+ 1st Sunday of Advent – December 1st, 2024 +
Series C: Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 19:28-40
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
With the season of Advent many familiar sights, sounds, and smells begin to fill our homes and the church, the radio, and even our kitchen. You might have your tree set up. Something might be cooking in the kitchen. Your advent calendar and candles are on the table. It’s a season of preparation. Anticipation. And Exaltation.
One of my favorite Advent reminders comes from a rather unexpected place…the 1980s hit TV show, the A-team. That’s right! I loved watching that show. Seeing Murdock, Faceman, B.A. Baracus, and their leader Hannibal take on bad guys. Face adventure and do it all in style. Not to mention some classic lines…like this one from Hannibal Smith… “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Now that’s an Advent line if I ever heard one. Advent is the season where God takes all of his promises and fulfills them in Jesus. All the prophets’ words. All God’s covenants of old. All the gracious words foretold by Jeremiah and Isaiah and the rest of the Scriptures – it all takes place the way God drew it up. Advent is the season where God executes all of his preparations and answers our anticipations and gives us exaltation in the coming King Jesus. Advent is the season where God says, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
And this plan has been a long time in the works. From before the foundation of the world, we’re told. And throughout the words of the prophets. Down through the ages, God has been patiently plotting and preparing…setting all of history in motion for the days of the coming King. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
God loves it when his plan comes together.
And that plan is his good and gracious plan of rescue. It’s a special operation of his divine deliverance. It’s the King coming into his own creation to save and set you free from the bondage of sin and death. God has this planned down to the smallest operational detail:
When he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’”
The disciples went ahead of Jesus and found the donkey just as Jesus said. Jesus didn’t send them to Donkey’s-R-Us, or the local donkey dealership to just pick out any old beast of burden. No. It was this donkey. At this time. Set apart in this place. For this purpose: to carry the King who came to be crucified, dead, buried, and risen for you. God loves it when his plans come together…especially when those plans are for your good and for your rescue.
You see…when it comes to logistics, there’s no one better than the Lord. This is what he does. He moves heaven and earth to come to your rescue. Not only that, he brings heaven to earth with him and in him when he takes on human flesh to save you. Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem isn’t just a royal celebration – it’s a cosmic collision: heaven and earth are joined together in this King who rides on a donkey just as the prophets and the Psalms foretold. Heaven and earth are reconciled back to God the Father by him who rides into Jerusalem, the city of peace, to make peace by his blood shed on the cross.
That’s quite the contrast from our plans, if you think about it. Like the Pharisees rebuking Jesus’ disciples for crying out to Jesus for help, our old sinful nature cries out stubbornly. I’ve got this. I don’t need help. I don’t need rescue. It’s all under control. But if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s not. All too often the good things we want do not end up as we planned. Or worse yet, sometimes we do exactly what we planned and that’s the problem. Like the Pharisees, we are often our own worst enemies. Our plans fail. Unravel. And end in sinful disaster. So, what does God do? Does he rant and rave and go full hulk smash on all our failed plans? No. He comes to rescue you from yourself, your sin and your death.
And notice what Jesus doesn’t do. Jesus doesn’t rebuke his disciples, or you. Instead of rebuke, he goes to redeem you. Christ the King came in the name of the Lord in his birth to save you. Christ the King comes in his word and water and body and blood to bring you grace and life and healing. Christ the King will come again in glory, not on a humble donkey but holy and on the clouds of heaven.
After all, this is his plan. And nothing can stop him from accomplishing his salvation for you. Not the stones. Not the pharisees. Not our sin. Not death, the devil, or even the grave itself. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. And blessed is the King who is the Lord and our Savior. Who sat on the donkey that day. To sit on the throne of the cross on Good Friday. To rest in the tomb on Saturday. And to rise from the dead on Easter Sunday. Blessed is the King who comes to save, deliver, and rescue you.
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Don’t you just love it when God’s plans come together.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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