Do you ever have the feeling that you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time? Today’s Gospel lesson might very well make you feel that way. It’s the end of November and the start of a new Church year and the beginning of the season of Advent, and everywhere we turn people are getting ready for Christmas. We expect to hearing about a trip to Bethlehem where Jesus will be born in a stable and be placed in a manger – but instead, the Gospel takes us to Palm Sunday and Jerusalem and Jesus riding on a donkey just a few days before His death. Just doesn’t seem right, does it?
The word “Advent” comes from a Latin word that means “coming” – and again, we think that at this time of year we ought to be focusing on the coming birth of Jesus. But we need to pause for a moment and put this Advent – this coming – into a Biblical and historical perspective. And this is especially true in the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel that will serve as the source for the majority of our Gospel lessons for the next 12 months.
Many Biblical scholars believe that Matthew originally wrote his Gospel for Jewish Christians – for Christians in the early days of the Church who had been born and raised as faithful, God-fearing Jews. These were people who knew their Old Testament Scriptures frontwards and backwards, who were keenly aware of the messianic prophecies that had come down to them through thousands of years.
When you sit down to analyze his Gospel, you realize that Matthew is all about fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. Chapter 1 begins with these words: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Every faithful Jew knew that the Messiah was promised to be a descendent of Abraham and a “son” – a descendent – of King David, so Matthew makes it very clear from his opening words that Jesus is – no questions about it – this prophesied Messiah. And to prove his point, he launches into a family tree showing exactly how Jesus is a descendent of David and Abraham.
Professor David Scaer writes that “no other Gospel comes close to Matthew in its level of citation and explanation of the Old Testament.” Later in chapter 1 when an angel appears to Joseph in a dream to explain Mary’s unexpected pregnancy, Matthew explains the virgin birth by quoting the prophet Isaiah. In chapter 2, when the Magi come to Jerusalem looking for the newborn “king of the Jews,” Matthew quotes from the prophet Micah and the prophet Ezekiel. When Jesus and His family flee to Egypt to escape Herod’s plan to kill all infant males in Bethlehem, Matthew quotes from the prophet Hosea. After that massacre takes place in Bethlehem, Matthew quotes from the prophet Jeremiah, and in the final verse of that chapter Matthew makes yet another reference to Old Testament prophecies. And these are just the first two chapters!
Now all of that is fine, you might be thinking, but I still haven’t told you why we’re reading a pre-crucifixion text rather than a pre-Christmas text today. Well, let’s look at it this way. God did not promise a Messiah to His fallen people just so we could have a happy and wonderful holiday known as Christmas. If we’re truly going to understand why God sent His Son to be born on Christmas, we have to first understand why He sent His Son to our earth at all. Christmas is the start of one chapter of the story – but it’s not all of the story.
As Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowds cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” We tend to think of the word “hosanna” as an ancient word we use today instead of a more common word like “praise.” It would be easy to restate Matthew’s text to something like “Praise to the Son of David,” and while “hosanna” certainly does include the idea of praise, it’s actually more of a request or a prayer. A literal translation of “hosanna” actually means this: save us, please! When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowds weren’t just cheering for Jesus. They were begging Jesus to save them.
Save them – but from what? Well, we know that by the time that Jesus was born, many Jewish people wrongly believed that the Messiah would be an earthly king who would restore the once-great Kingdom of Israel – the kingdom that had flourished so long ago under the rule of King David and King Solomon. Following the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians in 722 BC and later the conquest of the Southern Kingdom by Babylon in 587 BC, Israel was never again an independent nation. Even when some Jews were allowed to return to their homeland, they were ruled by a succession of foreign kings and generals. When Jesus was born, Israel had been ruled by the Romans for close to 60 years – the brutal, pagan, hated Romans. Herod the Great called himself King of the Jews, but he wasn’t Jewish, either, and he ran the government only because the Romans let him run things. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Judea was ruled by another brutal, pagan and hated Roman, the Governor Pontius Pilate. Every so often a group of Jews would start a rebellion, but it never lasted very long before it was violently rubbed out.
So when the crowds cried for Jesus to save them, some may very well have seen Jesus as this long-expected leader who would lead a great – and finally successful – rebellion against the Romans or whoever else might try to run their nation. They may have seen Jesus as a man who would bring Israel back to its former greatness and would sit on Israel’s throne perhaps for 40 years like David or Solomon. After all, when you knew the prophecies, they all seemed to fit. Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, just as David and Solomon had ridden mules when they entered Jerusalem. Jesus was cheered by the crowds when He entered Jerusalem, just like David and Solomon had been cheered by the crowds. The people laid their cloaks on the road and placed branches in Jesus’ path because that’s how kings – kings just like David and Solomon – were welcomed. As far as those people could tell on that Palm Sunday, the prophecies were being fulfilled right then and there. In fact, if you take a few minutes later today or this week to read our Gospel lesson and look at all of the notes in the margins, I think you’ll be amazed by just how may prophecies actually were being fulfilled.
But if you really study the prophecies, it is perfectly clear that God never intended the Messiah to be any kind of earthly king. God never intended the Messiah to save His people from the Romans or from any other pagan, human nation. During His trial, Jesus told Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world.” As we’ve seen in other recent Gospel lessons, the word “kingdom” can be more accurately translated as “rule” or “reign.” The “kingdom” of the Messiah is not a geographical area, but a description of the Messiah’s rule or reign over all people and over all creation. A creation that had been corrupted by sin. A creation that could only be made perfect again by a Messianic King who would save His people by saving them from their sins.
The bottom line is that the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem would be absolutely meaningless if He had not died for our sins in Jerusalem. The baby who was born in poverty and was laid to rest in a feeding trough for cattle would ultimately die in poverty and be laid in a borrowed tomb. But then – and this is the true wonder of God’s love – after that death and burial, the prophecies would be fulfilled. Jesus would rise from the grave. Sin – and death – would be conquered once and for all.
Our opening hymn today was number 343, “Prepare the Royal Highway.” I typically spend a lot of time choosing hymns for every one of our worship services. I try to pick hymns that are appropriate for the liturgical season. I try to pick hymns that we can easily sing – including hymns we already know and others that we can easily learn. I try to pick hymns with strong, memorable melodies. But most importantly, I try to pick hymns that support and enhance the appointed readings for that day – especially the lesson that will serve as the basis of our sermon text. That’s why I selected “Prepare the Royal Highway” as the first hymn of this first Sunday of Advent. Listen to these words of the first stanza, and I think you’ll understand why:
Prepare the royal highway;
the King of kings is near!
Let ev’ry hill and valley
A level road appear!
Then greet the King of Glory
Foretold in sacred story:
Hosanna to the Lord,
For He fulfills God’s Word!
That, my friends, is why we begin the Season of Advent today not by looking at the events leading up to the Messiah’s birth, but at the events leading up to the Messiah’s death. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the prophets. He is the fulfillment of each and every promise made by God to His people. He heard our cry: “Hosanna! Save us, please.” And He did.
Return to Pastor page
