“Behold, Your King is Coming to You”
Matthew 21:1-9, Advent 1
December 2, 2007
Pastor Aaron A. Koch
Mt. Zion Lutheran Church
Greenfield, WI

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

There are a lot of people out there who are agnostics.  The word agnostic literally means “not to know.”  They don’t know what to believe when it comes to spiritual things.  They’re open to considering various positions but don’t really embrace or practice any particular belief.  They see all the hundreds of religions in the world and say, “How do I know which one is right?”  Usually such people will end up concluding one of two things.  They’ll say either no religion is right; they’re all just man-made myths and ways of trying to deal with life–this, by the way, is the perspective of the author of the new Hollywood children’s movie “The Golden Compass,” who basically believes that religion is just a way for hypocrites to control people.  Others, however, will conclude that all religions are right; they all contain the truth and are just expressing themselves in different ways.  My favorite illustration of that sort of belief is the bumper sticker that simply says “Coexist,” where the word “coexist” is spelled out with symbols of several different religions.  Of course, the shallowness of that bumper sticker is shown by the fact that one of the religions portrayed on it preaches, “Love your enemies,” while another one preaches, “Kill the infidels.”  Not a lot of common ground there.

How do we respond to those with this sort of agnostic perspective on life?  Maybe we need to begin by asking ourselves: Why are there so many religions in the world?  The answer is that all people know by nature that God exists and that He is to be worshiped.  It is written in Romans 1 that God’s existence is evident and known in what He has made.  We have a built-in instinct about this that must be suppressed if one is to be an atheist.  The Scriptures also say that the working of God’s law is written on man’s heart; in other words, everyone is created with a conscience, which tells us that there is such a thing as right and wrong, and that we’re accountable for that.

The problem is that our knowledge of God has been completely corrupted by sin.  It is darkened and twisted and broken.  Therefore, human beings at various times and in various places have created false religions based on faulty knowledge of God and His will.  In ignorance and foolishness they have made up gods that really seem to be more a reflection of themselves, a god made in man’s image, just a higher version of themselves.  Or instead of worshiping the Creator they have worshiped the creation through idolatry or through giving homage to the supposed “spirits” of the trees or of animals or of their ancestors or some other such thing.

One way to get at the truth, which religion is the right one, is to ask which religion is different from the others.  If there are a bunch that are more or less the same but one that is unique at its core, then that is likely the one that is true.  Christianity is that one.  For if you take all the beliefs and all the spiritualities out there and boil them down to their basic elements, you’ll find that there are really only two religions: the religion of the Law and the religion of the Gospel.

The religion of the Law states that you must in some way reconcile yourself to God or find God by your own works, by what you do.  In order to make contact with God or get into His good graces you must show yourself to be worthy, you must perform certain spiritual deeds, you must make yourself acceptable in some way.  When you’ve done that, then you are saved from God’s wrath and attain God’s blessing.  The religion of the Law is focused on man and his goodness and what he does to bring himself to God.  All false religions, from Islam to Judaism to Hinduism to the tribal spiritualities, are really only different versions of this single religion.

The religion of the Gospel, on the other hand, states that no matter how hard you try you are not able to find God or to reconcile yourself to Him by your own works or by anything that you do.  You cannot come into contact with Him by your own strength; you cannot get yourself into God’s good graces or save yourself from His wrath over sin.  Instead, the religion of the Gospel proclaims that you are reconciled to God entirely through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus on the cross.  Christ found you, came into contact with you, and did everything that was necessary to save you by taking your judgment on Himself.  You are redeemed by His good works, by His loving deeds–not because you have deserved it but because He is merciful and compassionate toward you.  Through trusting in Christ alone, you are put right with God.  The religion of the Gospel is focused on God and His goodness and what He does to bring Himself to you to rescue and restore you.

The religion of the Law fails because it gives the illusion that spirituality is all about us moving toward God, us coming to God through our morality or our wisdom or our emotional experiences.  But the fact of the matter is that we have no power to come to God in any of those ways.  It is written in James 2, “Whoever keeps the whole Law, yet fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” You’ve got to be absolutely perfect and holy if you’re relying on your morality to get you anywhere.  Nor can you reach God through your own intelligence and wisdom and logic.  For it also written, “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.” (I Corinthians 2:14)  “How unsearchable are (God’s) judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33) And you can’t find God through your feelings and experiences, either.  For your emotions are changing and uncertain, and your experiences can be misleading and deceiving.  Jesus said the wise man builds his house on the rock, not on such shifting sands.  And it is written that we walk by faith and not by sight or experience.  (II Corinthians 5:7)

We cannot come to God by our own strength or merits.  But the good news today is that God comes to us in Jesus Christ.  That is the glad announcement of Advent.  “Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and having salvation.”

Our God and Savior Jesus does indeed come to help and deliver us.  He came into full and complete contact with us in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary.  For there He took on our humanity, our skin and bones, body and soul.  He came to us and literally became one of us in order that He might unite us with Himself and make us holy.  We didn’t find God, He found us in the infant in the manger.  He entered into our earthly lives in order that we might enter with Him into His heavenly life.

And He did this in utter humility.  Even in today’s Gospel, when He is received with the hosannas and the praises of the crowd, He comes on a donkey colt.  We might have expected this King to come with impressive legions of troops and glistening armor and a strong display of overwhelming power.  But instead, He comes in lowliness and meekness, on a borrowed animal.  For He rides into Jerusalem not to receive honor for Himself but to give honor to us by His holy suffering and death.  He comes to pour out His life for us so that we might get our life back.

That is why Christ rides on a donkey–not an animal of war like a horse, but an animal of peace.  For He comes to bring peace between us and God.  Just as Jesus rides on a beast of burden, so He comes to bear the burden of the sin of the whole world.  He carries that load to the cross where it is put to death in His body.  This King’s glory is not to wear a crown of gold but a crown of thorns.  For by His blood and sweat and agony, Jesus takes away the sin that had separated you from God.  By His atoning sacrifice, you are reconciled to the heavenly Father.  Through Jesus peace with God is restored, the peace of sins forgiven, the calm certainty that you are held within the Father’s love.  That’s why Christ is called “The Lord our Righteousness.”  For by His life and death and resurrection, He has become for us what we could not become ourselves.  In Him you are declared righteous; in Him you are put right with our Father in heaven.  There is no other God, there is no other religion like this, faith in a God of pure grace.

And just as Jesus came in meekness and humility in the past, so also He continues to come without pretense or fanfare even now.  He is still meekly and humbly riding to you on the donkey– on the common baptismal waters, on the preached words of the Gospel, on the bread and wine of the Sacrament.   Especially in Holy Communion, Jesus is carried along in lowly state, and He Himself brings to you His own precious body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.  It is in the Lord’s Supper that the words of the Gospel become very concrete: “Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and having salvation.”  That is why, just before communion, we sing the very same words that the people sang to our Lord on the road outside Jerusalem, “Hosanna in the highest!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest!”  Believe that Jesus enters into this place just as literally as He entered into Jerusalem.  Receive your King who comes to you in love.

For the time is fast approaching when Jesus will no longer come in humility but in all His  strength and majesty on the Last Day.  He who rode on a lowly donkey will ride on clouds of light with power and great glory.  He who was judged a criminal will come in judgment as Lord.  He who taught with gentle persuasion about the kingdom of heaven will reveal those who received the kingdom in simple faith and those who rejected the kingdom in unbelief, those who are given to share in its eternal blessings and those who are cursed and cast out from it forever.

“Hosanna” literally means “Save, Lord!”  It is the cry of all those who hold to the religion of the Gospel, who aren’t agnostic, but who know that they cannot come to God, and who instead pin their hopes rather on His coming to them.  The Lord has answered your hosannas mercifully and bountifully.  He came in the past to accomplish your salvation; He comes to you in the present to give you that salvation; and He will come to you in the future bring your salvation to its fulfillment.  God grant you penitent and believing hearts to receive Jesus.  For behold, your King is coming to you.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit