[Machine transcription]
And as he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.”
Amen. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
You’re saying, I don’t know if you checked twice as you were hearing the gospel lesson of the triumphal entry to make sure it was still Advent and not Palm Sunday. That’s the verse, the text that we hear on Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week. It’s the verse that recounts what happened when our Lord Jesus Christ, 33 years old, rode down the Palm Sunday path. That wasn’t what it was called then; they called, they changed the name. And after he rode down there into Jerusalem to overthrow the money changers, to cleanse the temple, to teach, to finally at last that week be arrested, to be crucified, and buried for us and for our salvation.
How is it then that we hear that Gospel reading today on the first Sunday in Advent? In fact, this is an old tradition. As far back as we have readings on Sundays, the triumphal entry of Jesus was read not only on Palm Sunday but also on the first Sunday of Advent; that is, the first Sunday of the church year. And you have to think that this is pretty precious territory. We only have 52 times in a week where we get together, and so we’ve got 52 choices for what to read on those Sundays, and to give two of those Sundays over to this text, that must mean something.
In fact, I think not only should we think of this Sunday as the first Sunday in Advent, but we should think of it as the first Sunday of the church year. And in this way, this gospel text, more than any other gospel text, sets the stage for what happens in this place every single week. In fact, I think it’s not only true that we read this text twice a year, but in fact, I think we could say it fairly that we sing this text and speak this text and meditate on this text every single week in the Sanctus, when we say, “Blessed is He, blessed is He, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”
So maybe this, more than any other passage in the Scripture, this text tells us what happens in the divine service. And it is this: Jesus comes to us lowly, meekly, humbly, righteous, and having salvation. Just as he rode the donkey, never been ridden before, down the Mount of Olives and through the Kidron Valley and up into Jerusalem, so now he comes to us riding on his Word, riding standing on the bread and the wine to bless us, to save us, to deliver us, to set us apart, to transfer us from the kingdom of this world to His own kingdom.
It was making me think this morning of this text in Colossians. This is Colossians chapter 1, verse 12 and 13: we give thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
I think Luke highlights this for us in the passage on the triumphal entry. The passage, by the way, is in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John: Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But each of the Gospel writers gives us a slightly different perspective and a slightly different insight. We’re going to be hearing a lot from Luke, by the way, starting now and for the next year. We’re in series C in the three-year series of readings, and so we’re going to hear a lot from Luke. And so we get to hear from Luke again this morning.
Luke gives us this particular emphasis that the crowds say, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” Luke wants to remind us that this triumphal entry of Jesus is the entry of a king. In fact, you know the triumphal entries are common in the ancient world. The most famous one was probably Alexander the Great, who rode in triumphal entry into Babylon. He had this five-mile-long thing that he rode on, and he was in the back and he had cages with lions and people had choirs and they were throwing roses all over and burning incense, and all the people were everywhere. It was this great triumphal entry.
But there’s another triumphal entry that I think should have our attention, and as far as the historians say, it happened on the same day. That every year, Herod, and remember this is not Herod the Great who killed the children in Bethlehem, but his son Herod who ruled in the North Galilee and also on the west side of the Dead Sea, that every year he would come with his armies and with his attendants into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
He would come on the first day of the week, on Sunday, and he would be coming in from the west; he would be coming into Jerusalem and he would come in great procession and great triumph, and he would be entering into the city. And as far as we can tell that Jesus was making his own triumphal entry at the same time from the other side of the city, from the east.
I was trying to imagine it, how to get the picture in our minds. If you could imagine that you were—maybe this is the best way to do it. Imagine you were floating on a hot air balloon over Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And you would see there to the east from the Mount of Olives, you would see Jesus riding on a colt in the full of a donkey and you would see His disciples putting their coats on the ground and the people waving the palm branches and the children coming behind them singing Psalm 118: “Hosanna, Hosanna to the King, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
And then from the other side of the town, you would have seen Herod riding, probably on a war horse, surrounded by soldiers. There were men with their soldiery gear, with their armor on and their spears and their shields, all kind of marching in procession. Herod was coming off a couple of major victories on the front to the east, and so he would have come with all of this royal power.
And both were coming into Jerusalem at the same time, and both were making a claim, the claim that they were the king. Now, this is what it really comes down to for us: that Jesus has made that claim not only on Jerusalem but also on you. This is what the triumphal entry means. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.
