1st Sunday of Advent December 1, 2024
Matthew 21:1-9
Scripture Readings
Jeremiah 23:5-8
Romans 13:11-14
Hymns
58:1-4, 58:5-9, 57, 74
Hymns from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) (TLH) unless otherwise noted
Sermon Audio: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ministrybymail
Prayer of the Day: Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank Thee, we bless and praise Thee forever, that Thou didst send Thy Son to rule over us poor sinners, who for our transgressions did justly deserve to remain in the bondage of sin and Satan, and didst give us in Him a meek and righteous King, who by His death became our Savior from sin and eternal death: We beseech Thee so to enlighten, govern and direct us by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may ever remain faithful to this righteous King and Savior, and not, after the manner of the world, be offended with His humble form and despised word, but, firmly believing in Him, obtain eternal salvation; through the same, Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our meditation is based on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. You will see that for as much as this world abounds with the unpredictable, the kingdom of God wins out with a surpassingly unpredictable grace. Again, as the Prophet Zechariah foretold:
“Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.”
Lord Jesus, bless Thy Word that we may trust in Thee. Amen.
“And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, 2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. 3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. 4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. 6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, 7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. 8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. 9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”
Life is unpredictable. On that, you may rely. Weren’t you told when young that hard work always pays off in the end? Yet, once you set out on your own, you find you can toil and labor for remarkably little result. You may have a project or crop near perfection destroyed in a moment, while others seem to achieve and exceed despite obvious ineptitude. This is perhaps why you were also told hard work is its own reward—words of advice to kind of cover your bases.
You see, all worldly wisdom eventually ends up self-contradictory, without solid explanation, because, to the human mind, when actually thought through, you’re left with no explanations. For example, what you feel you can’t live without may disappear, or what you would never have asked for may occupy your time by surprise. Another example is when you succeed, get what you wanted, or think you need, yet still feel somehow empty, hollow, shallow.
And in a year that some claim could not be more surreal, has the unpredictable, in a way, not become the new normal? So unpredictable, you could almost, almost predict it. I think it’s always been the case, though. This year has just made it a little more obvious, harder to deny.
Your earthly journey as a whole is filled with the non sequitur, the seemingly random. It’s only when our explanations—what you and I have “figured out”—fall short and are proven to be the vapor they are, that you begin to question: Is what this world claims is the path to success really the path to success? Where are you headed? With so many twists and turns, do you wonder whether God’s ways have any rhyme or reason, whether He is not the unpredictable One?
The Scriptures teach such thinking is to be expected: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.„ But the incomprehensible to us is a matter of our fallen perspective: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,„ says our God.
The Scriptures also teach that when this world has no consistent answer to offer, the Lord is using the unpredictable for His gain—that you might humble yourself before Him. “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the forward [wily, schemer] is carried headlong„ (Job 5:13 KJV).
The Lord works thus so that, in place of your shock and confusion, you take in the grand twist of the kingdom of heaven. The Lord works that so that you take in God’s ability to accomplish the unexpected in the most unanticipated of manners and ways. As the Prophet Zechariah proclaims, the unpredictable nature of your God is the very core of His glory among us: “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass…„
Not just that one day with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem atop a donkey; the life of Jesus as a whole would seem to fit the pattern you and I have almost come to expect. It has the pattern of being predictably unpredictable.
The Gospel, too, proves so contrary to any human assumption. For centuries, the Savior was proclaimed as a divine Ruler, yet He was swaddled in a manger. The Son of God, come from heaven above, grew up in poverty, near anonymity. His wonders and signs made men question the way they assumed the world worked—as if the laws of nature, where food comes from, how wine is made, why children are born blind—were all constructs of our imagination. On account of our inferiority to the Maker of heaven and earth, everything we think we’ve so wisely figured out, we’re really making up as we go along.
Thus, His teaching so often spoke in an upside-down manner: “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.„ From His Father’s exalted perspective, the world does not work the way you’ve come to assume: “But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.„
His parables equally upended human wisdom by revealing that our efforts in life, our hardest work, gain us nothing—nothing eternal. Instead, to those who could never have imagined heaven to be theirs, He made the shocking announcement: “Neither do I condemn thee.„
All this sounded like news too unbelievable to be true, which is why some plotted to put Him to death, thinking Jesus went about deceiving people with fake news, lulling them into a false sense of security with His teaching of forgiveness, of grace.
Of course, Jesus saw it coming. But when Jesus told the people just how it would happen (a cross), they said, “Impossible.„ Yes, His sentence to a public death fit only for a capital crime made no sense—but then again, so much else hadn’t. That’s why they cheered and welcomed Him, with palms and praises, almost unfazed by the fact that He rode in upon a donkey. That’s kind of what they had come to anticipate as His style.
Predictably unpredictable, the long-awaited Messiah entered His royal city as meekly as He did this world—in as unexpected a fashion as each of His earthly days. He came to reign in like manner, enthroned upon a cross: the man who did nothing wrong crucified with insurrectionists, the poor Boy from Galilee buried in a rich man’s grave.
All vivid pictures of the greatest of upside-down reversals: “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.„
Accomplished in the truly remarkable feat, so unlike anyone else buried in that garden, He rose from the dead. All this He did, that you might always come to expect, rely on, and cling to His amazing grace in and among us. For through the forgiveness of sins, your God is ever near you, as He told those who thought they had lost Him entirely, “Lo, I am with you always.„
This Gospel, so contrary to human reason, gives hope, rhythm, and pattern to all of life’s seemingly random moments. Through the life, death, and victory of Jesus, God reveals your deepest suspicion to be true: He is the unpredictable One after all—but in the most steadfast of ways. He is the Steadfast Unpredictable One that you may trust, despite the confusion of the moment, that when you encounter the unexpected, He can only intend it for your greater good.
For any soul distressed by what comes their way in life, this is good news indeed: “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.„ Meaning that by faith in Christ, all the self-contradictory, conflicting wisdom of the world finally finds resolution. The unpredictable, that which defies explanation, is sent for that very purpose: to awaken us from the delusion that we have life figured out. It is sent so we embrace instead, in meekness, the ever-wise will of God—the God who enters atop a donkey, dies on a cross, leaves a grave empty, that you might be confident of His saving power to ride in and conquer through anything you have to face.
Thus, the humble, upside-down ways of our Lord are the focus and theme of the Advent season, our preparation for Christmas. It is summed up by the Apostle Paul: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.„
The God who came in a humble manner also comes and makes His kingdom yours in a humble manner. He comes through the means of grace, preaching and teaching from the mouth of a fellow sinner. He comes in water, bread, and wine—the life-giving Word which gives spiritual rebirth and the very body and blood He gave and shed for you.
These are foolishness to the world, but to you, strength for the soul, as you wait and watch for Christ’s return.
Of that final day, all I can say, in summary of every poetic image penned throughout Holy Writ, is that it will exceed all expectation.
Until then, dear friends, may your life be as unpredictable as His. As the Apostle commends: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.„ Be predictably unpredictable. Do for others what they would never expect, welcoming them with the psalms and praises of forgiveness, humility, and generosity, that Christ might ride into and reign in their hearts too.
Life is unpredictable. On that, you may rely—in confidence in the God whose gracious ways transcend it all. For as much as this world abounds with the unpredictable, the kingdom of God wins out with a surpassingly unpredictable grace. Embrace His kingdom, His ways, His love—so contrary to human wisdom—here and now, and count on the world to come, in the best way possible, to be unlike anything you could ever have foreseen.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Now, the peace that passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Ministry by Mail is a weekly publication of the Church of the Lutheran Confession. Subscription and staff information may be found online at www.clclutheran.org/ministrybymail.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.