In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of the main themes for the 3rd Sunday in Advent is the role of the pastor and what we should expect from him. As Saint Paul says in our Epistle lesson from 1 Corinthians chapter 4, “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” Pastors are called to be stewards of God’s mysteries, meaning, they are managers of the Lord’s heavenly gifts. Just like a manager at a grocery store takes care of the things on the shelves, even though he doesn’t own anything on them himself, that’s how pastors should treat God’s Word and Sacraments. They should watch over of them and make sure people are getting them in the ways that Jesus wants. 

This is also one of the reasons why we have our Gospel lesson today from Matthew chapter 11. Besides Paul words from 1 Corinthians, we get a real-life example of what being a good pastor is supposed to look like. Through the witness of John the Baptist, who Jesus says was the greatest man who ever lived, the Holy Spirit shows us what being a faithful preacher is all about.

Now, I know that not everyone in this room is a pastor. In fact, the only who is, is the guy who’s up here about to preach a sermon about it. But just because we haven’t been called to a particular office, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to know how that office is supposed to function. Even if you aren’t the guy that’s wearing the black and white pinstripes at a football game, you still need to know how he’s supposed to call the game. If you don’t, things can go wrong very fast. And the same is true when it comes to Office of the Ministry. If we don’t know what God has called our pastors to do for us, and what He wants to give us through them, then we might not look to them for the right thing. We might expect things from them that God never asked them to do, and we might not go to them for the things that we actually need. So, we need to know what our pastors are supposed to do. And by looking more closing at our Gospel lesson from Matthew chapter 11, and the example of John the Baptist, that’s exactly what we see.

The first thing that we learn from our text about what pastors are supposed to do, is that pastors are supposed to tell the truth. That’s what God commands them to do, and that’s what their hearers should expect them to do too. Saint Paul literally tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 4, that men called into the Ministry should “preach the Word” and be ready “in season and out of season.” What that means is that pastors should teach all of what the Bible says, regardless of what other people might think about it. And if you recall, that’s exactly what John the Baptist did and why he found himself in his unfortunate situation. The reason why John the Baptist was locked away in a prison cell, waiting for his head to get chopped off, was because John the Baptist did his job and did not shy away from speaking the truth of the Scriptures. In particular, if you remember, John told King Herod to repent of his adultery, because Herod had wrongfully divorced his wife, and then went ahead and married his brother’s wife instead. That was wrong. It was sinful. The Sixth Commandment forbids it and God was extremely angry with King Herod for doing it. 

So, John told Herod the truth. And we need our pastors to do the same thing for us too. We need them to speak the truth to us, regardless of what that truth is, because lies never help anybody. In fact, lies always hurt us. Lies have the ability to hurt us even deeper than how the truth might hurt our feelings. That’s the case for all lies, but it’s especially the case when it comes to lies about sin and grace. When someone, for example, is living in sin, meaning they are committing a sin on purpose without any intention of trying to stop it, and the pastor who knows about it says nothing, that person who is living in their sin keeps on doing it. And when anyone lives in their sin, instead of repenting of it and looking to Jesus to forgive it, they put themselves under God’s wrath and Judgment. According to the Bible, no one who lives in their sin will be saved. Listen to what Saint John tells us about unrepentant sin in 1 John chapter 3. He writes, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” This passage doesn’t mean that Christians don’t sin anymore at all, but rather that true Christians don’t embrace their sin and live in it on purpose. When their sins are shown to them, they repent and turn away from them. They actually try and stop doing them. Or what about what the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 6? There he writes, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolater, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.” The Word of God could not be more clear that people who do these sorts of things, demonstrating an unrepentant heart, won’t go to heaven. And because God’s Word says that, pastors need to say that too. They need to tell their people the truth.

God never sends preachers to tell lies. If John the Baptist would not have told King Herod the truth, if he would have lied to him, and said that Herod would be okay, because we’re all sinners, and Jesus loves everybody, Herod would have become even more hardened in his sin than he already was. He might not have even had the opportunity to ever repent again. Granted, Herod never did repent of his sin, even though he had the chance, but that’s not the preacher’s concern. Sometimes people do repent. Sometimes people do listen to God’s Word and stop doing what it says is wrong. There was another king in the Bible who repetend of his sexual sins when the preacher told him about it. That was king David. The prophet Nathan came to him, at great personal risk, told him the truth of God’s Word, and by God’s grace, David actually listened.

It's never the opinion of the crowd that should dictate what the pastor preaches and what the hearers should expect to hear him to say. It’s always the Word of God. That’s what Jesus says about John the Baptist. Jesus says that John was not a reed shaken by the wind. He was not a “yes man,” dressed in soft clothing, who secured a position in king’s courts by telling the king whatever he wanted to hear. John’s preaching wasn’t informed by what was popular at the time, but by what was in the Bible. And that’s because John knew that the Bible is the only reliable source of truth. The Bible is God’s Word which alone has to power to grant repentance, and bestow saving faith in the hearts of those who hear it. 

Pastors need to preach what the Bible says. And because they need to do that, this also means that the people who listen to them, are supposed to be examining the Bible and studying it to see if what their preachers are telling them is actually in it. Pastors can and have made mistakes. They are sinful and fallible men just like the people that they preach to and that means that sometimes they get things wrong. Sometimes they are more afraid of what the people will do to them what God could do to them, so they don’t say what needs to be said. At those times, they need to hear the Law too. And thanks be to God for the faithful hearers who hold their pastors accountable and tell them to say more when they aren’t saying enough. Thanks be to God for those like Pricilla and Aquilla who took Apollos aside and corrected him when his preaching on Baptism wasn’t what it was supposed to be. Thank the Lord for the faithful parishioners who walk into the pastor’s office and ask a question that they already know the answer to, so that they can gently lead their pastor into the right direction. Pastor’s need that. They need to hear the same Word of God that they speak to their people, because faithful pastors tell their people the truth.

The next thing that pastors are supposed to do is point their people to Jesus. It should never be the goal of the pastor to amass his own personal following and put the attention on himself. Pastors should not be in it for the “likes.” They should not cater what they say to what is popular in the world, or popular among the people they preach to. Pastors need to grow deaf to the praise of men, and give God the glory for everything they do that is right, and blame their own sinful nature for everything they do that is wrong. Their goal should not be to became famous, but solely to point people that they serve to the only One who can actually save them. Remember how Saint Paul rebuked the Corinthians when they played favorites with their pastors saying, “I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas.” No, Saint Paul, said. Christ is not divided. Paul didn’t die for their sins. Nobody was Baptized in the name of Paul.  Pastors don’t save people. Jesus saves people.

While it can and often does take place, the congregation should not become dependent on the personality of their preacher. In fact, they should be on guard against this happening. What God’s people need is for their pastors to do their best to be interchangeable so that no matter who stands in the pulpit or in front of the altar, the message is exactly the same. And that message is Christ crucified for sinners.

Just look at what John the Baptist did, even when he was rotting in a prison cell, and his disciples wanted to be near to him. He sent them to Jesus with the question, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another.” Now some people think that John the Baptist was having doubts about whether or not Jesus was actually the Christ. Other people, though, think that it wasn’t John who was doubting, but his disciples who were. In either case, it doesn’t really matter. John may have been the greatest man born of woman, but he was still born of a woman. John inherited the same sinful nature from his parents that we all have inherited. And so, we know that John struggled with sin just like the rest of us do. But whether or not this was an instance of John struggling with sin, or his disciples struggling with sin, John still did the right thing. John sent his disciples to Jesus. That’s what John had been doing from the very beginning of his ministry, and that’s what he did even at the end of it. And that’s what every faithful pastor should do. They should point their people to Jesus. No clearer Gospel has ever been preached then what John the Baptist preached about Jesus. He’s the one who said, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John was a faithful preacher because he knew who the source of eternal life was, even if he, like us, struggled at times to believe it perfectly. The source is always Jesus.

Listen to what Jesus said to John’s disciples when they came to him asking their question. Our Lord responded, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receives their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” The true gospel is always about what Jesus does for us. It’s never about what we do for Jesus. Whenever preachers turn the gospel into something that we do for Jesus, they take away the only comfort that we sinners can actually have. Because what we do for Jesus is never good enough. What we do for Jesus is always tainted by sin, just like we are. But what Jesus does for us is always pure and good. What Jesus does for us is so righteous that it actually fulfills all righteousness, and stands in the place of our unrighteousness. Jesus overcomes our sin by bearing it as His own and dying for it. That’s how the blind receive their sight. That’s how people who are sick ultimately get healed. That’s how we are saved from eternal death and given the gift of eternal life. It’s through what Jesus does for us. Jesus is the hope of all. He is the hope of pastors and he is the hope of those who listen to their preaching. And that’s why every faithful pastor should sends their people to Jesus.

And the last thing that pastors should do is listen to what they say along with their hearers. The reason why faithfully preaching God’s Word is the most important thing that a preacher does, is because hearing and believing God’s Word is the most important thing that there is. When Jesus’ gave John’s disciples the list of all the things that the Messiah does, the last one on the list was is the most important. He said, “The poor have good news preached to them.” Everything that we experience in this life is temporary. Our health declines. Our bodies decay. We die and turn to dust, but the Word of God endures forever. And those who cling to God’s Word endure forever along with it. Those who confess their own spiritual poverty, and look instead to the riches and merits of Jesus, have true and lasting wealth. Only God’s Word has the power to create faith in the hearts of those who heart it. And it is only through faith in God’s Word that we’re saved.

Preachers and hearers need to remember this, because the Word does not always seem to be working. That’s why Jesus also said to John’s disciples, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” The Word of God is offensive. It does not always look as powerful as God says it is. Just think about John. He preached the Word of God in all of its truth and purity and look where he ended up. Look where that Word got him. It seemed like John was losing. It seemed like the Word that he preached was causing him to lose. Then it seemed like John lost for good. John never did get out of prison. He died in that cell without ever seeing the light of day again. John was murdered by a vain lunatic who killed him after making a foolish promise to a pretty girl. John lost his head for doing his job. But even though it looked like he was a failure, we know that nothing could be further from the truth. Even though it looked like he lost, faith knows that things are not always as they seem. John didn’t lose. The Word of God did not fail. It may have looked like he lost, when he lost his head, but, as Jesus says elsewhere, “whoever loses his life for my sake, will find” 

John the Baptist won, and the Word of God won too, because John the Baptist is in heaven. Herod may have killed him, but Herod couldn’t destroy him, because John belonged to Jesus, and those who believe in Jesus never die. Yes, Herod may have been able to hurt John and make him suffer for a little while, but Herod could not stop the Word that John preached from coming true. In fact, it was Herod himself whom God used to make that Word come true for John. Because when Herod took John’s head, all that he did was usher him into eternal life a little bit faster. 

The Word that John the Baptist preached worked. God’s Word always works. We don’t always see it working, but it does. It works because God says so. It works because the power of the Word is bound up in what the Word proclaims, and that is, the death and resurrection of Jesus. Preachers and hearers listen to God’s Word, and nothing else, because in that Word we have the certainty of better things to come. We have actual good news. We have the assurance of a new and eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

It can be hard to be a pastor sometimes. It can be hard to be a parishioner sometimes too. Both of them are sinners who constantly need God’s grace. We both struggle with doubts. We both find it hard at times to believe what God says. But that’s who Jesus Himself preaches to. Jesus preaches good news to the poor. He preaches the Gospel, by sending His called and ordained servants to proclaim that message of forgiveness in His stead. And through His Word, He blesses both the preacher and the hearer alike. As Saint James tells us in His epistle, “We consider those blessed who remain steadfast.” We consider those who cling to God’s Word by repenting of their sin, and looking to Him for forgiveness, to be truly blest. They are blest whether or not they look blest. They are blest whether or not they feel blest. They are blest whether or not their life stinks and is filled with all kinds of hardships and misery. They are blest whether or not they suffer a lot for the Word, or whether they suffer a little for it. They are blest because the Word says so.

So, may the pastor always speak God’s Word in all of its truth and purity. And may God’s people listen to it and receive it with gladness. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Even though lots of people today have a low view of the Bible in general, that tends to be especially true when it comes to the Old Testament. When they read about the brutal battles and strange rituals that we find scattered throughout Moses and the Prophets, they quickly dismiss that part of the Scriptures as being unnecessary or even incorrect. In fact, sometimes individuals who call themselves Christians will even try and pit the teachings of Jesus against what’s recorded earlier in the Bible as if the two of them contradict each other. Who’s heard the argument before that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality? Despite the fact that God’s Word clearly defines it as wrong in many other places, since Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, never record an instance where Christ literally speaks that specific word out loud, we’re told that it’s an open question. In many cases, people almost act as if there are two different gods that are fundamentally opposed to each other. There’s the god of the Old Testament, and he’s kind of a meanie. And then there’s the god of the New Testament, and he’s a nice guy.

But the closer we look at the Word of God as a whole, and even the New Testament itself, the quicker we see just how wrong that line of thinking is. For example, as Saint Paul tells us in our Epistle lesson today from Romans chapter 15, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” So, on the basis of these words, allow me to explain to you all what our attitude towards the Old Testament should be, and what the benefits are of still reading it.

First, this passage from Romans 15, clearly shows us that even New Testament believers should continue to have a great deal of respect for what God tells us in the Old Testament. Again, as Saint Paul says, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.” The only possible thing that the apostle could be referring to here is Genesis to Malachi. Paul lived at the time when the books of New Testament were still being produced. The stuff that was written in former days, means the stuff that written before Christ was born. In fact, every time that the New Testament references “the Scriptures,” or the writings, even though it does, of course, apply to everything in the Bible, it’s first and foremost about the Old Testament. When Jesus says to the Pharisees, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,” what Scriptures is He talking about? When our Lord tells us in John chapter 10 that “the Scriptures cannot be broken,” meaning they don’t contain any errors, what infallible Word is He referring to? When Paul tells Timothy that, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” and to continue in them because they are able to “make you wise unto salvation,” what inspired text is He referencing? Yes, these passages apply to every part of the cannon of the Bible, but according to their original purpose, they have to do with Old Testament.

The reason why we should have just as much respect for the Old Testament as we do the New, and not pit them against each other, is because in the end both of them are the literal Word of God. They both have the same Author. Even though God used human men as instruments to record His Word, He’s still the origin of all of it. The people that He inspired weren’t writing their own opinions. They were recording the very proclamations of God Himself. As Saint Peter explains in 2 Peter chapter 1, “No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” In the Lutheran Church, we call that the doctrine of verbal inspiration. It means that not only did God give the impulse for the human authors who recorded the Bible to start writing, but He guided their work, and He provided them with the thoughts and the ideas to put down. 

This whole thing that we see nowadays were people go, “Well, yeah, but what did Jesus say,” or “That’s just Paul” or “But is it anywhere in the New Testament” completely misses the point. It’s a not-so-subtle way of arguing against the authority of the Scriptures. But when we dismiss one part of God’s Word, we call into question the rest of it too. When we cherry pick the things from the Bible that we like, and ignore the parts of it that we don’t, we’re playing a dangerous game that always ends badly. Eventually, it won’t just lead us to rejecting God’s written Word, but the Word made flesh too. If dismiss the Old Testament as unnecessary or uninspired, it’ll cause us to reject the New Testament too. As Jesus Himself warns us in John chapter 6, “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

There are so many ways in which reading the Old Testament can still benefit our faith today. The first one that Saint Paul gives us in our reading this morning is instruction. Again, as he says, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.” When we read the content of Old Testament, we find the exact same teachings presented to us there as we find in the New Testament. In fact, many times the Old Testament teaches us things in even greater detail. Think about the doctrine of creation. Yes, there are references to God being the greater of the universe several times in Matthew through Revelation, but in the book of Genesis, God gives us two whole chapters filled with wonderful details about how it actually happened. Or what about the doctrine of sin? The Old Testament literally gives us the account of how sin entered the world. We find verse after verse that teaches us about the depravity of our sinful condition and our great need for God’s forgiveness. Where does the Bible tell us that all of us are conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity? That’s from the Old Testament. Where does it say that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? It says it in the New Testament, but that’s only because it’s a direct quote from the Old Testament. Even the central doctrine of our faith, the doctrine of justification by grace through alone, is not something that we find only in the New Testament. Remember what it says about father Abraham and how he received God’s favor? It says, “he believed in the Lord and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Sometimes in Lutheran circles the impression is given that the Old Testament is the Law and the New Testament is the Gospel. But that simply isn’t true. Both Testaments contain both the Law and the Gospel. In both places, God tells what to do and what Christ does in our place. In both places, God shows us our sins and shows us our Savior. In both places, the Lord calls us to repentance and offers the healing balm of His forgiveness when we do. 

The only difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is that in one Christ is concealed and in the other one Christ is revealed. One of them gives us Jesus through signs, shadows, and types, and the one gives us Jesus in the flesh. One of them points us to the Messiah who would come and save us, and the other one identifies exactly who that Messiah is.

Not only can we learn many things by reading the Old Testament, but without the Old Testament the New Testament wouldn’t even make sense. What does it mean to call Jesus the Lamb of God if you don’t even know about the Passover lamb whose blood marked the door of the Israelites so that death passed them over? Why would we refer to Christ as the second Adam, if there was no first Adam, and he hadn’t actually plunged the world into sin? How would we even be able to identify who the Christ is if it wasn’t for the specific prophecies that tell us who to look for? All of God’s Word holds together. Everything in the Bible is one story. It’s the true story of our salvation in Jesus.

Besides being written for our instruction, the Old Testament was also written, above all, so that we would have the hope of eternal life. As Saint Paul also says in our reading, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Again, the way that the New Testament gives us hope is by showing us all the things that Jesus did in order to win for us salvation. But the Old Testament does that by predicting it. Even down to the smallest of details, God’s Word in from the Old Testament shows us how He planned our redemption long before it happened. Right after the first sin, God told us how the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the ancient serpent. Or what about the ram that was caught in the thicket so that Abraham didn’t have to sacrifice his sin, but could use a substitute instead? How could somebody possibly read Isaiah chapter 53 and not see Jesus and the cross there? “Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” We don’t have to know every single little detail from the Old Testament to know that Jesus is the Savior of the whole world, but every single little detail helps. They all point us to Christ.

And one more thing too. The last way that God uses the Old Testament to give us hope is by providing us with countless real-life examples of how He saved poor sinners in the past. Yes, the New Testament gives us a few accounts of believers who lived and died in the faith. We mostly find that in the book of Acts. But what about the Old Testament? It’s full of them. Over and over again, we see the grace of God in action. We see how God sought people out before they ever went looking for Him. We see how He remained faithful even when others were faithless. We see how when they stumbled God raised them up, and when they wandered away, He called them back. When those who should have known better fell into egregious sins, God did punish them and let them feel His anger, but only so that they would repent and seek His mercy. He didn’t reject them forever, but even enticed them to return, and when they did, He immediately restored them.

How many stories in the Old Testament follow the pattern of somebody sinning and God going out of His way to bring them to repentance and then forgive them? That’s the story of King David. That’s the story of Jonah and the Ninevites.  That’s the whole story of Israel and why they went away into exile. Even the times where people did not listen to God, and continued in their sin until their destruction, our Lord uses those instances to plead with us to take our sin seriously. It’s so that we would head the call of our Savior who says, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

The Old Testament is filled with examples of God’s love and mercy. So, don’t let it intimidate you. Don’t chuck it aside as a bunch of worthless myths from a bygone era without any real point. Don’t pit it against other parts of the Bible as if contradicts them or doesn’t hold the same weight. Read it as God’s Word. Ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, and study it diligently with the intent of learning something, and the Scriptures themselves say that you will. Look at it through the lens of Christ, who is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises, and that same Christ will fill you with hope. He will strengthen you through every trial and sustain you through every need. He will bring you to everlasting life.

As Jesus Himself tells in our Gospel lesson today from Matthew chapter 24, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” That’s true for everything that God says, even what He says in the Old Testament. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The traditional reading for the first Sunday in Advent is always the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. As we begin a new Church Year, this text reminds us of our Lord’s promise to continually come to His people and never leave them or forsake them. In fact, that’s what the word “advent” literally means. It means a “coming” or an “approaching.” Just like Jesus approached the people of Jerusalem, riding on the back of a lowly donkey, He approaches us week after week, year after year, in Church to give us the things that we need. So, in this morning’s sermon, as we look more closely at our Gospel lesson from Matthew chapter 21, let us consider together what it teaches us about the reason why Jesus comes to us and the manner in which He does. 

First, there’s the reason why Jesus comes to us. The mere knowledge that Christ is present in our midst, or that He promises to be with us repeatedly, is not, by itself, necessarily good news. It’s only good news, if we know the purpose for His arrival. Just because a king enters into a city, or a powerful person visits your home, that doesn’t mean that it will be a pleasant experience for you. Sometimes kings show up to conquer people. Sometimes they ride into town in order to burn it to the ground and lead everyone away as captives. Sometimes the only reason why they show up is for the purpose of getting revenge on their subjects and putting them into their place.

So, is that the reason why Jesus shows up, or does He have another purpose entirely? If, we only consider a portion of God’s Word, we might be led to the wrong conclusion. After all, just listen again to what it tells about Jesus in the first part of our reading. It tells us how He orchestrated the entire event of His arrival into Jerusalem down to the smallest of details. He knew where the donkey would be that He was going ride on, and He was able to make people obey His commands even from a distance. Jesus demonstrated in one action both His omnipotence and His omniscience, showing us without a shadow of doubt that He is the Word made Flesh. He is God Himself.

And just like Jesus knew where the donkey would be, and what to say to those who were taking care of it, He knows a lot of things about you too. In fact, Jesus knows everything about you. He knows the things that you want Him to know, and He knows the things that you wish He didn’t know too. He knows all about your sin. More than anyone else, even yourself, Jesus is acutely aware of the terrible ways that you have treated Him as your King in the past. Even if you have long forgotten them, He can still recall them with ease. He knows the kinds of things that you’ve said, and He knows the kind of things that you’ve done. He even sees the desires that you have in your heart. Unlike anyone else, Jesus has a complete and perfect knowledge of your whole miserable and sinful condition. 

And yet, what does our Lord choose to do with that information? Most kings would use something like that in order to destroy us. They would use it to punish us with the just suffering that we deserve. But that’s not how it is with Jesus. He does not want to come to us as our executioner, but as our Savior. He does not want to be present with us as our Judge, but as our Redeemer. He does not want to draw near to us in order to condemn us, but in order to deliver us.

Why did Jesus ride into Jerusalem on the back of a lowly donkey? Why did He enter into that holy city as a fulfillment of God’s Old Testament promises? What waited for Christ at the end of His road, and what did the people shout out to Him when He arrived? They said the same thing that we say right before Communion, “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” The word “Hosanna” means “save us now.” That’s what Jesus comes to do. That was, and always is, the main purpose of His arrival. He comes not in order to punish us for our sins, but in order to forgive us for them. He uses His perfect knowledge to make a perfect atonement. He employs His almighty power to render an all-sufficient ransom. He shows up in order to take away our sins.

And until He comes again in glory, our Lord will never stop coming to us for that main purpose. He never gets tired of giving us what we need to be saved. It doesn’t matter how many times we have ignored His coming in the past, all that He wants is for us to receive His coming now. Whether it is at the first hour, or the ninth hour, or the last hour, our Lord’s only desire is that that hour would turn into an eternity. It’s that we would receive the forgiveness of our sins.

Nobody here today in Church should think that their sins are too bad to be forgiven. No one should be afraid that they have committed the same sin too many times in the past, and that there’s no hope left for them in the present. Unless, you don’t want to be forgiven, there is always forgiveness to be had in Christ. Unless, you plan on continuing in your sin without any remorse or any intention of stopping, there is no sin that you need to be afraid of. Jesus can deliver you from all of them. That’s the whole reason why He comes to us.

And that leads us to the second thing that our reading shows us about the coming of Christ, and that is the manner in which He comes. Besides teaching us that Jesus comes to us for the main purpose of forgiving us of our sins, the account of the Triumphal entry also reminds us that Jesus always does that in humility. Except for on the Last Day, when our Lord will appear in visible glory together with all of His holy angels, every day until then He conceals His coming under ordinary means. Just like Jesus rode into Jerusalem not on the back of magnificent war horse, but seated on the back of lowly donkey, He still comes to us today in ways that look very plain.

What does the Bible tell us elsewhere about where Jesus comes to us now? Our Lord says in John chapter 14 that “If anyone loves Me, He will keep My Word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make our home with Him.” That’s a promise about hearing God’s Word. When we listen to it, and believe it, the Bible says that Jesus comes to us. Or what about this verse from Galatians chapter 3, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Here the Bible shows us that Jesus comes to us in our Baptism too. Whenever we are washed with the water and the Word, He is present to forgive us of our sins. And what about the gift of the Lord’s Supper?  What could be more obvious about Jesus coming to us than that? Our Lord Himself says, “Take eat, this is My Body. Take drink, this is My Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Every time that we celebrate the Sacrament of the Altar according to Christ’s command and institution, Christ Himself promises to be present. And He promises to be there to forgive us of our sins.

Those are the ways that Jesus chooses to come to us now to give us what we need. He does it through the pure teaching of His Word and the right administration of His Sacraments. No matter how many times we use those things in repentance and faith, we have the assurance that we will receive the exact same thing through them. We will receive Jesus and His forgiveness.

Sadly, many people today end up missing out on Jesus’ coming to them, and deprive themselves of His forgiveness, because of the way that He chooses to show up. It’s not because Jesus is hard to find, but because they don’t want to go to the places where He’s promised to be. Instead of letting the humble ways that our Lord chooses to deal with us humble them into thanksgiving, they let it harden themselves into pride. They are offended by the very thing that should give them the greatest joy. Jesus actually promises to be with us in Church. He really is here every time that we listen to His Word and study His teachings. When we get baptized our sins actually get washed away, and when we take the Lord’s Supper they truly are remitted.

How could we Christians ever get bored with that? Why would we ever want that to change, or think that we could in improve it? Can we might Jesus show up in a better way than the way He’s promised to be with us? No! When people act as if we need to do new and fancier things to attract others, instead of simply preaching the pure Word of God and rightly administering His Sacraments, they reveal their lack of knowledge about how Christ actually comes to us. They show that they either don’t take His Word seriously, or they don’t take their need for His forgiveness seriously. In either case, though, it is a serious problem.

Yes, we do the same things over and over again in Church. Week after week, year after year, we gather together in God’s house to receive His gifts. Even though there are some differences depending on the day, for the most part, we follow the same pattern of worship. We sing the same sort of hymns that have been sung for generations. We listen to the same readings from throughout the Bible. We pray the same prayers. And we take Communion in the exact same kind of way. But that’s because we need the same things over and over again. We literally commit the same kinds of sins all of the time. Think back to your life, one year ago today. How different are you from year? Have you stopped falling into sin? Have you gotten complete control over your sinful nature, or do you still get tripped up by the same sort of sins as you did in the past? Have you overcome one sin, only to have it replaced by another? You the know the answer. Many things are still the same. But Jesus promises to show up in the same way for you anyway. And He promises to do it in order to forgive you. So, may we never grow tired of receiving Him, even in this new Church Year. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.