Preached
on November 29, 2015
Introit: Psalm 25
St. Matthew 21:1–9
In the name of the Father and of the + Son
and of the Holy Spirit –
The point of Advent is to make us prepare,
to slow us down. Isn’t life better when we’re not rushing so much? The point of
Advent is to stop us rushing to the next sale, stop rushing to the tinsel and
lights, stop rushing to the next party and the next batch of cookies. Advent
makes us prepare our souls to celebrate the Lord’s first coming, His birth. We
prepare by learning why He came – He came to die and be our Savior. And we
prepare by looking for His coming again on the Last Day.
So if the Lord is coming, if His
Advent is near, and we are to prepare ourselves for His coming, then the
question Advent raises for us is: How should we greet Him? The Introit from
Psalm 25 gives us the name for this Sunday and the answer to our question: How
should we greet Him? Ad Te Levavi – Latin
words meaning, “To You I lift up.” The Church often gave names to some Sundays
and we’ve preserved these names in the original Latin. They came from the first
words of the Introit for that day: To
You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust.
Advent then is about faith –
lifting up the soul, trusting in God. Jesus came near to Jerusalem and rode the
donkey into the city, fulfilling the prophecy from Zechariah, Behold, your king is coming to you. And
that message is as much for you here, waiting for His second coming, as it was
for those in Jerusalem during His first coming: He is your king and He is near,
He is coming. Don’t go looking for another king. Don’t go trusting in another
king. Wait for the King you have – He is your king and you are His people. Advent
then is about faith and waiting.
From the time of Adam and Eve down
to the days of John the Baptist, the people of God were waiting for the Lord. They
waited for the Seed of the Woman to come and crush the head of the serpent. They
waited for the offspring of Abraham to come and bring blessing to all the
nations of the earth. They waited for the Son of David to come and rule with
righteousness and peace. They waited for the Messiah, the Anointed Servant of
God, to come and suffer, bleed, and die for the sins of the world. That is what
King David and all the Old Testament saints were waiting for. They were waiting
for the Lord to come – for the Lord to be born as a man in order to die. They
were waiting for the forgiveness of sins to be won, for atonement to be made, for
a ransom to be paid. They were waiting for the redemption of Israel, even the
redemption of the whole world.
So when David writes Psalm 25 he
confidently says, Let not my enemies
exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for You shall be put to shame. That means,
none who wait for the Messiah, none who wait for Him to come and die, will be
put to shame. King David had many
enemies and he had many reasons to be ashamed: he had committed adultery and
murder; he had been a bad father and king.
Worse than that he had those chief enemies of the Christian hounding him,
gloating over him – that’s the Devil and death, bringing all his sin back into
his mind, telling him he had done too much evil, and heaping more shame upon
his head. But the Lord taught David that he would not be put to shame
eternally. None who wait for the
Savior shall be put to shame.
Instead, David is taught how to
pray with humility. And here is the fine distinction between shame and
humility: with humility David prays to be taught. He wants to be taught the
Lord’s way, His truth, and His salvation. He prays, Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your
truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the
day long. We should pray for that kind of humility – humility to accept
instruction from the Word of God. When we know our shame and confess our sins,
we’re not just playing along, giving lip service to God’s Law. We’re not
shrugging our shoulders with an unconcerned, “Well, nobody’s perfect.” Rather,
we accept God’s judgment of sinners. We have hurt and misused our bodies, we
have torn apart our souls. We have hurt those we love and those we hate. We
confess that God’s judgment is right and that we need God’s instruction. We
need instruction in God’s way and His truth. Jesus is God’s way and truth – and
that makes Jesus my salvation. For the angel told Joseph, “Name the child ‘Jesus’
because the name Jesus means that He will save His people from their sins.” So
we pray: Lead me in Your truth and teach
me, for You are the God of my salvation – you are the God of my Jesus – for you I wait all the day long.
The time of David’s waiting, or
the time of Old Testament waiting, is over. We are waiting to celebrate
Christmas, but we’re not actually waiting for Jesus to be born. The Messiah
came. Our humble King was born and laid in a manger. Our King obeyed His Father
and came near to Jerusalem in meekness, riding on a lowly donkey. He was
greeted with shouts of “Hosanna! Save us now!” and He was killed. Jesus, the
promised and righteous Son, was put to death on the cross because of our sins. He
willingly carried our shame – He was rejected by His Father and endured the
mocking and gloating of His enemies – He suffered the laughter of Satan. And
yet, He is no longer put to shame and His enemies can no longer exult over Him.
He is risen. He is vindicated. That is done.
Yet, we are still waiting for
this same Lord – this same promised Advent King. In Revelation 22, Jesus says
to us who are waiting, “Behold, I am
coming soon, bringing My recompense with Me, to repay everyone for what He has
done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first, and the last, the beginning and
the end… Surely I am coming soon.” (Rev. 22:12–13, 20). And that makes us
Christians rejoice! We want the Lord’s recompense. We want His justice. We
rejoice that He is coming to set everything right. Because Christ’s death has already
paid for our sins. So it is unjust that we still bear the burden of our shame. Christ
suffered in our place and so it is wrong that we are still suffering from our
sins and from the sins of others. Christ is coming to set all that right. So we
need not be ashamed to ask for relief now. It is good for us to pray Psalm 25 –
to find relief from people’s gloating, to receive freedom from the people and
the powers of this world that would imprison us in fear, sadness, and anxiety. Most
of all, we pray against the gloating accusations of the Devil because he is a
loser and he is wrong. Christ our true King is coming.
The salvation of Christ has been
won once and for all, but we are still waiting for that salvation to be fully
given. We are eager for the End and for the integrity and uprightness of Christ
to be established in His eternal kingdom. Advent is all about waiting. And Advent
teaches us to wait for the Lord’s final coming with no less eagerness than the saints
of the Old Testament who waited for His first coming. So Advent teaches us it
is good and even natural to pray the Psalms with David, even though we’re now on
the other side of the Lord’s incarnation. The Psalms can be used by all of
God’s people at all times. They are prayers that cover the experiences of Jesus
Himself, but also prayers that cover every aspect of human experience. The
Lord’s psalms are your psalms, your prayers, giving you a voice for the cries
of your heart to the God who has promised to hear you. The same God who knows
your weakness and your fears for He is a man and He knows what it is you
suffer. The same King who has paid for your sins with His holy blood, covers
your shame with His absolution, and will turn your grief into joy. He will
answer your psalms and He will dry your tears.
O Jesus Christ, may Your integrity and uprightness preserve
me, for I wait for You. Redeem me, O God. Redeem, Israel, out of all his troubles.
Come quickly + Lord Jesus –
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Charlotte, IA
Many
of these ideas came from Rev. David Petersen in his Issues, Etc Interview Nov.
24, 2015, and Advent 1 2014 Sermon on Psalm 25.
