One King, two very different Advents

Sermon for Advent 1

Romans 13:11-14  +  Matthew 21:1-9

As always, we start out the Church Year and the Advent season with the Gospel of the King’s Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem. That Sunday ride, which led up to Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday, was the culmination of Jesus’ first Advent. And you know what I mean when I say “first Advent,” because, as you know very well, there will be a second Advent, a second coming of the King at the end of the age. You and I have been blessed with an understanding of that in the New Testament Church, because, in the Old Testament Church, the prophecies of the Messiah’s coming often lumped together His first Advent with His second Advent, leaving the Old Testament still shrouded in mystery, to some degree. But that mystery has been clarified for us. We now understand that Jesus had to come a first time, in a certain way, to accomplish certain purposes, and that He has to come again, a second time, in a different way, to accomplish different purposes. So let’s take a moment this morning to compare the two Advents of our King.

When Jesus was getting ready to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He sent two of His disciples to go fetch the donkey and her colt. He told them exactly where they would find them and prepared them with exactly what to say if they were confronted. The King allowed some of His disciples to help prepare for His first advent.

So, too, for His second advent, the King has sent out His disciples to prepare the world for His coming. Some have been sent out into the world to preach His Gospel, to teach His Word, to administer His Sacraments. The Lord, through His Church, sends them exactly where He wants them to go. All of Christ’s followers have been placed where He wants them, to walk decently, to be lights in the world, to prepare the world for His second Advent by telling them about His first Advent.

And what are we to tell? It’s summarized in Jesus’ Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem, and in the prophecy from the book of Zechariah that foretold it.

In His first Advent, the King came humbly and meekly. He was born in a stable, after all, and laid in a manger. He spent His 33 years walking obediently according to God’s commandments, from the heart, ministering to people’s needs, teaching them the truth. A bruised reed He did not break, a smoldering wick He did not snuff out. He comforted the penitent and associated with sinners who recognized that they needed saving. He rebuked the wicked, but only with His word, not with His fists or with a sword or by calling down lightning from heaven on them. And when it came time for the King to enter the city that would crucify Him by the end of that Holy Week, He came not in judgment, or in violence, but, as the prophet Zechariah foretold, “humble, riding on a donkey, righteous, and having salvation.” The King came at His first advent to bear the sins of the world, to suffer mankind’s hatred, to suffer God’s wrath against sinners, to shed His blood for us, so that we sinners might take refuge in Him and receive from God the reward that He deserved, that He earned. He earned salvation for us, and then He ascended into heaven, and sat down on His throne to rule invisibly over the events of world history. He gave the world 2,000 years to listen to the preaching of His ministers, to repent and to be baptized and to come into His Holy Church, without wiping sinners off the face of the earth. And as part of that unfathomable patience with the world, He has allowed the world to mistreat His beloved Church, even as He was mistreated during His first Advent.

But the King’s second Advent will be much different. He won’t come in humility. He won’t lie in a manger or sit on a donkey, but will come in glory, riding on a cloud, sitting on His throne of judgment. He won’t come in meekness, but as a Warrior, with His cloak stained in crimson, not with His own blood this time, but with the blood of His enemies. He’ll come, not in tolerance, but in vengeance. When He comes, He won’t allow His beloved Christians to suffer one more day or one more hour, but will come with perfect salvation, to redeem His Church, to rescue us from every evil, and to reign forever on His glorious throne.

Let’s make just one more comparison between the King’s first and second Advent. When the King rode into Jerusalem for the culmination of His first Advent, He was greeted by a joyous procession of His followers, who sang His praises as He entered Jerusalem. Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! It was an impressive crowd, for tiny Israel, but still relatively small, made up only of Jewish followers of Jesus, who didn’t yet know the extent of Jesus’ love, who hadn’t yet seen the sacrifice He was going to make for them on the cross, who didn’t yet comprehend that this man who was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey was also the eternal God.

At the King’s second Advent, everyone will know exactly who Jesus is. And everyone will know that He was crucified for the world’s sins and raised again from the dead. Everyone will know that this Man is God, and that He is the King of all. And while most of the world will come to that realization with horror, the whole Church in heaven and on earth, a countless host of people from every nation, tribe, language, and people, will meet the King on that day with even more joy than the crowds outside Jerusalem did, because, even though we’ve never seen Him, we know Jesus better than those crowds did, because we’ve heard the whole story of His salvation. We’ve been receiving our King’s body and blood for much of our lives, singing Sunday after Sunday, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! And finally we’ll get to meet Him in person!

Now, since that’s true, since we know all that Jesus accomplished for us during His first Advent, and since we know that He’s coming again, and that His second Advent could happen at any time, what kind of people should we be? What kind of lives should we live?

Of course, unbelievers need to repent and be baptized immediately, and the baptized who have since fallen away from the faith must return at once. Believers should live humbly, as even our King lived humbly during His first Advent, and He wasn’t even a sinner, like we are. We have all the more reason to be humble before God and man, and to stay close to the Word of God, and to keep looking to Him for forgiveness and strength. And in light of our King’s second Advent, which could happen at any time, St. Paul tells us how we should live in today’s Epistle: The night is almost over; the day is almost here. Therefore, let us take off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk decently, as in the daytime, not with debauchery and drunkenness, not with sexual immorality and indecency, not with discord and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its desires.

So keep the King’s two advents in view, not only as you sit here in church, but as you go out from here and go about your day-to-day routine. Humble yourselves now, while the King still deals with sinners humbly. Serve Him now and walk decently now, as children of the light. Give thanks to the King for His humble ride into Jerusalem and for the salvation He earned for you then. But set your heart on the next ride of the King, when He will come down from heaven to save you from every evil in this world. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Amen.