12-3-23 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Mark 11:1-10 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke

First Sunday of Advent Sunday, December 3, 2023 “Our King Is Coming to Save Us”

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year! … Okay, our celebrations of the start of a new church year are a bit more understated than our celebrations of a new calendar year. We’ll leave the shouting and cheering and fireworks for a little less than a month from now. But today is the first Sunday in Advent. Not withstanding our midweek service coming a little sooner than it often does, we’re starting a brand new church year.

To learn a bit more about the church year, you could pull out a hymnal and open up to some of the pages in the very front that use Roman numerals so they don’t throw off the numbering of the Psalms. You can find the various readings assigned to the Sundays and other festivals of the church year and maybe notice a bit about how the year is structured. About half of the church year is marked by some pretty major festivals.

Celebrations like Christmas or Easter mark significant events in the life of Jesus. Every year we celebrate those milestones of our salvation history. The other half of our church year has fewer festivals and slightly shifts the focus from the life of Christ to the life of his Church, to what God accomplishes in us, his people.

So when we start the new church year with the season of Advent, preparing to celebrate the birth of the Savior, does it seem a little strange that our preparation begins with Palm Sunday? Doesn’t that sound more like the lead-up to Easter? Maybe it does, but our still relatively new hymnal with the appointed readings in the lectionary it contains returns us to a historic practice that our previous hymnal had not maintained.

Already by the 700s, the Church in the western world had been using the account of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as the Gospel for the First Sunday of Advent. Clearly, that choice was not made because of the timeline of Jesus’ life. No, that choice was made for a thematic reason. Advent is all about coming. It is about the coming of our King, and perhaps nowhere else in Scripture is the King’s coming portrayed in a way that reveals as clearly his kingship and his purpose than right here in the Gospel account of Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem.

We’re focusing primarily on Mark’s account of that event, and Mark the Gospel writer gets straight to the point in the way God used him to report events in the life of Jesus. The order of events is clear. Jesus is heading into Jerusalem from just outside. He sends two disciples to fetch his ride, a young donkey. They do as he asks, and Jesus rides the donkey into Jerusalem.

Actually, that summary was a bit too brief. What happens when Jesus sends his disciples to find the donkey is he tells them exactly where it will be found, and then they find it exactly where he says. Jesus gives them an answer in case someone questions them, and that answer satisfies their objections. What happens is that Jesus rides on this never-before-ridden donkey into the city with people all around shouting praises.

Now that’s quite a picture. That’s quite a King. We maybe struggle with what to make of this picture and what to make of him because we see so many contrasting ideas and themes. Jesus is powerful and in control and knowledgeable. He knows things that no mere human being could. He hadn’t scouted out the place to know where there was a donkey just waiting to be ridden. He hadn’t hired actors to ask his question and be given his answer. He knew how things would go. He knew where things would be. He knew that the time was right. Nothing happened aside from what he had planned and what was perfectly under his control.

This is an amazing King!

But the contrast: he is a humble King. He doesn’t own a fancy horse. He borrows a donkey. He doesn’t’ have an ornate saddle. He sits on other people’s cloaks. He doesn’t have a herald announcing his arrival. He waits for the crowds to sort of figure out what is going on. And he doesn’t ride into Jerusalem to conquer and overthrow. He rides into Jerusalem in order to die. This is a humble King.

And how do the people respond to him? It seems pretty good. They cut palm branches and lay down their coats. The run ahead and follow behind. They shout praises. They talk about the kingdom of their father David. And they shout the acclamation, “Hosanna!” which means “Save, please!”

But what exactly did those crowds mean? Did they mean that they recognized that Jesus was the Messiah, the one whom God had promised? Do their shouts mean that they were ready for Jesus to die to save them

from their sins? Do their praises mean that they had concluded with Jesus’ disciples that this Jesus was the One who had been promised for so long who had now come to crush the head of the tempting serpent? If their shouting meant that, why does it seem like by the very next verse of Mark’s Gospel that crowd had disappeared? Why does the response in the city turn completely on its head by the end of the week?

We have good reason to suppose that the crowds were looking for their own kind of Messiah. They wanted someone to free them from the Roman rule they lived under. They hated to be under control of anyone. They considered themselves to be God’s people who carried the promises that God had made to their forefathers.

And every festival in Jerusalem, like the Passover that was about to start, was an opportunity for their hero to arise. They were ready to welcome anyone who would take the job and lead the charge.

But Jesus was leading a different charge. He was battling a different enemy. He had come to do battle against sin and Satan and death itself. He had come to conquer your worst enemies, your spiritual enemies. It was just as true for those people then as it is for you and for me today. He was riding into Jerusalem to fulfil prophecy and keep his promise and rescue us from captivity and death by conquering the ruler of this sinful world and showing himself to be the humble King who saves.

What a beautiful Advent message. We’re going to see more humility and lowliness. We’re going to find more examples of false expectations. But hidden among them all is the reality that this is Jesus the King who deserves the praise of people and angels. He is not coming to make himself rich or to set himself on a pedestal. He is coming to offer himself as a sacrifice for his people. We’re going to celebrate this as we consider his first coming.

We’re also going to live this as he comes to us right now in his Word and sacraments. Week after week we’ll hear his Word from pastors who sometimes stumble over their words or struggle with a microphone that doesn’t always pick up quite right. We’ll see that, at least outside the pulpit, we don’t always agree with them or find them living up to the standards that God expects or that we do, but in the words that they speak is the power of God to change hearts and lives. We’ll come to the front of church this very day and take a wafer to eat and a sip of wine to drink. And we would not for a second blame someone for thinking this is simple and plain and ordinary and unimpressive. But in that eating and drinking is the blood of Jesus shed for you and the body of Jesus given for you. In that is the forgiveness of sins. And unfortunately no one is coming to the font today, but when someone does, it doesn’t look like anything more than a few splashes of simple water. But it is so much more. It is Christ the King coming to reign in another heart and another life by his amazing grace and mercy.

And as amazing as all of this is, sometimes we expect something different. Sometimes we think that church should entertain us. We should sing the songs that we like. Or maybe we don’t want to sing at all in spite of what God tells us. The temperature better be what I want even if that makes someone else uncomfortable.

And I might not be here next week if I have a social event to attend to. And I might not stick around if I don’t see my life getting better. And we have so many ideas of what our King should be that we expect and demand, to our shame. But Jesus comes to save. He comes in lowliness and humility to forgive precisely who we are and who we have been. He offers himself for us and to us like no other king could.

And our King shall come again. But that time will be different. No donkey, but riding on the clouds. No need to gather a welcoming crowd, because he will be surrounded by angels. When he comes again, our King will not hide himself in lowliness or humility. The trumpets will sound. But his purpose will be the same. He will come to save. He will come to give us the fulfilment of the salvation with which he has gifted us. He will take us away from every trouble, trial, tribulation, and torment. He will take us to our eternal, heavenly home.

It’s the beginning of a new church year. It’s Advent. We are about to embark again on our review of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. We will ponder again how his life has changed and continues to change ours. We will see Jesus again and again for who he truly is. He is our king. Our King comes to save us. Happy New Year!

The Text: Mark 11:1–10 (EHV) 11 As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it, and he will send it back here without delay.’ ” 4They left and found a colt on the street, tied at a door; and they untied it. 5Some who were standing

there asked them, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6The disciples answered them just as Jesus had instructed them, and the men let them go.

7They brought the colt to Jesus, threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it. 8Many people spread

their garments on the road. Others spread branches that they had cut from the fields. 9Those who went in front and those who followed were crying out, Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!

Hosanna in the highest!