We Begin with the End
Matthew 21:1-9
December 3, 2023 anno Domini
Happy New Year! The church doesn’t follow the world’s calendar. We follow Christ. So today, the first Sunday in Advent is New Year’s Day.
How are you feeling about the new year? Will the presidential election bring peace and quiet to our country? Are you optimistic about your children’s future? Are you afraid or at ease about your grandchildren coming into the world? Will your health improve or decline? Will you have more or less friends in a year?
What if I could tell you that this year was going to end better than you could imagine? Would that help you through the year? At the beginning of this New Year St. Matthew tells us the end of Jesus’s story, which also tells us of our end. Jesus is coming and that great news will help you endure this year and endure to the end.
You would think at the beginning of the church year, we would hear about the beginning of the world, or the beginning of Jesus’ life, or the beginning of the church. That’s how the world begins a new year – it’s all about new beginnings – a new gym membership, a new diet, do something new so you have a better year. But not in the church. We begin with the end.
The story of Jesus Christ ends on the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives frames Jesus’ last days on earth. It was from the Mount of Olives that Jesus went into Jerusalem for the last time. After He died and rose again it was on the Mount of Olives that Jesus ascended into heaven.
The story of God’s Word ends with Jesus. Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem to finish the Kingly work His Father has given Him. By the manner in which He comes you should know that the ending is not what anyone expected.
Saint Matthew quotes the prophet Zechariah,
“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.”
Behold, your King. Look at Him. Look at the way He comes. See what He is doing. Do you know what you’ll see? You won’t see much. You won’t see what you expected. He doesn’t arrive in a big charter bus with Jesus is Lord in six-foot letters on the side. He has no secret service detail riding in black Suburbans with their lights flashing to tell you someone more important than you is on the road so get out of the way.
Not only do you see something different in Jesus, you hear something different. Behold, Your King is coming to you. Your King is coming to you. Jesus is your King, to Him you belong, and for you He comes. He doesn’t come like an earthly politician seeking your vote to exercise power. He comes because His Father has chosen you over Him. The Father has elected you to be live in His Kingdom, to rejoice in His rule and to receive His treasures.
Your King comes to open the storehouse of heaven. When Jesus comes forth from the tomb heaven is open. Forgiveness of sins has been won for you. As He once come humbly on a donkey to win your salvation, now He comes humbly in water, through your preacher, under bread and wine to deliver that forgiveness to you.
At the beginning of the New Year take comfort in this. Your King came for you. Jesus Christ died for your sins. Before He came out of the tomb, He descended into hell to taunt and mock the Devil and rub his face in the cross. Jesus came out of the tomb and then ascended into heaven, where He still sits in His humble flesh. Your King is not too proud to be your brother in the flesh, your savior from Sin, and your mighty King who delivers you from the tyrants of this fallen world.
This is why Saint Paul tells the Romans, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
At the end of this year, you will be better off than when the year began. That is true and certain because you know the end of the story. You know the time as Saint Paul says. The darkness of this world is losing to the light of Christ. The night of sin, death, and evil is far gone, and the day is at hand. Every day that passes for you is one day closer to salvation, to your resurrection, to seeing with your eyes your King coming to you in His flesh, with the angels, and all those who have died in the faith. Then the Trumpet will sound, and our bodies will rise, and we will be changed – no more mychart, no more high deductible insurance plans, no more waiting at Urgent Care for hours, no more wars, no more politicians, no more evil and most importantly you will have no more sin.
There is only one way for you to know that, believe it, and live it. Jesus. The only way the people of Jerusalem could recognize that this Jesus guy on a donkey was anything more than a carpenter’s son from Nazareth was Zechariah’s prophecy. The only way you can believe this year is going to end better than it began is to hear Jesus, believe Jesus. It may not be anything you see, feel, or experience. Your health might be worse. Your finances may be drained. You might lose a dear friend to death or you yourself might suffer greatly. But a new day dawned when Christ came into the world and walked out of His tomb. It doesn’t look like it, but the night is far gone, and the day of the Lord is at hand.
If you know that, if you believe that, how should you act and speak? The people of Jerusalem laid down their coats, cut palm branches, and welcomed Jesus with shouts of praise. Why don’t you lay down your complaining? Quit acting like the darkness is winning. Don’t buy into the fear that whoever is next president will be the end of the United States as we know it. That’s not the end of the story. That’s acting like you are still under the tyranny of sin and death and the Devil, that your only hope is you and how you are doing. Your sins, death, and the devil don’t rule you or the future. Christ does. Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Because you know the end of the story. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Very well stated.
Well said.