A sermon on Matthew 21:1-9 for the First Sunday in Advent. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz. 

We just started Advent, so why are we reading about Palm Sunday? It doesn’t make any sense. And chronologically, it doesn’t. We also see this text the Sunday before Easter as Jesus rides into Jerusalem to die and rise again. The timeline doesn’t work. But the themes do.

“Advent” means “coming.” During this Advent season, we prepare for Jesus’ coming and we examine this in a couple different dimensions. Most obviously, we’re preparing for Christmas, to celebrate Christ coming in the flesh. But Advent isn’t just about this past event. Next week, we’ll turn again to the end of the world and Christ’s coming in the future. Today, we take this theme of coming as we see Christ our coming King and apply it to one of the ways in which He comes to us now, in the Lord’s Supper. In this account of Jesus’ triumphal entry, we see him come into Jerusalem the same way He first came into the world and the same way He comes to us today in the Sacrament: in humility.

I. Don’t Be Deceived

Everything about Jesus’ entry highlights humility. First off, He’s riding a donkey, which wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for regular people, but kings of Israel hadn’t ridden on a donkey since the time of Solomon when horses were first introduced. This is no noble steed. And it’s not just that He’s riding a donkey—He’s riding the colt, the little donkey, which is being led by its mother, the big donkey. Jesus is riding on a baby donkey which isn’t even His, its borrowed. And it’s borrowed from Bethphage, a town so small, poor, and insignificant that there’s no archeological record of it. On top of the borrowed, baby donkey there’s no royal saddle, but the dusty, worn cloaks of some homeless vagrants, the disciples. “Behold, your King is coming to you?” This is no royal entry.

But despite these humble circumstances, it seems like the crowd is able to look past it and see what’s actually going on here. They only have similarly humble means, but they do everything they can to roll out the red carpet. They line the road with their coats and place palm branches in His path. More significantly, they sing his praises! “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Crying out to the Messiah! “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” That’s Psalm 118:26, recognizing that He is fulfilling Scripture.

It seems like the crowd gets it, like they know what’s going on. But do they really? We read verses 10–11 following our text: “And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” The crowd knew a fair bit about Jesus. On Thursday he healed two blind men in Jericho, on the Sabbath He stayed with Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, in Bethany. And now it’s Sunday. The crowd has heard about the miracles, they’re heard what He’s been doing, and they’re excited, but they don’t quite fully get it. “He’s a prophet from Nazareth.”

When Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew 16, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” they respond, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (vv. 13-14). Yeah, He’s a prophet. Anyone can see that. But Jesus asks them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter responds correctly, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (vv. 15-16). Yeah, Jesus is a prophet. But recognizing that isn’t the same as saying He’s the Christ.

From the praises that they shout and their outward actions, it seems like the crowd gets it. But when they’re asked who Jesus is, they fall short. The last time Jerusalem was stirred like this was when the wise men came, looking for the king who had been born (Mt. 2:3). Back then, Jerusalem didn’t know who Jesus was and they still don’t recognize their true king.

I think we can see a bit of ourselves in the crowd gathered on Palm Sunday. How often do we, like they, simply go through the motions in worship? Saying the right words, doing the right things, without really recognizing what’s going on here. Jesus comes to us now, as He did then, in humility. Can we see past that? When you come to the altar of God, the Holy of Holies, to eat God’s Body and drink God’s Blood, do you do so with fear and trembling, recognizing that your King is coming to you? Or do you go up because you’re ushered up? Little bit of bread, little bit of wine, and then you sit down again and that’s all it is. Do we always recognize the true nature of worship, the true nature of the Sacrament, the true nature of Jesus? How do you receive your King?

II. See With the Eyes of Faith

“Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” Our King is no ordinary king. He comes in humility. But despite His lowly appearance, He still comes to fight. He may not be riding on a warhorse, but He comes to do battle. He comes to fight for us.

His appearance on the battlefield seems pathetic. Placed in a feeding trough, surrounded by barn animals. But make no mistake, this child is Christ, the Lord. He does not receive treatment fit for a king, He is beaten and mocked and executed. But this is what our King is willing to endure for His people. His victory seems even more humiliating. Dying on a cross, a shameful criminal’s death. But don’t be deceived by outward appearances, this is your God conquering your enemies for you.

Our King is like no other king. The kings of this world gain what they have by taking it from others. Our King comes to give everything, even His very self, to His people. He gave up His Body on the cross for us, to endure the punishment that we deserve. He gives us His Body and Blood in the Sacrament to bestow upon us the forgiveness He won there.

To see what’s really going on here, we must look not at outward appearances, which will lead us astray, but with the eyes of faith, informed by God’s Word. To see past the borrowed baby donkey, we must listen to the words of Zechariah that Matthew puts before us, “Behold, your King is coming to you.” Here is our Savior and our King. To see past the genuine but shallow enthusiasm of the crowd, we must listen to the words they speak from Psalm 118, although they do not fully recognize its meaning, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Here great David’s greater Son, the Messiah, who comes to save. To see the humble bread and the lowly wine for what they really are, we must listen to the words of Christ, “This is My body…. This is the new testament in My blood.” When we look with the eyes of faith, when we look through the lens of God’s Word, we see things as they really are and we recognize their true significance.

He comes in humility because He wants to come to you. If He came with His full splendor and glory, we would not dare approach Him, we could not receive Him. So He comes in humility, in something that seems so simple we’re tempted to overlook it, so that He can come to you and give Himself to you and give you forgiveness of all your sins and unite Himself to you.

Psalm 118, the Scripture the crowd is citing, was one of the Psalms that was chanted during the celebration of Passover. Maybe that’s why these words were on the minds and the lips of the Passover pilgrims heading to Jerusalem. But we see the true significance of their words. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptist proclaimed, and as we sing in our liturgy. And this Lamb, to which the Passover lamb pointed, invites us to His meal, to the fulfillment of the Passover, where the Lamb gives us Himself to eat and to drink. We sing from this Passover psalm at Christ’s Passover meal. We repeat with true faith and deep understanding the cry of the crowd as Jesus comes into our midst: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Blessed is Christ who comes to us in the Sacrament, bringing forgiveness.

O “daughter of Zion,” people of God, “Behold, your King is coming to you!” Humble and lowly. The very body that rode on the colt and hung on the cross, comes under the bread. The very blood that coursed through His veins and was shed on the cross, comes to you in the cup. “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Hosanna means “Save us!” Save us, O Lord, from our sins and our failures, and grant us salvation. “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” who comes to us as surely and as really as He came into Jerusalem. “Hosanna in the highest!” May this word of praise ring out from heaven itself as the angels long to look at the mystery which has been given to us men (1 Pet. 1:12). Hosanna! Amen.