Emmaus received a generous gift from friends of the congregation this Christmas which allowed us to purchase new hymnals for our Sunday School and Bible Class opening. Please include in your prayers a petition of thanksgiving for this gift and for the many other families who supported  Emmaus in various ways this past year.

Volunteers Needed for Church Cleaning

Starting in 2012, the church cleaning will be done by Emmaus families who volunteer to take a month at a time. If you can participate in this rotation, please speak to Ben or Rebecca Mayes (rbmayes@gmail.com, 229-1134). Checklists, supplies and guidelines will all be provided. The time commitment should be no more than 5-7 hours a month if the tasks are shared by a family.

Today is not Palm Sunday. It is also not simply the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Today is the beginning of Advent, the beginning of a new church year. The word “Advent” means coming, and so for centuries and centuries, the Christian Church in the Western part of Europe and now the Lutheran Church here in America listens to the Palm Sunday Gospel on this day. Why? Because this is the perfect Gospel to kick off the new church year. Consider: Palm Sunday was the beginning of Holy Week, the week of grace. For us, this reading about Palm Sunday is the beginning of the Church Year, the year of grace. Also, in the next four weeks until Christmas, we will remember especially how Jesus did come to us at Christmas, does come to us in the Word and Sacraments, and shall come to us at the end of the world. It is the season of Christ’s coming. And so it is good and right to hear how Jesus came as a humble King to the city of Jerusalem, to be our King on the cross, and to save us from our enemies, especially from sin, death, and the devil. Since our fathers in the faith have instructed us to read the Palm Sunday Gospel on this day, let us take up this important part of God’s Word, and go through it verse by verse. Let us hear how wonderful and strange our humble King is, and how we should greet this humble King of ours. The Gospel reading begins:

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord needs them, and he will send them at once. (Matt. 21:1–3)

“Jesus sent two disciples.” He is preparing His royal entry. The king of Israel, you see, lived in Jerusalem, because Jerusalem was the capital city. It was their Washington, D.C. Imagine what it would have been like three years ago if John McCain and Sarah Palin rented a jet that looked like Air Force One, flew to Washington, got in limos preceded by police motorcycles and secret service, and made a slow procession to the capitol building, on the very day of the Inauguration? That would have been the same as claiming, “We won, we deserve to be in charge here.” And everyone would have seen what they were up to. That’s how it was with Jerusalem. If you wanted to be king, the way to do it would be to enter the capital city Jerusalem with horses, trumpets, armies, and crowds of people shouting “Long live the king,” or something similar.

So “Jesus sent two disciples” to prepare His royal entry. But He doesn’t ask for war horses. He doesn’t get Himself a chariot. He doesn’t have secret service going before and behind. He just sends two of His disciples to go get a full-grown donkey and a young donkey, a colt. Now what can we learn from this? This is what: See how Jesus works. He is true God, the King of all the universe. He has angels at His command and can do miracles. But does He simply create a donkey and its colt? No, He works through the service of men. He sends His disciples to do His work at His command. That is how Jesus loves to work. He loves to get human beings involved. Even today He sends pastors to do His work of preaching and giving out sacraments, warning people to repent, and comforting them with His forgiveness. That is how Jesus works.

Now, if anyone said anything to the two disciples, they were supposed to say, “The Lord needs them.” I’ve always wondered why the owners of those donkeys would let those donkeys go. If a stranger came to your house, took your car keys, and started to back your car out of the driveway, you’d run out and say “What are you doing?” What if they said, “The Lord needs this car”? You’d think he was crazy. Yet when Jesus does it, it works. What is Jesus showing us here? Why does He get His ride this way? Our Lord was a very poor man. He said “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). But He has what He needs whenever He needs it. When it’s time for His royal entry into Jerusalem as a humble King, Jesus has what He needs. Friends, we too can trust that Jesus will give us what we need at the right time. We have Jesus as our King. He owns the entire world. He will take care of us, working through the service of men, to give us what we truly need. So that is how Jesus prepares His royal entry. He doesn’t get Himself an army, chariot, and horses, He just gets a humble donkey and its colt.

But what good does this do us? Unless we find out the meaning of these events, we’ll never know why this is important. Therefore our text continues with these words: This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 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 (Matt. 21:4–5). Here you have it. This is the meaning. Christ got Himself a donkey and colt and rode into Jerusalem. Why? In order to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. Which prophet? The prophet Zechariah in the 9th chapter. Zechariah predicted: “Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you.” He said that a king would come to Zion. Zion is the mountain where Jerusalem and the temple were located. And that is what Jesus is doing here. But this isn’t a regular king. The prophet says, “your king is coming to you, humble.” That is what the prophet said. But normally kings are not humble. They are glorious and proud. They are just the opposite of Jesus. This shows that Jesus is a different kind of king. He does have all power. He does rule the whole world. He is the creator. That’s what we call Christ’s “kingdom of power.” But when the prophet says, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble,” he is talking about Christ’s “kingdom of grace.” Christ’s kingdom of grace is what today’s Gospel is all about. Jesus said elsewhere, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). That is the kingdom that we speak of in the Lord’s Prayer, when we pray “Thy kingdom come.” What does this mean? Martin Luther explains: “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.” That is the kind of kingdom that Jesus brings, riding on His donkey and colt. It is a kingdom in which God gives grace, in which we believe His Word, and in which we lead godly lives.

Oh, what a marvelous and wonderful kingdom this is! If only we could see it for what it is. To us it looks humble, but it is truly glorious. We hear only of a poor man riding into a faraway city on a donkey and a colt, but in reality this is God’s Son, who could have entered Jerusalem accompanied by angel armies with flaming swords. But instead He enters with humility. It is a marvelous kingdom, because the humility of the all-powerful God means mercy for His people, mercy for you!

“Behold your king is coming to you, humble.” Christ is a humble king. Christ was humble when He came into Jerusalem. He was humble when He first came into this world as a baby in Bethlehem. And He is humble when He comes to us here in the Word and Sacraments. This is just the opposite of how David’s rebel son Absolom rode around Jerusalem. In 2 Samuel 15, we read that Absolom rode around with “a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him” (2 Sam. 15:1). And Absolom did this, why? To steal the hearts of the men of Israel and rebel against his father David (2 Sam. 15:2–6). Absolom was a son of David, but Jesus is the greater Son of David, and Jesus is totally different when He enters the city. He shows that His kingdom of grace is not about having power, it is not worldly. It is about forgiveness and mercy. Jesus came as a humble king, but just a few days later was being put to death on the cross. And what was the charge against Him? “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.” They crowned this humble king with a crown of thorns. They put a purple robe on Him to mock Him. They spit at Him, hit Him on the head, whipped Him, and finally killed Him. And Christ, who has all the power in the world, did nothing to stop it, so as to save you. Christ died on the cross in your place. He took the punishment for your sins. He made things right with God, so that God will be your loving Father. He is a king without an army, suffering a punishment without guilt, so that His people are forgiven without their works, and made holy without blemish. He is a humble king, a king powerful in mercy and truth.

So then, if He is powerful in truth, what should we think about what follows in our text? The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. (Matt. 21:6–7). Jesus is powerful in truth. Indeed He is the truth (John 14:6). Yet liberal critics keep saying that the Bible has errors, and here is one place in particular. Did Jesus ride just on a donkey, or on a donkey and a colt? If you look at Mark chapter 11 and Luke chapter 19, you will read nothing about a colt, they only mention the donkey. But here in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus rides on a donkey and a colt. So here come the critics and they say, “Aha! An error in the Bible. The Bible disagrees with itself!” But God is true, Jesus Christ is the truth, and His Word is truth. What His apostles wrote in the Bible is 100% true. These critics should learn how to read not only Greek but even English! If I say, “I went to work on foot and on the bus,” and later I say, “I went to work on the bus,” do these two statements disagree? Of course not! First I walked to the bus stop, then I rode the bus. I just didn’t mention the walking part the second time. In the same way, it could easily have happened that Jesus started by riding the colt, and then changed animals to fulfill the prophecy, finishing His royal entry on the donkey. Both Matthew and the other Gospels are true. Let the critics fall silent. Christ is powerful in truth, and He is the truth.

Now the last part of our text speaks of how the people welcomed their king. The Gospel says: Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. (Matt. 21:8). They spread their cloaks and palm branches on the road to give Jesus something like a red carpet treatment. They were taking what little they had and using it to honor the King. Brother and sisters, this is what we Christians should do, too. We give what little we have to build a place where Jesus can come to us. We have this beautiful church building. We give our King the red carpet treatment by providing music, artwork, beautiful dishes for the sacraments, stained glass, and the like. The world sees little point in bestowing beauty on the advent King, but we Christians know that even the little we have can and should be used to honor our King. Of course, when the people of Jerusalem spread out their cloaks and palm branches, they were showing everyone else that Jesus is King, and that His coming, even though humble, is the most important thing in their lives. By spreading out their cloaks and palm branches, they were confessing their King. Brother and sisters, let us, too, confess our king. By our actions, let it be clear to everyone else that Jesus is our King. As our Epistle reading says, “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy” (Rev. 13:13). Let it be clear that even though the world sees Jesus as humble and lowly, we know that He is the King of the whole world in power, and especially the King of His Church in grace. Let us confess, and let our confession be clear! And let our confession not just be in good works, but let it also be in good words. For our text concludes by saying:

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! (Matt. 21:9). “Hosanna” means “Please save!” When they crowd says “Hosanna to the Son of David,” it means basically, “God save the King, the Son of David!” It is a prayer for health and success for their King. Of course, Jesus does not need to be saved. He came not to be saved, but to save. Yet it is right to pray “Hosanna to the Son of David,” “God save the King,” because when we do this, we are praying for Christ’s kingdom. We are saying, “O Lord, give success and prosperity to King Jesus and His kingdom. Advance Your kingdom of grace in all the world. Defend it from Satan’s attacks. Give this kingdom faithful soldiers to speak Your words and carry out your warfare against sin and Satan. Hosanna to the Son of David. God save the King. God prosper His kingdom! Blessed is Jesus who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Brothers and sisters, may Christ our Advent King come to You through the Word of the Gospel and through His holy Sacraments. In this new year of grace, let us meet our Advent King with our cloaks, palm branches, and voices. He who shall return with glory, came first with humility, for us human beings and for our salvation. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

While Bethlehem was famous, it was small and little actually happened there.  The book of Ruth took place there; also the great king David was from Bethlehem. But that was what Bethlehem was best for: being from there, but moving elsewhere.  Yet, when Augustus issued his decree, suddenly numerous people were forced to head to Bethlehem for a number of different reasons.  During this time, formerly sleepy Bethlehem was filled with activity.  At the same time, one of the most amazing events in all of history took place: God was born as a human baby!  Seemingly more amazing is the fact that most of the people who swelled Bethlehem’s population apparently were oblivious to this.  How could this be?  Most of the people were so busy with what brought them to Bethlehem that they missed out on the birth of our Savior.  This advent, we will take a look at a number of the different groups that came to Bethlehem, including common people, soldiers, merchants, Mary and Joseph, shepherds, and finally Jesus, and see why each came, and how that effected what they noticed or did not notice.  Along the way, we will see how we can be like many of these groups and can sometimes miss and sometimes catch God’s coming and working among us.

Please join us for Advent and Christmas services as we take our spiritual journey to Bethlehem and seek to not miss, but to truly see our Savior who came for us.

If you would like to join us, please RSVP (rbmayes@gmail.com) so we can make sure we have enough chairs and table space set up. We had a great time last year and everyone is looking forward to this year’s event, too