The Humble King

The First Sunday in Advent

Jeremiah 23:5-8; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 21:1-11

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Jesus doesn’t merely happen across a donkey. He sends for it. He describes for the disciples exactly where they’ll find it tied up, and He tells them what to say when someone asks what they’re doing. All of it is with great purpose, and Matthew tells us why. Before we’re shown the crowd and the cloaks on the road and the shouts of “Hosanna!”, before any of that, Matthew pauses the whole scene to tell us why Jesus is doing this. “This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet” (Matt. 21:4). 

Then he quotes Zechariah. You heard it. It’s a familiar text. On Palm Sunday, you hear it read from John’s Gospel. But today it’s Matthew. And Matthew is slightly different. He’s the only Gospel writer who includes from Zechariah the description of Jesus being humble. 

“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden” (Matt. 21:5). 

At the beginning of Advent, the beginning of the whole Church Year, we are given the picture of Jesus’ humility. Except, it’s not the kind of humility we think it is. Generally, we think being humble means that you’re modest and unassuming. But that doesn’t make a lot of sense here. In Jesus’ day, donkeys were the transport of royalty. King Solomon and King Jehu both rode donkeys at their coronation. David’s sons rode donkeys. And, make no mistake, Jesus calling for the donkey so He can ride it into Jerusalem is Him declaring Himself the true King. That’s not modest or unassuming at all. But that’s not what it means for Jesus to be humble. 

Mostly, we imagine Jesus being humble means that He’s gentle, like an adult version of the calm baby in the manger. We think He’s the mild-mannered, aw-shucks nice guy; the kind of person who is quiet and kind, and would never say anything harsh or offensive at all. But that’s ridiculous. And we wouldn’t ever think that if we just kept reading the text, because the very next thing Matthew tells us after Jesus’ humble ride into Jerusalem is that He overturns tables in the temple and uses a weapon to drive out the moneychangers. No, when Zechariah calls the Messiah “humble,” he’s not saying that Jesus is mild-mannered and soft. 

So what does it mean for our Lord to be humble? Well, if we look up the whole text in Zechariah, if we go to Zechariah 9, we hear the first part: “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…” But then, this is what follows. Listen to what the humble King is supposed to do: “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations” (Zech. 9:9-10). The point of Jesus coming on the donkey, coming in humility, the point is that He would defeat the enemies of God’s people. 

Surely, that’s a comforting image. Your God does not come against you in wrath. He doesn’t ride in anger over your sin. There’s no vengeance here. You can’t think that when you see Him on the donkey. He comes, rather, to defend you. To bring wrath against your enemies. But still, you might be thinking, “How is that humility?” It’s nice that God defeats the enemies of His people, but how is that Him being humble? That doesn’t sound like humility. 

In part, this is a failure of our translation. The Hebrew word Zechariah uses to call Jesus “humble” gives us a hint. Because it can just as easily be translated: “afflicted.” And it was right before our Gospel reading that Jesus said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). 

This is what humility means: Your Lord does not ride to serve His own will. He doesn’t go into Jerusalem to do what He wants, or to seek His own glory, His own satisfaction. That’s the opposite of humility. That’s pride. But Jesus rides for the good of others. He rides to defend God’s children from their enemies. He submits to that responsibility, and He submits gladly, even though it costs Him His life, even though it costs Him every pain, even the love of His Heavenly Father. But He sets aside His own well-being for yours. He gives up His own salvation, being damned at the cross, to deliver you. And that is what defines His humility. 

“[He] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself,” here’s humility! St. Paul says, this is Jesus being humble. How? “…he humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-8).

This is the picture of Advent: Your King comes to deliver you from your enemies by submitting Himself to their grasp. Except your enemies are not the moneychangers, or the Pharisees. They’re not even the people in your own life who have sinned against you or who despise you, or the people you dislike. The enemy is satan, and his weapons against you are lies. 

You remember the first lie? “You will not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). Adam should have called the serpent a liar and pulled his wife away. He should have stomped on the serpent’s head right then and there. Instead, Adam was gentle. He stood by and did nothing. That’s not humility. The Second Adam, Jesus, will not stand by. 

Except, the lie is no longer “You will not surely die.” That ship is sailed. We’re already dying. We’re on the other side of Eden. The lie satan now peddles in your ear is that you should fear death. Look what you’ve done. God won’t forget your sin. The regrets you have, the ways you’ve failed in your vocations, God remembers those. He doesn’t hear your prayer. He doesn’t give you daily bread. You’re on your own. You have to take care of yourself. You have to be worried about tomorrow. You should stress and be sad. There’s much to grieve. 

Your Jesus is not like the first Adam. He will not allow those lies. He will not stand by. He rides the donkey to attack that devil. And His humility is that He destroys the enemy with His own blood. The cross is where He’s headed in our text, and it was always that way. Even as He lay in the manger, the cross is in the background. He comes to rescue you, to “ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here.”

And that is still the case today. What goes on here is spiritual warfare. Even after the Christmas trees are up, and all the decorations, what goes on here is spiritual warfare. Your King still comes to fight against the devil’s lies. And He does that chiefly through the truth of His Word. 

Think of it, just as Jesus was born in lowly Bethlehem, laid into a simple manger, and died as a common criminal on a cross, still He stoops down to you in lowliness. Baptism looks like nothing but ordinary water. The Sacrament of the Altar looks like any other bread and wine. You hear the preached Word of God in the sermon from a sinner full of hot air. Yet, through these, your King comes to you, declaring you forgiven, washed clean of sin and grief and every sorrow. Your King says, “I poured out my blood for you to rescue you from those very lies. That you might be mine.” 

Sure, you still feel the grief and the anxiety and the sadness. Yet behold, your King is coming to you, humble, and mounted, not on a donkey, but upon His Word. He rides paten and chalice, attacking every lie in your ear. Reassuring you, that the regrets you have are wiped out in blood, your sins are not remembered, and all of those sorrows of your heart, Jesus knows them. He will not leave your side. So what if satan brings some affliction upon you to make you feel as if God is not on your side? Has the water of baptism hit your forehead? Have you heard the absolution? Has the Body and Blood of God’s Crucified and Risen Son touched your lips? The lies cannot hurt you.

Now, since Immanuel has ransomed captive you, since He cheers you by His drawing nigh, dispersing the gloomy clouds of night at that rail, closing the path to misery, since that is true, you now live with the same humility. Your humble King lives in you. That’s not a call for you to be mild-mannered. Paul says, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom. 13:14). Don’t give in to the lies. And the best way to practice that is by showing forth the humility of Christ, giving up your own well-being for the sake of others. When you protect the reputation of someone else with your own, when you sacrifice your own needs for your family, your neighbor, when you encourage and serve the people God has given you, you are living against the lies and embracing your King, on the donkey, humble, afflicted, for you. 

In ☩ Jesus’ name. Amen. 

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