"Behold, Your King Is Coming to You" (Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent)

“To Fulfill What Was Spoken by the Prophet: ‘Behold, Your King Is Coming to You’” (Matthew 21:1-11; Zechariah 9:9-10)

In the Holy Gospel for today we read: “This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your king is coming to you.”’” Today we want to ask two questions: 1) How does this “fulfill what was spoken by the prophet”? and 2) What does this have to do with Advent? We’ll also be asking a third question, of course: What does this all have to do with you and me? But we’ll get there.

The first question, though: How does this fulfill what was spoken by the prophet? You know, today, with the start of a new church year, we enter the “Year of St. Matthew.” The vast majority of the Sunday Gospel readings for the next year will be coming from Matthew’s Gospel. That’s why we have this new banner up here behind me. It shows the Evangelist Matthew composing his gospel. And one of the characteristics of Matthew’s Gospel that makes it distinctive is his repeated use of the formula, “This took place”--whatever the event is, from the life of Jesus--“This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.” And then Matthew quotes the particular Old Testament passage. Matthew uses this quotation formula, “to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet,” or a phrase like it, some twelve times in his gospel. And it just so happens that each of our Gospel readings now for six straight Sundays has some form of that formula. “To Fulfill What Was Spoken by the Prophet” thus is the sermon series we are launching today. Each Sunday we’ll ask the question: How does this incident from the life of Jesus fulfill what was spoken earlier by the Old Testament prophet?

And so with this event here, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday: How does this fulfill what the prophet wrote? To answer that question, I suppose we should find out which Old Testament prophet is being quoted, and what the original context was. The prophet was Zechariah, who wrote some 500 years before Christ. And Zechariah wrote:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

So now when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, Matthew sees this as being a fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. But this is about much more than just predicting a donkey. It’s what the donkey stands for, and who it is that rides in on it. That’s what makes it a significant fulfillment. Why did Zechariah prophecy just this? Why does he tell Zion or Jerusalem to “rejoice”--“rejoice greatly” and “shout aloud”--in view of this prophecy?

Why? “Behold, your king is coming to you.” That’s why Zion is to rejoice. Now keep in mind the situation in Jerusalem when Zechariah is writing this. Jerusalem had been pretty well devastated and desolated, for 70 years, during the time of the Babylonian Exile. Now, just recently, the exiles had finally been able to come back to Jerusalem and start rebuilding. But the place was a wreck, the people were discouraged, and the political situation was not what it once was, before the Exile. Judah was no longer an independent nation, with their own king sitting on the throne. Instead, they were now reduced to being at best a territory, existing at the largesse of the Persian world empire. They didn’t have a king; they had a governor.

But the Lord would remember his promises, and those promises included having a son of David reigning on the throne in Jerusalem. A great king would come, the great king called the Messiah, who would usher in a new and glorious age and the everlasting kingdom. That is why Jerusalem is to rejoice: Even when things look discouraging, remember that the Lord remembers, and he will send this king to you!

And this is where the donkey comes in--or rather, where the king comes in on the donkey. You see, this is noteworthy because of what this king doesn’t ride in on: He doesn’t ride in on a war horse, a stallion, a mounted steed. He rides in on a donkey. Jerusalem had seen enough of war horses. The people were worn out by war. They longed for peace. That is what the Lord will give them when he sends them this great king:

“I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations.”

The donkey was a symbol of that peaceable kingdom. A domestic animal, a beast of burden. The idyllic vision for Israel was of a land at peace, an agrarian nation, a land flowing with milk and honey, with each man sitting under his vine and fig tree. It was their version of the American Dream. And the donkey fits in there perfectly. A symbol of peace and home life.

So here comes Jesus, riding in on that donkey! He is the Messiah! He is the great king promised from long ago! He will bring in the peaceable kingdom and bring God’s people out from under oppression and constant turmoil.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.”

But this king is “righteous and having salvation” precisely by being “humble.” “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” The king comes victorious, so contrary to appearances, by himself being “defeated.” You see, it’s appropriate that this king comes in on a beast of burden, because the greatest burden that day was carried by Jesus himself. He bore the burden of our sins on his back, carrying them to the cross. “Righteous and having salvation is he.” He, the Righteous One, dies for us, the unrighteous. Thereby he saves us from the consequences of our sin and unrighteousness; he saves us from eternal death and damnation. “Having salvation is he.” Eternal salvation, safety and peace in Christ’s everlasting kingdom. This is what the king has for you! What a reason to rejoice!

Luther says of this king: “Look at him! He rides no stallion, which is a war animal, and he comes not with fearful pomp and power, but sits on a donkey, which is no war animal but which is ready for the burdens of work that will help human beings. Thereby he shows that he does not come to terrify people, to drive or oppress them, but to help them, to carry their burdens and take them on himself.”

So the coming of Jesus in this way does indeed fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Zechariah--and then some!

But now to our second question: What does this have to do with Advent? After all, this is a Palm Sunday reading, isn’t it? Yes. But it works here also, at the beginning of Advent. Because Advent is all about this king coming to us. “Advent” even means “coming.” The king comes to us righteous and having salvation. “For he will save his people from their sins.” The king comes to us, humble. And what could be more humble than this king coming as a little baby laid in a manger, an animal’s feed trough, where even a donkey might feed? From his lowly birth to his humble ride, the coming of Christ goes against expectations and outward appearances.

It’s still that way today. Christ comes to us in lowly means. In a little church, through the foolishness of preaching, words of forgiveness as though from God--although it doesn’t look like Jesus himself forgiving us. But it is. Water and word and the name placed on us in Baptism. This is salvation? It doesn’t look like it. Bread and wine and, again, some words. This is his Body and Blood, this is forgiveness of sins? Yes, it is. Jesus says so. “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble.” Through these humble means, your king has salvation to give to you. Through these humble means, your king is coming to you. That’s Advent. That’s fulfillment. That’s salvation. And that’s what all this has to do with you and me.

The people at Zechariah’s time were very discouraged. Things didn’t look so glorious. The place was a wreck, and it looked like the turmoil would never end. Maybe we feel like that too. Our lives have been devastated by this or that affliction, maybe even by our own folly. Rebuilding--why bother? It’ll just be something else to come along and mess things up. But when we feel like that, Zechariah’s prophecy, and Matthew’s retelling of it, gives us the encouragement we need. For the Lord remembers his promises. There is a king who will come along--there is a king who will come again--and straighten things out. It may not look like it right now, but, hey, it’s still Advent.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you.”

Matthew 21:1-11 (ESV)

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Zechariah 9:9-10 (ESV)

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.

I believe this biblical passage was used in the John Ford movie, "Three Godfathers," starring John Wayne. It happened when the Wayne character was in a desert cave dying of thirst with a baby in his care. He lost all hope and tossed a Bible to the ground. The wind flipped the Bible pages until it came upon the page with the passage above (if I remember correctly). At that moment, a donkey appeared at the opening of the cave and Wayne rode it with the baby into a nearby town, thus saving themselves.

BTW, quite a good movie.

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