First Sunday in Advent

First Sunday in Advent (C)

November 28, 2021

Text: Luke 19:28-40

            The whole city was in expectation.  Today, a new king would claim the throne of his father, David.  It would be a time of celebration, of great jubilation.  The wonder boy was finally coming into his own.  Now things would be different.  Now some wrongs would be righted.  Now Israel would reach her full potential.  It was a tremendous procession.  The people lined the streets and ran before him, shouting for joy.  When they arrived at the place of coronation, there would be great sacrifices to YHWH, blessing, and feasting.  Yes, Adonijah, the dashing second-born son of the elderly and ailing King David, was consolidating power.  It was true, of course, that David had technically promised the throne to Bathsheba’s son, Solomon.  But no one could really take that promise seriously, could they, made, as it was, to assuage the King’s guilty conscience?  Even David had never once rebuked Adonijah for running around town like he already owned the place, with chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him.  As for the members of his father’s cabinet, Joab, David’s mighty general, was backing Adonijah.  So was Abiathar the Priest, the rest of the King’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah.  They were all gathered for the regal festivities at the Serpent’s Stone by En-rogel.  Conspicuous for their absence from the guest list, were, of course, Solomon himself, and his mother Bathsheba.  Also Nathan the Prophet, Zadok the Priest, Benaiah the warrior, and David’s mighty men.  These Adonijah would deal with later as enemies of the state.

            And in all of this, King David lay in bed, ignorant and cold, in the care of beautiful, young Abishag the Shunammite.  He had no idea his kingdom was being pillaged by a fraud.  Something must be done before it is too late.  Nathan and Bathsheba hatch a plan that will spur the King into action.

            Now, David is a man after God’s own heart.  And like the LORD his God, when David speaks a word, he will bring it to pass.  He had promised that Solomon would sit on his throne and reign after him, and now he would make it so this very day.  David may be old, but he’s still the High King, and when David speaks, things happen.  David said to Zadok, Nathan, and Benaiah, “Take with you the servants of your lord and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.  And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel.  Then blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’  You shall then come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, for he shall be king in my place.  And I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah” (1 Kings 1:33-35; ESV).  So that is what happened.  The priest, the prophet, and the King’s mighty warrior anointed Solomon to take the place of his father David.  Then, at the sound of the trumpet, Solomon rode David’s own mule down the Mount of Olives in triumphal procession into the City of Jerusalem, to shouts of “Long live King Solomon!” (v. 39), and “all the people went up after him, playing on pipes, and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise” (v. 40).

            Look what had happened here.  There was a pretender to the throne, attractive and convincing, a slick politician who promised the people what was not his to give.  And he couldn’t have delivered, by the way.  What is the first thing Adonijah would have to have done upon taking the throne?  Violence.  A bloodbath.  A day of reckoning.  Not peace.  Not righting of wrongs.  Assassinations.  Not at all a man after God’s own heart.  Not at all concerned with justice, truth, mercy, faithfulness to YHWH. 

            And then there was the true and rightful King, the promised heir of the throne of David, who, in spite of the pretender’s best efforts, rode triumphantly into the city to claim his God-given sovereignty.  Because David said so.  Because God said so.  He comes, not with chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before.  Not with military show of might, but by show of right, royal, but humble, mounted on David’s mule, as one who comes in peace. 

            And that is what he would bring.  The LORD’s anointed would usher in an unprecedented golden age of peace and prosperity for Israel.  He would build a House for YHWH, the majestic Temple, and a palace for himself befitting such a powerful head of state, a tribute as much to his people as to himself.  And his wisdom.  It would be known the world over.  The Queen of Sheba would travel half the known world to bask in it.  Not just knowledge.  Not just genius.  God-given wisdom.  As in a deep intimacy with God and with the things of God.

            So that is the contrast.  There is the pretender, who would win his kingdom by cheating, by deception and violence, and bring only more of the same in the intervening years.  And there is the LORD’s anointed, which in Hebrew is “Messiah,” who receives his kingdom in fulfillment of the Promise, with wisdom and peace and every blessing.

            Of course, we know that even Solomon, in all his glory, as the son of David and the LORD’s anointed, fell far short in the end.  Too many wives, and other women, pagan foreigners, enticing him into idolatry.  The allure of riches and the false sense of security and comfort they often bring.  We can’t even be certain that Solomon died in the faith, although the Book of Ecclesiastes seems to be the book of Solomon’s repentance.  And we know where the fall of this great man led Israel: Secession of the Northern Tribes and civil war in the next generation, a slow and steady descent into idolatry and wickedness for both Israel and Judah, rejection of YHWH and His Word through the prophets, military conquests, Assyria, Babylon, exile.  Even the most promising human leaders, in the end, lead us to destruction.  “Put not your trust in princes” (Ps. 146:3). 

            But insofar as Solomon was the LORD’s man, the LORD’s anointed, the King of Promise, in contrast to the pretender, Adonijah, he was a type of his own Descendent, the true Son of David, the LORD’s Anointed promised from the foundation of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

            So the people understood, that day, what was happening, as our Lord, having been anointed with the Holy Spirit (as happened at His Baptism), rode down the Mount of Olives on a donkey’s colt, coming not with chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him, not with military show of might, but in peace, on a beast of burden never before used, prepared specially by God for this moment.  “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey,” as the Prophet Zechariah preached (Zech. 9:9).  So the people spread their cloaks along the road, a royal red carpet.  And they rejoice with loud voices, praising God for all the mighty works they had witnessed Jesus perform, and they sing the great Psalm to Him, Psalm 118, “Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38), and they even echo the hymn of the Christmas angels, the Gloria in Excelsis, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

            And that is just what Jesus brings.  Peace in heaven.  Peace between God and man.  For Jesus is riding into Jerusalem, the New and Greater Temple, God in human flesh, to be crowned with thorns, to take up the throne of the cross, to die for the sins of the whole world.  That is the great Sacrifice that brings about what Adonijah’s sacrifices never could: Atonement for all our sins, complete forgiveness by the satisfaction of God’s wrath, and, as a result, justice, mercy, and faithfulness to YHWH.  And Glory in the Highest.  This is God’s great glory, to forgive sinners by the Sacrifice of His own dear Son, thus redeeming them, redeeming us, for Himself, to be His own people, a house of living stones, built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself as the Chief Cornerstone.  This is the greatest Wisdom, surpassing that of Solomon, for in this way, by the death of God’s Son, Israel is restored… the New Israel, the holy Church of God. 

            Jesus comes, He advents, to bring about the fulness of the promised Kingdom of God.  He roots out every Adonijah and undoes the failings of every Solomon.

            Now the crucified and risen Lord Jesus comes to you.  This Adventide, we prepare to celebrate once again His coming in the flesh as the Son of God born of the Virgin Mary.  He came to be the sacrifice for our sins.  And He is coming again in glory, to judge the living and the dead, and deliver us into the Kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world.  In the meantime, He comes to us continually by the humble means of words and water, bread and wine, His holy Word and Sacraments.  Part of our Advent preparation is to ask, who and what are our Adonijahs that must be rooted out, the attractive and charismatic pretenders to the throne that seek to rule over our lives and claim ownership of our souls?  And who or what are the Solomons, the divinely appointed gifts that nonetheless fall far short when we elevate the status of the gift to that of the Giver, that which points to the Savior to that of the Savior Himself?

            Who are they?  Identify them.  Name names.  Confess. 

            There is Satan himself, of course.  He is the ultimate Adonijah, always drawing us in, appealing to us as an angel of light, until we fall into his trap, ensnared in his darkness.  His way leads only to bloodshed and eternal suffering. 

            Then there is our own sinful nature.  We always want to elevate ourselves to the throne, to rule ourselves, to be like God. 

            There are all the illicit things that capture our eyes, our minds, our hearts.  Pornography.  Substance abuse.  These are Adonijahs.  They appear to hold the key to happiness, but they lead only to death. 

            Then there are the Solomons.  I think here of earthly governmental powers.  These are from God.  We know that.  Read Romans 13.  But they do fall far short, don’t they?  And I suppose they can also be Adonijahs when they claim divine honors for themselves. 

            Family can be a Solomon, a great, good gift of God, indeed, one of the highest gifts, but not God himself.  We will hear pious Christians in the coming days tell us how they are not going to Church for Christmas because Christmas is a day for family.  It sounds good, but it is a clear confusion of priorities. 

            Jobs can be Solomons when we look to our job or our paycheck as the giver of our daily bread.  Americanism, freedom, the flag can be Solomons.  Our home.  Our marriage.  And the like.  Etc. etc.  These things point to God’s goodness, but they are not God.

            So here comes Jesus, riding in, to save us from every Adonijah, and order every Solomon in his rightful place.  And that is to say, here comes Jesus riding in, the true and rightful King.  He comes, and if we don’t cry out, the very stones will.  What should we cry?  It is no mystery.  In a few moments, in the Sanctus, we’ll sing the same words as the Palm Sunday crowd.  “Hosanna!  Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.”  And it will happen.  He will come riding in on the bread and wine, His true Body, His true Blood, right up into our mouths.  And He will take up His throne within every one of us.  For the forgiveness of sins.  And so there shall be peace.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.