Embrace the humility of Christ’s first Advent

Sermon for Advent 1

Romans 13:11-14  +  Matthew 21:1-9

We enter the Advent season again this year with purple on the altar, and on the pulpit, and on the pastor—the three symbols of Christ in our midst, calling on us, through the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments, to wait for Christ’s advent, for His coming at the end of the age, with repentance. What does that mean? It means that we wait for the arrival of our King eagerly, but humbly, with no pride in ourselves, but with an honest evaluation of ourselves, an evaluation not made by human reason—“Am I decent person? I think so. I’m ready for Christ to return!” No, but an evaluation made according to God’s commandments revealed in His Word, and that’s assuming that you know His Word, that you know the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible and what God commands. “Do I love the Lord my God with all my heart? Do I love my neighbor as I love myself? Do I truly believe in Christ Jesus for forgiveness? Do I trust in Him to care for me as He has promised? Am I eager to hear and learn His Word? Am I concerned with putting love into practice? Am I letting concerns for this life push God out of my heart? Am I ready to suffer all things, even death, rather than deny or be unfaithful to my Lord and my God? Am I ready for Jesus to come right now?” These are important questions to ask, because, as Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, the night is almost over. The day is almost here. And we want to be found, we must be found living as children of the day and not as children of darkness. So let the purple remind you to be asking and answering those questions for yourself.

And let the purple also remind you that Christ is a King. Purple, in the Bible, is a royal color or, at least, a color that someone important would wear. Of course, during His earthly life, Jesus only wore it once, when the soldiers dressed Him in a purple robe to mock Him as a false King, just five days after the Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem that you heard about in today’s Gospel.

And that is the great contrast between Christ’s first coming and His second coming. The first coming was as a humble King—one who didn’t come to bring judgment upon sinners, but who came to bring salvation to sinners; one who put up with mankind’s wickedness, to give people time to repent; one who allowed Himself to be mocked, ridiculed, spit upon, struck, bruised, pierced, and killed so that by His suffering and death He might make atonement for the sins of mankind. The second coming of Christ will be as a glorious King, who will bring judgment upon sinners, who will no longer put up with mankind’s wickedness, and who will bring those whom He saved here by faith into the perfect salvation of heaven.

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 we already noted, 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 clothing ourselves with Christ Himself. 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. It’s all right to be small. It’s all right to be despised. It’s all right to be insignificant in the eyes of the world. Such must be the life of those who would truly imitate Christ Jesus in this world. But be prepared 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.