Sermon #1,236: Matt. 21:1-11 (Hymns: 88, 110.1-2, 90, 91.1-3; comm. 99, 94) 11-27-16, 1 st Sunday in Advent, Bethany-Princeton MN JESUS IS GENTLE WITH SINNERS Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, because it is Advent, which means coming, we thank You that You came in the weakness and lowliness of human flesh in order to save us from our sins. We pray to You to come to us now. But, we pray, come not in terrors as the King of kings, but kind and good with healing in Your wings; tears for all woes, a heart for every plea, so each us can say: O Friend of sinners, thus abide with me! Amen. The Sermon Text, Matthew 21:1-9 (v. 5). All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. Lord this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen. In the name of Jesus, who has an Advent, a coming, to you on earth so that you may have an Advent, a coming to Him in heaven: Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Jesus didn t repeat out loud these words of the prophet Zechariah about the King coming to them on the newborn donkey colt. He didn t stop and say, OK, translation. I m on this donkey, see, this newborn colt of a donkey, and you are acclaiming Me as King. So, people of Jerusalem, of Zion, just recall the Bible verse you should know, I m thinking of Zechariah 9:9, as you should be, about the King coming to the daughter of Zion on a donkey, on a newborn colt of a donkey. Add it up. What do you get? The Messiah. Me. No, Jesus didn t say that. He didn t quote this Old Testament verse. He didn t quote these words to the disciples. Or to the crowds. These words were written down by Matthew, 20 years after it happened, as the Holy Spirit guided him in what to write. We do hear the crowds saying Hosanna which was from a psalm that they knew and used at Passover but we don t hear them saying the words of the prophet Zechariah. In fact, Jesus didn t even say one word. But still He was speaking volumes. The words of the prophet Zechariah say it for him. Zechariah was allowed to see this event ahead of time and not only foretell it to preach 1
and write what would happen but he also stated what it means. It s especially one word Zechariah uses that answers: What does this mean? It s the word that comes out lowly in our version, along with the name Zechariah uses for God s people: daughter of Zion. They go together. They show that Jesus is gentle with sinners. This is the surprise: that Jesus is gentle with sinners, specifically that as the King of kings He is gentle with sinners. Because that was not Israel s experience with kings. Those of you who have been joining us in Bible class for our overview of the Old Testament, recall our discussion of 1 Samuel, when the people demanded of Samuel that God give them a king. He foretold for them with great accuracy what the kings would be like: they would take their sons to fight the kings wars and take their daughters to perform menial service, they would take their property and their farmland and a significant portion of their crops; they would take their servants to be the kings servants and turn free people into slaves. In other words, the kings were never gentle with them. Kings were about their own power and using it, and making demands on the people. Even the popular view of the Messiah King centered around His use of power to lead Israel back to glory, to use power to trample on others. Now considering that God is the King, that Christ is the King of kings, and we are sinners and have sinned against Him, what could we reasonably expect from Him? Not that He would be gentle. Quite the opposite. He must punish sins, and if there is anything we have in plenty it s sin. That is what we bring with us. And He knows all of it already. Nothing you ve done is hidden from Him. This King knows it all. As we sang in the last hymn Wednesday night: Thou knowest my heart and my innermost thought, The words I have spoken the deeds I have wrought, My errors and failings (ELH #575 v. 2). This includes the things we heard about in today s epistle at the end of Romans 13 the works of darkness and not walking properly, specifically the sins of carousing and drunkenness, sexual immorality and sensuality (ESV) which includes being careless with how you dress or what song lyrics, TV shows or internet content you take in and even quarreling and jealousy which we do without even trying, with spouse, parent, brother or sister, co-worker and friend. 2
So if He has to punish sins, then the news that He is coming is not good. This is why we would rightly fear Him coming in terrors, as the King of kings. So the prophet Zechariah tells us and St. Matthew reminds us in just a few words how this King is different. He is gentle with sinners. He does this first by saying: Tell the daughter of Zion, and then by using the word lowly, or more accurately: gently. The name Daughter of Zion is code language. As soon as this name is uttered it has a certain tone, a certain feeling, and the listener who has been called this knows exactly what to think and feel. It is calculated. It is spoken only when God is dealing with His people feeling anxious, nervous; when He wants to calm them, settle them down, and fill them with assurances of His good feeling toward them. This name is all tenderness. Daughter of Zion was never the name God called His people when they were prospering. It was only used to refer to God s people who are doing poorly, suffering. Daughter of Zion is always spoken to His broken people. It was used when the people of Israel were in captivity, without many comforts, and it seemed to them that God was far away. This was because they had sinned and rejected Him and His ways, it was their own doing, but still they found themselves in a situation where they were in slavery, suffering, poor, afraid, said, tormented and in deep emotional pain, and totally without peace. Daughter of Zion is that people of God who are unsure of God and His love for them, because of their sin. Daughter of Zion is the weak-in-faith, sad-hearted child of God. When Jesus comes and we are told that it is a fulfillment of Tell the daughter of Zion, what this is saying is that you are being called by this name! This says that even though you have sins, He is not here to punish you. He is all tenderness and compassion toward you. But even better than this, is the word that the prophet uses to tell us about what Jesus is doing. He says that He comes to you, lowly This word that comes out lowly is the same word that Jesus Himself uses in Matthew 11:29, when He describes Himself as gentle. Right after: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest, He says: Learn from Me, for I am gentle 3
What Jesus is saying by riding in on the donkey is that He is going to be only gentle with you. He is not going to be hard on you or harsh with you. He is not going to bring up your sins even though He knows them. He is only going to be gentle with you. In other words, He forgives you! The world does not understand this. Even we don t understand this. Whether it is lowly, or gentle, or meek and mild, the world only knows this as weakness. It doesn t respect this, so then it doesn t respect Jesus. Or it misunderstands this as being indulgent with sin, that Jesus never condemns sin and you can get away with everything. That is what we re afraid of too, that in being gentle with sinners Jesus doesn t care about the sin, it doesn t matter much to Him. Part of us does want Jesus to ignore the sin and act like we re better than we really are. But another part of us wants Jesus to highlight the sin so we can show how we are able to overcome it by our efforts, turn our lives around and be praised for it. In both cases, sinful pride rides front and center. But Jesus won t let that happen. His gentleness rides forward, first in the procession. It is not that He is gentle with sin. Just the opposite. Jesus is rough with sin. He cares about the sin He cares about you enough to take all your sin onto Himself so He can wrestle it, take it all to the cross, and into the grave to bury it there, choking the life out of it. In Baptism He even drowns the sin. He is not gentle with sin. He condemns all sin. But He is gentle with you, the sinner. He came to take all your sin from you. It says, He comes to you lowly [gently]. His gentleness comes to you. There is no anger directed to you, no punishment coming to you. For His sake you are innocent. There is only forgiveness for you. There is only love for you. He has only delight and joy in you. This gentleness that Jesus directs to you just like calling you Daughter of Zion is how He wants to calm you and settle you. He gives this gentleness to you so that you will be gentle and calm. So you will not struggle and wrestle with sin and guilt, but will have peace in your conscience. What you need in your anguish and anxiety and nervousness is not to wrestle your way through, not to struggle for a stronger faith or to be a better you, but to be face to face with Jesus who deals with you gently and calls you Daughter of Zion. 4
It s so you will learn from Him (Mt 11:29) to let His gentle words speak your reality and your status in life, confident in Him and calmed by His absolution, by His promises, by His blessing. Also so you will be gentle toward others, not demanding of them what He does not demand of you. He does not only come to you gently, you know; He comes to all with this gentleness, establishing peace, mildness and humility between all on whom He puts His name. He is truly the King of peace who brings a kingdom of peace! Amen. 5