at His second.

And there will be many! Those who trust in Christ for what He did at His first Advent have much to look forward to when He comes again. Then the King will not be meek or humble or lowly when He comes riding into His Church, which is the New Jerusalem. No, then He will come with power and great glory. No one will mock or oppress Him or His people ever again. No one will be allowed to cause suffering for Him or His people ever again. Then the King will come with power and great glory—glory that He will share with His saints. Then the King will finally bring justice to the world by ridding the world of all evil and of all evildoers and by recreating everything, with no devil, no sin, no troubles, no sorrow, no pain, no death.

Until then, we live in the age of Christ’s first Advent, which means that the Church on earth resembles Jesus as He was in His state of humiliation. Meek. Humble. Lowly. Subject to pain and suffering. Subject to death. But because of what Jesus accomplished at His first Advent, we also have the forgiveness of sins and peace with God and His promise to be with us and to strengthen us all the way up until Christ’s second Advent. And that’s no small thing. It’s what enables you to suffer here with patience, because you know that you who resemble Jesus in His humility will also resemble Him in His glory, on the day when He comes.

That day is not here, but, as St. Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, it’s almost here. The night is almost over; the day is almost here. So how shall we prepare to meet the Bridegroom? Paul tells us that, too. By taking off the deeds of darkness and by putting on the weapons of light. By behaving as children of heaven and not children of hell. One day we will rule over all things with Christ. For now, we serve everyone in love. In lowliness. In humility. Just as Christ came the first time in meekness and humility, with love for a world that hated Him for the sake of the few who, by His Spirit, would embrace Him.

Embrace Him now in your hearts. Embrace Him with repentance, with faith, and with zeal to imitate Him in His goodness, in His love, and in His humility. Embrace Christ in His humility, and embrace His Church in her humility, too. But prepare to meet the Lord at His second Advent, not to face another age of humility and suffering, but to enter an endless age of glory and of joy, with songs of Hosanna and a with a Psalm that is like a sigh of relief, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Amen.