Sermon - Ad Te Levavi 2018 - Matthew 21:1-9

A blessed New Year to you all! Today marks the beginning not of Christmas, but Advent. I know the decorations, and ads, and stores, and radio stations and tv shows all trick us into thinking it’s Christmas already, but it’s not. Today is the first day in Advent. Advent is a penitential season, a season of repentance and preparation, a time to reflect upon our sinfulness and need of the Savior who is coming. As such our midweek Advent services are just a bit subdued in order to aid us in quiet reflection and devotion to the Word of God. 

During Advent we focus on the coming of Christ. We remember not only His coming 2000 years ago, which we do; we not only anticipate His coming again on the last, which we also do; but we reflect upon His coming today in the present. As the crowds shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Jesus is coming today, present tense. The Advent of our Christ continues today when He purifies His stubborn and unruly church by coming into our presence.

Consider the manner of Jesus’ entrance, His coming, into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday 2000 years ago. ““Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and He sat on them.” Jesus entered Jerusalem on the first day of the greatest week in history sitting upon a donkey.

Today here in America donkeys are more or less pets, they’re a hobby animal. But throughout history and especially in the Old Testament the donkey was a very common animal. Balaam’s donkey outsmarted him, Samson killed 1000 men with a donkey’s jawbone, God called Ishmael a wild-donkey of man, donkeys were very often listed among Israel’s animals, Abraham took a donkey with him when he had been instructed to sacrifice his son Isaac, wild donkeys were bold, stubborn, and aggressive. 

Donkeys are all over the place in the Old Testament. But by the time you get to the New Testament, the only time a donkey is explicitly riden is by Jesus when He enters Jerusalem. I know, we picture Mary riding a donkey, and maybe she did, but the Bible doesn’t mention her riding a donkey. Jesus who enters Jerusalem during Holy Week, just days before His crucifixion, rode a donkey.

Not just any donkey, but a colt, the foal of a beast of burden, a donkey upon which no one had yet sat. I’ve never broke a horse before, let alone a little donkey, but from what I understand you typically can’t just sit down on an animal and expect it to calmly carry you. Especially a donkey.

Donkeys are known as being stubborn and strong willed animals. Donkeys, unlike most of their equine cousins, when they are scared they don’t bolt like a horse but they freeze still so that they can assess the situation before reacting. If the donkey doesn’t want to move, it won’t. That’s why donkeys are known as being stubborn. 

Yet Jesus doesn’t enter Jerusalem on foot like usual, nor does He instruct His apostles to fetch Him a horse, but He rides a donkey. “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.” Jesus takes a young, inexperienced, stubborn, unruly donkey, and rides it to the cross. Through His presence, He brings peace and security to this little animal so that it carries Him. 

Now I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about this because of the other name for a donkey, but in Jesus’ triumphal entry, we’re the donkey. We’re the unclean, young, inexperienced, stubborn, and unruly donkey. “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” 

God chose us, we who are unclean and unworthy of being in the presence of God. God chose us, we who are young and cannot see beyond the present. God chose us, we who are inexperienced and make very foolish decisions over and over again. God chose us, we are who stubborn and always think that we know better than God. God chose us, we who are unruly and too often refuse to do what we ought to do.

We are the donkey which has been chosen by the Christ who leads us to Him. But here’s the part that stings: like Balaam’s donkey, this donkey puts us to shame because it’s wiser than we are. Christ comes to us, even now in the Divine Service, He promises where two or three are gathered there He is. Yet unlike this young donkey, we fail to submit to Him. 

While the donkey readily followed Jesus’ call, we usually resist God’s calling and the vocations we have been placed into. While the donkey was readily clothed in the necessary garments, we try to buck-off the garments which we’ve been clothed in Christ’s righteousness. While the donkey followed where Jesus led Him, we are typically too stubborn and we don’t only freeze in place, but walk the opposite direction. Dear Christians, during this penitential season of Advent, let us repent. “The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Let us repent of our stubborn and unruly behavior towards God, and aspire to at least the example of this donkey. 

Christ comes even now. Just as He comes for us common, ordinary, simple people, so does He come in the most common, ordinary, simple manner. He entered Jerusalem riding a donkey, an extremely common animal that even the poor in society could afford. He comes to us today in the most common means imaginable, riding upon the donkey of words, water, bread, and wine. In these extremely common means, your Savior comes to bring you peace and purify your unclean, stubborn, and unruly heart. 

Jesus comes for you in the lowest common denominator, in a way that all people can receive Him. Jesus isn’t some pompous high falootin king far removed from the people. He doesn’t come upon a chariot, nor a warhorse, He has no need of a battle bow, instead He comes to speak peace to the nations. He comes in gentility and humility. 

Jesus comes to us in His Word. This Word is not muddied and intellectual, it’s not impossible for humans to understand, it’s simple, clear, and straightforward. While sometimes we have a hard time grasping it or coming to terms with the Word, it doesn’t change the fact that God’s Word is clear and understandable. You don’t need to have a master of divinity degree like I have to be a scholar of the Bible, even a little child can understand the clear words of scripture and know what they mean. I can tell my little David that we don’t worship other Gods, that Jesus died on the cross for him, that God loves Him, that we speak with God when we pray, and by faith He believes it to be true. God comes to us today in His Word. 

Jesus comes to us in water. If the Word of God wasn’t simple enough, Jesus comes to us in something even more basic: water. Jesus joins His Word to the element of water, and there God comes to us in the gift of baptism. The Father blesses, the Son gives, the Spirit enters in, and the most profound promise is received under the most common element on earth: Water. Baptism isn’t hard to understand, this isn’t rocket science, God’s clear word simply states “baptism now saves you.” God comes to us today in the water of Baptism.

Jesus comes to us in bread and wine. Afterall, we are a bit dense and forgetful, or at least I am. It’s easy to forget the promise of baptism, it’s easy for God’s Word to fall on our stubborn ears, but in these basic grocery staples of bread and wine, Christ comes to us under the roof of our mouth to forgive us and bring His salvific death on the cross to our remembrance. This isn’t complicated, it’s very simple even if it’s hard to believe, Jesus comes to us under the forms of bread and wine, to give us His body and blood for our forgiveness. 

The words are simple: “Take, eat, this is my body. Take, drink, this is my blood.” In these simple words and simple elements, the profoundest reality of Christ taking away the sins of the world becomes extremely relatable. Now suddenly, it is Christ who comes to me, and His body and blood shed on calvary become real and they become mine. Not only mine, but they become ours, because when we receive Christ in the humble means of bread and wine, Christ brings us into His body which is holy and perfect and humble. 

“Behold, your King is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey.” May we this Advent recognize that our King, Christ Jesus, is coming to us today. We who are but stubborn, unruly donkeys, are purified by Jesus who rides upon the donkey of His Word, His Baptism, and His Sacrament. All of this in order to lead us like the young donkey into Jerusalem, to the cross, and ultimately He leads us into the new Jerusalem.