“Humble and Mounted on a Donkey”
Matthew 21:1-11
12/2/07
Today’s Gospel text helps us to answer
definitively the question “What would Jesus drive?”
If He had chosen this day and this country as the time and place to
come into this world, Jesus would not have chosen to drive a BMW, a
Jaguar, a Bentley, or a Mercedes, but rather something like a Saturn, a
Ford Escort, a Pinto, or perhaps a VW Golf. What Jesus did choose
as His vehicle for entering into Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago was a
donkey. He could have asked for a horse. He could have had
an angelic escort. He could have had the sun, the moon, along
with Saturn and all the rest of the planets line His route as He made
His way into the city. Even the rocks would have sung His
praises, if the people had been silenced. But instead, the King
and Maker of the universe chose to humble Himself and ride into
Jerusalem on a donkey surrounded by a bunch of nobodies.
So, is this what Jesus wants for you? Is Jesus
by His humility teaching us how to be humble like Him? It’s
time to take the “Am I as humble as Jesus?” quiz. Ask
yourself, “If I had the 5 million dollar home in Hillsborough,
would I choose to sell it, give the money to the poor, and go live in
the Bay View District, East Palo Alto, or Richmond?”
“Would I give up the BMW to drive a used Pinto
instead?” “Would I willingly give up my rights and
let people take advantage of me, abuse me, and finally put me to
death?” “Would I lay down my life to save the people
who live in the Bay View District, East Palo Alto, and
Richmond?” Even if you could answer “Yes” to
all these questions, you still wouldn’t even come close to being
as humble as Jesus was. Here He was, God in the flesh, the one
through whom all things were created and for whom all things exist, and
yet He allowed His creatures to take advantage of Him, abuse Him, and
finally put Him to death on the cross.
But He didn’t do these things to teach you how
you could be humble, too. If Jesus were just giving us an example
to follow, we’d all have to despair, because none of us could
ever be as humble as Jesus was. No, Jesus didn’t enter into
Jerusalem to show you how to be humble, but to humble Himself for
you. The fact of the matter is that Jesus came to put Himself in
our place, and like it or not, you and I are already in a humble state
before God on account of our sins. In this condition we are poor
towards God. We fall short of the glory of God. We lack the
righteousness that God demands of us. We are true
“nobodies” before God, dead in our trespasses and sins,
enemies of God by nature. And because of this we are under the
curse and condemnation of God’s Law. But sadly, we fail to
recognize this on our own. We refuse to believe that we are poor,
miserable sinners before a righteous and holy God, and instead of
humbling ourselves we exalt ourselves. We live as if we were the
center of the universe, as if we were “somebodies,” as if
both God and others lived to serve us, as if we deserve to live a life
of ease. And it’s only when the Holy Spirit enlightens us
with His Word that we come to acknowledge the fact that we are poor,
miserable sinners, worthy of nothing but God’s temporal and
eternal punishment.
But instead of giving you what you deserve, God sent
His Son to take your place, in order that what you deserve might be
given to Him. Jesus humbled Himself, becoming the sinner of all
sinners, putting Himself in your place under the curse and condemnation
of the Law, in order to redeem you from this curse and
condemnation. The Apostle Paul writes, “Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us,” and
“When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born
of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who
were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as
sons.” Jesus humbled Himself in order that you who were
humbled by your sins might be exalted. In Jesus, we who were real
nobodies have been made into true somebodies - sons of God.
Now we may stand in God’s presence without
fear. Before, in our state of humiliation, we could not stand in
God’s presence. To do so would have meant death for
us. It was the same for Adam and Eve. Before they sinned,
God walked and talked with them in the garden. They enjoyed
intimate, face to face fellowship with God. But after they sinned
they were driven out of the garden, out from God’s
presence. No longer could they have immediate, face to face
contact with God, but it had to be mediated by sacrifice. Their
sins had separated them from God and needed to be atoned for before
they could again come into God’s presence. So God promised
them a Savior. This Savior would restore the relationship between
God and His creatures by removing that which separated us from God -
our sins. This He did with His blood shed on the cross.
Then, through the washing of your Baptism, He sprinkled you clean with
this blood and cleansed you from all unrighteousness. You now
have unobstructed access to God through Christ. You stand before
God in His presence once again holy, righteous, blameless, and pure,
clothed with Christ, and you can draw near with confidence to
God’s throne of grace, in order to receive mercy and find the
grace to help you in your time of need, as the author of Hebrews
writes. You may now even approach His Table, where God draws you
into His presence here today as He puts the body and blood of Christ
into your mouths, assuring you of that feast to come in heaven where
you’ll dwell in God’s presence face to face in paradise,
just as Adam and Eve did prior to the Fall.
All of this is yours, because Jesus, the Son of
David, did battle with those things that separated you from God and won
the victory over them by way of His death on the cross. Now, very
rarely (if ever) does a king win a victory for his people by giving
himself into death. You’ve seen enough movies or read
enough history to know that if the king is killed in battle, the war is
over, the other side had won. The game of chess is the same
way. No one wins at chess by sacrificing the king. But this
King won by sacrificing Himself on the cross. It may have
appeared that He lost, but He was not doing battle against any earthly
forces; they were the forces of evil. He was doing battle against
your sins, He was doing battle against the devil, and He was even doing
battle against death itself. By humbling Himself and allowing
Himself to be crucified, our King Jesus paid for your sins with His
blood, thus satisfying God’s wrath on account of your sins.
He also overcame the devil. The devil holds the power of death
and inflicts it on all sinners. He also has the power to accuse
and condemn us. But through His death our King rendered the devil
powerless. The devil can no longer inflict death on us sinners
who are in Christ, because Jesus has answered for our sins Himself and
died the death that we sinners deserve. Those who are in Christ
have now passed from slavery under the devil to freedom under Christ;
they have passed from death to life, because death itself has been
overcome by Jesus, who removed its sting by way of His bodily
resurrection.
And so, though Jesus’ humiliation made Him
appear to be helpless and impotent, through it He was doing His most
powerful work - conquering the enemies who held us captive, winning our
freedom, and making access to God possible again for us through the
veil of His flesh, a work that God confirmed by tearing the veil of the
temple in two at Christ’s death. This veil had once
separated the people from God’s presence in the holy of holies
where the ark of the covenant once stood. Only once a year could
the high priest alone enter behind this veil into God’s presence
to make atonement for sins with the blood of an animal. But our
High Priest, Jesus, has entered into God’s presence for us with
the blood that He shed on the cross to atone for our sins, and with
that blood He now speaks us righteous before God. Now, as the
author of Hebrews writes, we have confidence to enter the holy place by
His blood, by the new and living way which He inaugurated for us
through the veil of His flesh. We can draw near to God with a
true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Our hearts have been sprinkled with the blood of
Christ and our bodies have been washed in the waters of Baptism.
Now we too can sing “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He
who comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!”
The word “Hosanna” means “Save now!” And
the fact that Jesus comes in the Name of the Lord means that He comes
to do the Lord’s bidding. He comes to do what has been
given Him to do by the Father. And what He comes to do carries
with it God’s Name. God saves by His Name. The very
Name of Jesus means “God is salvation.” And
that’s what Jesus came to do. 2,000 years ago Jesus came to
work salvation for you on His cross, and here today He comes to deliver
that salvation to you through His Word and Sacraments. Just as He
chose a humble donkey on which to ride into Jerusalem, so He chooses
humble looking vehicles to come to you today - water, words, bread, and
wine. But with His Name and His promises attached to them they
carry Him, His salvation, and everything He worked for you through His
life, death, and resurrection, so that you might be brought into
God’s presence to live before Him in righteousness and purity
here in time and hereafter in eternity when Jesus comes back for you.
Advent is a time when we reflect again on our humble
Lord and how through His humble work He saved us. He humbled
Himself to be born of a virgin, born under the Law. He humbled
Himself to be laid in a manger, to subject Himself to His earthly
parents, and to take up the vocation of a carpenter. He humbled
Himself to take on our sins at His Baptism, to live a life of humble
obedience to His Father, to associate with sinners, to take away their
infirmities, and to lay down His life for them. All of this was
for you and for your salvation. Think not, then, how you might
humble yourself for Jesus, but how Jesus humbled Himself for you, and
in so doing, the Holy Spirit will humble you, so that you might receive
Him rightly who comes in the Name of the Lord. Amen.