The Advent King Comes - Luke 19: 28-40

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Once again, the season of Advent has arrived and, with it, the pre-Christmas excitement. There are Christmas trees, garlands, tinsel, wreaths, and inflatable Santas and Rudolphs everywhere you turn and Christmas music fills stores and airwaves.

Or, perhaps it's the pre-Christmas season has arrived, dragging Advent, kicking and screaming, along with it. The church tries to tap the brakes on Christmas. We’re not there, yet. This time of the year is called Advent. Advent doesn’t mean pre-Christmas. The name Advent means Coming. The season is both to remember Christ's coming in time 2000 years ago, God hidden in flesh as a baby in Bethlehem while also reminding us that Christ will come again, as we say in the Creed, in glory to judge the living and the dead. Meanwhile, the church waits, with Advent expectation, as Christ continues to come to us, hidden-yet-revealed, in Word and Water, in Bread and Wine. Traditionally, it was a season of repentance, recognizing that it was our sins that caused the Father to send His Son and take on human flesh to dwell among us. The colors of the season are either blue or purple, colors of royalty, symbolizing that Christ is the King. While we do give a nod to Christmas, with the tree up, we don’t jump in with both feet. The Advent Wreath serves as our anchor, keeping us from speeding too soon to the Manger. The Church resides in this in-between time, this Advent time, of watching and waiting, anticipating the day that Jesus fulfills his promises and returns to take His church to be with him into eternal glory.

But all around us in the secular world. Out there, it’s simply called the Christmas season or, a more nebulous holiday season. The other day I heard someone on TV say that he loves this time of the year. After all, he said, it's all about family and friends and giving gifts of love to each other. They're missing out on the entire purpose of what Advent is about, let alone Christmas. It's ultimately not about family, or friends, or food, or presents, or who got the fruit cake from last year, It's about Christ and his coming as a child in Bethlehem.

Theirs was a commentary of the times and a window into the mindset of the world in which we live. But when you have a misunderstanding of what Advent is about, and you have a misconception of who Christ is, of course you're going to completely misunderstand what both Advent and Christmas is about. And when that happens, you miss the whole reason that Christ came in the first place.

It may seem odd that this morning's gospel reading is the Palm Sunday narrative, Jesus entering the holy City of Jerusalem heading toward his passion, death, and crucifixion on the cross. But the reason that this is the first Sunday of Advent reading, is that it demonstrates the whole purpose of Christ's Ministry. He was coming into Jerusalem, entering into the City of David so that he could take his rightful place at his throne.

His throne would be unlike any other throne that any other king had ever sat upon, a throne not for splendor and majesty and power and awe, but a throne for suffering. It wouldn't be a throne made from precious metals and adorned with stones and jewels, but a throne of rough hewn wood. There wouldn't a raised upper throne room, but there would be a hill outside of the city walls, a place where the worst of the worst would reside instead of kings and queens. It was called Golgatha, the Place of the Skull, a place where murderers, criminals, insurrectionist's, the very worst that society has to offer. This is the place where His throne would be found. Is a place where this King of Kings and Lord of Lords would reign, where His glory would be seen, among the worst of the worst, the sinners of all sinners. That is where Jesus throne was to be found.  

But on that Palm Sunday morning, that's not what the people were expecting. They were expecting a king’s king to come in glory with power, pomp and circumstance. They were expecting a king along the lines of King David who rode into Jerusalem with crowds shouting his praises. They were expecting a king who would throw out the Romans, put Israel back on the map and re-establish Jerusalem to be the holy capitol city of an Israelite empire as it was under David and Solomon centuries earlier. Even the disciples were thinking that this was going to be some kind of a power play. Perhaps they too would join in some kind of cabinet where they could be the secretary of abundance, the under-secretary of bread and wine and the minister of healing and miracles.

When you have a misunderstanding of who and what Jesus is all about, then, there is also a misunderstanding of what Jesus has come to do.

Jesus riding into Jerusalem is God’s way of literally interrupting the world’s plans. It’s Jesus way of saying, “I’m here to do something unexpected.” On this first Sunday of Advent, as the pre-Christmas craziness ramps up to a more fevered pitch, on this first day of a new Church year, it’s worth pausing, slowing, and re-centering our eyes on Jesus.

If all you think Christmas is only about family and friends, presents and trees, then you are as misguided as the ancient citizens of Jerusalem who lined the streets to welcome the King they expected. Then you forget the whole purpose of Jesus coming. The name Jesus tells us who and what he is: savior. Jesus means savior. The Angel would tell Mary and Joseph to name him Jesus because he's going to save his people from their sins. He's not going to take the lives of many. Rather, he will give his life for many.

God the Father has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear your sin and be your Savior. The suffering of Jesus was not an accident. It was not just what happens to a nice person who loves in a world filled with hate. It was purposeful. God the Father sent His Son into the world to defeat all the forces that oppose His Kingdom. Jesus came to bear sin and bring forgiveness, to defeat death and bring life, to conquer Satan and bring salvation.

No matter where you are in the Church Year, no matter what texts of Scripture you are reading, no matter what hymns you are singing, this is the reason why God is here: To bring you forgiveness, life, and salvation.

In my 2021 Report, I said that one of my prayers for 2022 is that we, as a congregation, be more deliberate on putting the best construction on things and giving people the benefit of the doubt. That isn’t just for you; that’s for me, too. So, to be fair and give that man on TV the benefit of the doubt, I’m thinking that the reason for the comment about “Christmas is about family,” is that as 2021 comes to it’s final hurrah, he was acknowledging that the year has not been easy. We began the year hiding behind masks and separated by distance. Family get-togethers were put on hold, jobs were in question, politics invaded our conversations at every level, including into health and science. When we did get back together, relationships were challenged and destroyed. Perhaps your own social fabric unraveled a bit and people you once thought were friends turned against you. Maybe this person was trying to remind us that can be a time of gathering without the fightin’ and fussin’ we’ve done all year long.

Into this mess of anxiety, Jesus comes to take us to what lies at the heart of the matter: God’s love for His creatures. It may not take away the anxiety, but it sets you on solid ground. You are a child in a kingdom where God, your Father, loves you. At the heart of His love is the person of His Son. Though it leads to His death, Jesus will do the work of His Father. He will come and bear what needs to be borne, fight what needs to be fought, and die to put to death what needs to end, so He might rise and bring the beginning of life, eternal life to you.

So, in this messy world with its complex priorities, confusions and misunderstandings, simply rest for a moment today. Jesus has come. Not in Jerusalem, but here. Not on a colt but in His Word. Not surrounded by crowds throwing cloaks on a road, but still surrounded by disciples. You and me. Here, in this place, Jesus comes to remind and assure us. Grace is the reason He is here.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

"Blessed are the Dead Who Die in the Lord..." Rev. 7:2-17

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” (Revelation 14:13)

There are nine beatitudes (blesseds) in the Sermon on the Mount that you heard in this morning’s Gospel reading. And there are similarly nine beatitudes in the Revelation, of which the ones I just read are numbers 3 and 4. I think it’s to point out the contrast between the blessings of living under the cross as the church militant, now on earth, and the blessings of resurrected life at the foot of the Lamb of God in the church triumphant in heaven.

We’re used to hearing the blessed of the beatitudes so, what is surprising to us, is who are called “blessed” – the dead. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth.” There is a similar passage in the psalms. Psalm 116:15 – “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” Precious and blessed is how the death of God’s holy ones, his justified ones, looks in the eyes of God. Precious and blessed. This correspond to the spiritually poor, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting of righteousness, merciful, pure hearted peacemaking, persecuted disciples. These are dead to the world and dead to themselves. In the Revelation, the blessed are the literally dead as a doornail dead. And that might take us by surprise.

We know from the Scriptures (Romans 8) that death is the just wages for sin. Death is what our sins deserve. Death is the outcome of sin. “On the day you eat of it, you will surely die.” From that perspective, death is anything but blessed.

I think it’s safe to say that none of us, at least at the gut reaction level, would think of death as anything precious and blessed. We live in the midst of a death-denying culture that spends billions of dollars creating the illusion of youth and defying the process of aging which is really the slow, steady drumbeat of dying.  Halloween is about as close to death as we’d like to get. When we lived in Crosby, some folks down the street turned their front lawns into macabre cemetery scenes with coffins and skeletons and tombstones. It’s really kind of bizarre, but understandable. Pretend death is so much easier to deal with than the real thing. We all know that those skeletons are really made of plastic, the coffins are empty, and the headstones are made of styrofoam. It’s pretend, play-death.  

But then when we are confronted with death - real, flesh and blood death in its face-to-face reality - we try to ignore it. When we can’t ignore it, we try to control it. Or, at least, try to make death play on our terms, as if we are the home team, its homecoming weekend, and death – the opponent – is supposed to play by our house rules.

In 2014, America was taken with the story of Brittany Maynard. Brittany was a 29 year old woman who was diagnosed with a particularly nasty form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. In an interview published October 6, 2014 in People magazine, Brittany said, “"My glioblastoma is going to kill me, and that's out of my control." Brittany and her family moved from California to Oregon, where the state allows terminally ill citizens to have access to – quote – “Death with Dignity.” I am oversimplifying for the sake of brevity, but the law allows this to happen: a medical doctor prescribes a drug and a dosage that will kill the patient. The patient fills the prescription and then, at the time of his or her choosing, the pill is taken and the patient dies. Ethicists, physicians and citizens are arguing over what this is to be called. The technical term for this is euthanasia – a compound Greek word that means “good death.” The more accurate, common-language term is physician assisted suicide. A doctor helps a person take his or her life. As a theologian, I’ll tell you what the Biblical name for this is: self-murder. Actually, that’s only part of it. It’s playing God.  Proponents for this argue this is a choice about “quality of life,” but in reality, it’s about power and control. Literally, it is playing God. Brittany said, "Being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying [than waiting]."

Brittany is right: death is out of our control. As Christians, we know death is not given to us to control it. Death is a consequence, the last great enemy against which we fight; the last enemy to be defeated. You don’t hear that kind of language coming out of the media. Death, however, is under the control of God. King David knew that – “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” he said. “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

You hear a lot of the romantic foolishness of dying with dignity. Switzerland is now actively marketing itself as a suicide tourism destination. They talk about this being your best life now, or not suffering any more than necessary. Ironically, they even talk about value of life. You will never hear what we confess in the Creed: we believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. In that order. And we believe that for the simple fact that Jesus died and rose bodily from the dead, demonstrating decisively that death has no hold on Him and that His death on a cross conquered death once and for all.

Christians have a blessed monopoly on the whole business of death and resurrection because Jesus Christ is the only One to have died and risen from the dead. Jesus died on a cross and three days later appeared risen from the dead. That’s why we believe in the “resurrection of the body,” because Jesus rose bodily from HIs grave and promised to raise us up from ours on the Last Day when it all comes to its completion.

It’s because of the death and resurrection of Jesus that we can use words like “precious” and “blessed” in reference to our own death and the death of all baptized believers. Blessed are those who die in the Lord. Not just any death, but “in the Lord.” Those who are united in baptismal faith with Jesus’ death; who have been buried with Him. Blessed are you, dear baptized believer, trusting the promise of life in Jesus’ name. Your death is precious and blessed to God. Not because of you, but because of Jesus. And not because of your works. The works of the saints follow them in death; they don’t precede them. That’s what it means to be justified by grace through faith. Your works follow behind you, but you don’t lead with them. Nothing you do can make your death precious and blessed.

Brittany Maynard garnered the headlines with her story. There is another woman named Maggie Karner who has the exact same illness and diagnosis as Brittany. Maggie is a little bit older, in her early 50s, but also a wife and mother. She’s been part of our LCMS Life Ministries team in St. Louis. When she found out about Brittany’s plans, Maggie wrote her own article at www.thefederalist.com, about what she was facing and what her plans were. The title of her article pretty spells it out: “Brain Cancer Will Likely Kill Me, But There’s No Way I’ll Kill Myself.” She wrote:

Death sucks. And while this leads many to attempt to calm their fears by grasping for personal control over the situation, as a Christian with a Savior who loves me dearly and who has redeemed me from a dying world, I have a higher calling. God wants me to be comfortable in my dependence on Him and others, to live with Him in peace and comfort no matter what comes my way. As for my cancer journey, circumstances out of my control are not the worst thing that can happen to me. The worst thing would be losing faith, refusing to trust in God’s purpose in my life and trying to grab that control myself.

And I also want them to know that, for Christians, our death is not the end. Because our Savior, Jesus Christ, selflessly endured an ugly death on the cross and was laid in a borrowed tomb (no “death with dignity” there), He truly understands our sorrows and feelings of helplessness. I want my kids to know that Christ’s resurrection from that borrowed grave confirms that death could not hold Him, and it cannot hold me either—a baptized child of God!

Maggie’s got it right: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. In these last days, in the wake of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Christ has made the wages of sin a place of blessing for all who trust Him. The Lord’s beatitudes are fulfilled in them. Their poverty of spirit has been answered by the riches of the kingdom of heaven. Their mourning has turned to rejoicing in the comfort of Christ. Their meekness has been vindicated. The world walked all over them, but now the earth is their inheritance. Their hunger and thirst for righteousness has been satisfied; they are justified, declared righteous in Jesus’ righteousness. Their mercy has returned to them with dividends – they too receive mercy. With hearts purified by the blood of the Lamb, they now see God face to face. As makers of peace they now share a name with the Prince of Peace – sons of God. The wounds of their persecution, inflicted for righteousness’ sake, have been healed. The kingdom of God belongs to them.

Our value, our worth, our lives, our deaths – everything we are – is grounded in Christ. And, in reality, we already died. You see that at the font, every time a person is made child of God through water and Word: they die, in Christ, and they are raised in Christ. 

So what’s it going to be like in heaven? And what’s it like for those who are already there? The most faithful answer is “blessed.” The Bible calls the dead in Christ “asleep in the Lord.” That’s a nice peaceful picture. They are asleep, they rest from their labors. Now “asleep” does not necessarily mean asleep as we think it – being snoring, inactive and unaware spirits. It’s only like sleep in that the passage of time ceases because the evenings and mornings of this creation have no relevance in the eternal. We do have this much: a new heaven and a new earth thanks to Jesus who makes all things new. That sounds much better than sitting on clouds strumming harps. A whole creation brought through death into resurrection where death and decay is no more, where the entropy of our sin is vanished. Isaiah pictures a lavish feast on God’s holy mountain, a feast of fatted meats and fine wines.  

The one thing that’s certain about eternal life is that worship is the main activity. Actually, it appears to be the only activity, as all of life has now become worship. High liturgy to the Father through the Son in the Spirit. John caught a fleeting glimpse of the heavenly congregation. This is the side of worship we don’t see, but we confess by faith that we are joined by the angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven. This is the heavenward side of worship that John saw and reports to us.

This a white-robed congregation. They are all covered with Christ, wearing their baptisms like a spotless robe. The blood of Jesus, the Lamb, has washed away all their sins. Not a spot of sin remains. Their time of tribulation is over. Listen again (for hearing is all we get right now), listen to how it is with them and how it will be for us:

Therefore (because they are washed in the blood of the Lamb),

they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple (they are eternal priests to God in Christ’s royal priesthood. That’s your eternal vocation – priest to God).

And He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence. (They live under the umbrella of His grace).

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. (They hunger and thirst for righteousness has been satisfied.)

The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat (the days of the wilderness are over; they have come into the promised land of life).

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd (the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep).

And He will guide them to springs of living water (He will refresh them with His Spirit as He refreshed them in their Baptism).

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (Those tears you shed are not in vain and not unnoticed; the hand of God will carry them away forever)

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Blessed indeed, thanks to Jesus.

In the name of Jesus,
Amen