The King Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

The Advent Arrival of the King in Luke 19

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrook.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, chapter 19, verses 28 through 40. After Jesus had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As He approached Bethpage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples saying to them, Go to the village ahead of you.

As you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, Why are you untying it? Tell him, The Lord needs it. Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as He had told them.

As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, Why are you untying the colt? They replied, The Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus through their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. And as He went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

And when He came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles that they had seen. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. I tell you, He replied, If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. In the name of Jesus.

So in our gospel reading today, you might recognize this as our Palm Sunday text. Kind of a strange way to start off a new church year. By the way, Happy New Year. Today is the first Sunday of the new church year.

This is kind of like the Chinese New Year. No one understands how that all works. It just happens. So today is the beginning of our new church year, so Happy New Year. In today's gospel text, we are anticipating the arrival of our King.

Advent is the season where we're anticipating the arrival of Christ. And you can kind of put it this way. As Christians, we are in perpetual Advent as we wait for Christ's second Advent, in between His first coming and His second coming.

And so as we read in the previous weeks where Jesus said, Stay awake. I come quickly. He does indeed come quickly. We just don't know when. To us, it seems like a long time. But God's never late. Jesus is never late.

And so we're constantly in anticipation of His arrival. And so Advent prepares us for Christmas. And Christmas prepares us for Easter. And Easter prepares us for the end of the world. And so the cycle continues.

Zechariah's Prophecy of the Humble King

And so with our text today, it is a fulfillment of the prophecy found in Zechariah 9. Let me read it. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation.

He is humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Jesus apparently didn't come to flex political muscle. Notice that kings normally ride in on war horses, right? Jesus comes in on a borrowed donkey.

And I mean that, borrowed. We'll talk about this as we work through the text. I mean, those of you who have experienced daughters old enough to date, if a boy came to your door and asked to take your daughter out on a date, and he was in a borrowed car, yeah.

I'm just saying, okay? I don't even need to fill in the blank. We all know kind of that feeling we'd have inside. Is this really the right guy? Well, notice Jesus doesn't come in riding on His own war stallion.

He comes in on a borrowed donkey. So we'll talk about that. Let's return to the text, and I'll be reading from my translation. Here's what it says. When He said these things, He was going ahead, ascending to Jerusalem.

And it came about as He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, to the mount that is called of Olives. He sent two of the disciples, saying, Go into the opposite village in which, as you are entering, you will find a colt tied, upon which no one ever of mankind has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it. I like the idioms of the Old World. Upon which no one of mankind has ever sat, Jesus officially said. So if anyone questions you, here we've got this dubious thing. So you want us to do what?

I want you to go over to that village over there. And what do you want us to do, Jesus? Okay, there's a colt there. Just untie it and bring it to me. Okay, that's called theft. Okay, right? You know, back in the day, I used to live in a place called Horse Thief Canyon.

And there was this big oak tree in Horse Thief Canyon. And it had died decades before we had ever arrived there. But as the story goes, Horse Thief Canyon was named as a result of the horse thieves who were caught and then hung on that tree.

Now, I don't know if back in the day the cowboys in Jerusalem would get a posse together and go hunt down a colt stealer. But you kind of get the idea. This is a little bit on the dicey side. And so, if anyone questions you, Jesus said, for what reason you are untying it, thus you shall say, the Lord has need of it.

The Lord what? Since when does the Lord have need? Think about this for a second. Scripture says that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. I think he does. Jesus doesn't come to us in riches. He comes to us in poverty.

And he comes, his great triumphal entry into Jerusalem, not as a triumphal king, but as a beggar. One who has need. He's humble, having salvation, riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So the Lord has need of it.

So those who were sent went and found it just as Jesus had told them. And as they were untying the colt, the owners, plural, said to them, why are you untying the colt? And then we all say, awkward. Right?

And I almost imagine they say it like this, the Lord has need of it? Because it's such a silly sentence, right? The Lord has need of it? Oh, okay, that's fine. Right? So they led it to Jesus, and then throwing their garments on the colt, and they set Jesus on it.

And then while they were proceeding, they were spreading beneath him their cloaks in the road. Now this is an interesting thing. Hematia in the Greek, it could be cloaks, it could be clothes. We have people literally undressing to some degree or another in order to spread before the king, the humble king.

He's not coming in on a red carpet, he's coming in on smelly laundry. Yeah, I mean, this is his great triumphal entry. So they're spreading their clothes beneath him, they're disrobing in some sense. And as he was drawing near, now to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples.

Now keep this in mind. It doesn't say the whole multitude. It says the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God in a loud voice, rejoicing for all the miracles they had seen. Now to kind of paint the picture of just how underwhelming this is, in Acts 1, verse 15, we have the total number of believers in Christ post-death and resurrection of Jesus.

Are you ready for the whopping number? 120. That's it. So here we've got the beggar king on a borrowed colt coming in with a multitude of a group of people. Well, if you think about it, not much bigger than a Kongsvinger funeral.

In fact, I've been to Kongsvinger funerals where there have been more people than 120. Jesus was not a multi-site megachurch pastor. He did not command the attentions of tens of thousands. In fact, when we read about Jesus basically taking loaves and fishes and feeding a multitude of 5 ,000 men, John 6 makes it clear.

After that, he got into such a dispute and started saying such harsh words, harsh words like, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you, that most of the people who thought that Jesus was the bee's knees decided, yeah, this guy's saying some tough things.

I don't think we can believe this. So at the end of the day, the final tally for Jesus, 120. That's not impressive, is it? By all of the world's standards, Jesus is a total flop, complete washout, complete and utter failure.

He doesn't own a private jet, has to borrow a colt. I mean, what kind of loser are we following? But see, that's the thing. Jesus didn't come to flex political muscles and be, well, successful by the world standard.

He didn't come to call the beautiful. He came to save sinners. And Philippians 2 makes it clear that this is all part of Christ's humbling. He humbled himself and was found in the form of a servant and became obedient.

Obedient even to death on the cross. You think this is scandalous? The cross is even more scandalous. Because there's Jesus. And according to the Mosaic Covenant, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

Cursed. And there's Jesus. Nailed to a tree. By their standards and the world's standards, this man has nothing to offer you. You shouldn't even be listening to him. He is a despised criminal. He's cursed of God.

Indeed, truly, he was. But see, there's kind of the issue. He was cursed for me. He was cursed for you. Scripture says in Isaiah that he was pierced for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The punishment, the chastisement that gives us peace with God was upon Him. Or as Paul writes, God made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that you might be the righteousness of God. So there's Jesus on His way to the cross in a very unimpressive, well, multitude.

And you have to put it in quotes. On a borrowed donkey. Humble. Having salvation. So they began to praise God in a loud voice rejoicing for all the miracles that they had seen. Saying, and here's what the disciples said, Blessed is the King.

Despite the meanness and poverty of this whole situation, they are proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of David. That He is the King. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. And we'll talk about that.

Remember that phrase. In the name of the Lord. In the name of the Lord, right? In the name of the Lord. In heaven, peace and glory in the highest. Oh, but the Pharisees were on the scene. Oh, those Pharisees.

Yeah, they're all about money. They're all about fame. They're all about wealth. They're all about power. They're all about themselves. And they're not about to, well, let this sad and pathetic rejoicing in Jesus go unchallenged.

Because they knew what the prophecy of Zechariah said. And they knew that what Jesus and His disciples were doing were fulfilling Zechariah 9. And the Pharisees had already made it very clear. Yeah, we get that you're performing miracles, but we refuse to believe that you're doing this by the hand of God.

Instead, we think you're doing this because you're doing this in the power of Beelzebub. They knew that Jesus was fulfilling all of the prophecies of the Messiah. And they said, not that Messiah. We need one who's helpful, who's relevant, who can help meet our needs, get rid of these pesky Romans and help us restore the glory of Israel.

Not that Jesus. And so here's what they say to Him. The Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. Shut them up. They're embarrassing us. We refuse to believe that this is really the Messiah.

Make them be quiet. And Jesus' reply is, I say to you, if these will be silent, the stones will cry out. And I don't think Jesus was talking metaphorically here. I think that's really what would have happened.

David, Michal, and the Mercy Seat

And what's funny is that this story of the embarrassment and the rebuking of the Pharisees is kind of hidden in type and shadow in another text of the Bible found in 2 Samuel 6. The story of the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem when David is king.

Here's what it says. When David went and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fatted animal.

And David danced before the Lord with all of his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. He'd somewhat disrobed, taken some of his clothes off. We have kind of a similar idea going on here. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.

And by the way, what's the lid of the Ark called, by the way? Do you all remember? It's called the mercy seat. It is that mercy seat on which the blood of the day of atonement, the sacrificial animal, is poured out onto the mercy seat.

Pointing us to Christ. So Jesus is entering Jerusalem. This time, hidden in a box. He would. So as the Ark of the Lord came to the city of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, who, by the way, is the bride of David.

She looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord. And she despised him in her heart. And they brought the Ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it.

And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, a cake of raisins to each one.

And then all the people departed each to his house. And David returned to bless his household. And then you can hear the very serious, somber music in the background. Dun, dun, dun. But Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, how the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants, female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself.

Fascinating how this all works. So David said to Michal, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord. I will celebrate before the Lord.

In fact, I will make myself yet even more contemptible than this. And I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor. So notice, in this story, the despised lowly maidservants.

Get it. Ones who have poverty. Get it. And David is honored in their eyes for his rejoicing and praising of the Lord. In the return of the mercy seat to Jerusalem. But Michal, the princess, the rich, the powerful, the self-absorbed.

I'm sure her tiara was wonderful to look at. She was embarrassed by all of this. Showing that she had no faith. She didn't trust in the Lord. She trusted in herself. She trusted in her power. She trusted in her riches.

And so she was embarrassed by this shouting, dancing, and praising. And much like the Pharisees, she had to get her little quip in. Here's how the story ends. And Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death.

The son of David is not married to an unbeliever. See it? He's not. So she spends the rest of her life in her room. Alone. And dies childless. But the reality of the situation is everyone who has no faith dies childless, even if they have physical children.

Because Jesus talks about fruitfulness, the fruitfulness of the kingdom, as the one who bears fruit for the kingdom. And that only happens by faith. In the one who humbly trusts in the Lord and His mercy and His forgiveness and grace and goes and tells the world of what Jesus has done and calls people to repent and to believe in Him.

The one who does that fathers and mothers and children and children and children. Some 60, some 30, some 100-fold. Right? Think about that. Coming back to our text. Now, let me remind you. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.

That's the phrase I wanted you to remember. Let me read again from Jeremiah chapter 33, but a slightly different translation to help you see something here. In those days, Judah shall be saved. Jerusalem shall dwell in safety.

And this is the name by which she shall be called. In our NIV, it says it. ESV, it says it. The Hebrew pronoun is she. The NASB gets it right, by the way. In those days, this is the name by which she shall be called.

The Lord is our righteousness. So, this advent. Here we have our king riding in on a borrowed donkey. People disrobing before him. Throwing their smelly clothes in front of him. And shouting, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.

And the name of the Lord is the Lord is our righteousness. And she will be named by this. This is her name. And I think that references ultimately the church. We who are in Christ, we collectively are the bride of Christ.

Yes, that includes you men as well. That's the metaphor. And like the brides of the past, when they're married, they take on the name of their husband. The name of the bride of the Lord is this. The Lord is our righteousness.

See, we come to Jesus in poverty. We come to Jesus in need. We come to Jesus without anything on our own. Just like He was humble and came on a borrowed colt, we come to Jesus bruised, beaten, battered, bankrupt spiritually.

Completely sinful and in need. And Jesus, rather than turn us away, says to us, I love you. And He goes to the cross and He bleeds and dies for our sins. And then He covers us in His righteousness. We are clothed in splendor beyond splendor.

And this is what Jesus does for His bride. So that our name as the church is this. The Lord is our righteousness. Not a righteousness of your own. It's a righteousness given. And so this Advent season, as we anticipate the arrival of Jesus, the arrival of Jesus born of the Virgin, let us also anticipate His second Advent, where He comes in glory to call us from the grave, to clothe us in new bodies, and so we shall ever see Him without end.

And by the way, what's the first order of business upon Jesus' return after the creation of the new heavens and new earth? It's the wedding feast of the Lamb. So let us anticipate that day when we get to write on our documents, the Lord is our righteousness, because that's our name.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Closing Announcements and Support

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