The Son of David Comes

First Sunday in Advent, Matthew 21:1-11

Once, in a time long, long ago, there lived a king who was gifted, wealthy and wise. The king made music on his harp and sang songs of praise to God. He won battles and conquered enemies; he had everything you could want and more. The king also had a son. (Actually, he had several sons, but one son stood out from the rest.) This particular son was handsome beyond all the young men of the land. From the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, there was no blemish upon him. The hair on his head was full and thick, but the thoughts in his head were wicked and devious. He murdered one of his brothers. He fled, and his father the king wept over the pain in his family. Yet, the king loved his beautiful but devious son. In time, the king called for his son to return to the royal city. The son came home, but his thoughts were more evil than ever. For four years, he sat at the gates of the new capital and played the politician. He listened to the complaints of the people and promised solutions. In time, he won the hearts of the people. At the end of four years, he revealed his plan. He would overthrow his father, the king. He gathered supporters at the site of the former capital. “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say, ’Absalom is king at Hebron!’”

Who was the king whom Absalom contrived to depose? Yes, it was David, the gifted warrior and singer of praises to God. When the message came to David, the king said, “The hearts of the people of Israel have gone after Absalom. Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom.” So out of Jerusalem went David, the king, along with his servants and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites and all the Gittites who had followed him. They came to the Mount of Olives, to the east, across the Kidron valley from Jerusalem. “David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered.”

Even if you have forgotten the details of Absalom’s rebellion against his father David, or are hearing them for the first time, the story has a familiar ring to it. It is our story.

David himself, poet, singer of God’s praises, warrior and king was also guilty of sin. The prophet Nathan confronted him previously saying, “You are the man.” “David you are the one who schemed to have Uriah killed in order to take his wife Bathsheba for yourself.”

We, like David, experience the brokenness of sin. One day I was sitting in a narrow hall at Saint Louis University dental school. Not more than a yard across from me sat a teenager paging through a magazine and talking to a woman next to her. I glanced down at her feet and saw a chain padlocked around her ankle. Could this be some new teenage fad? However, then I noticed the chain was attached to the other ankle. The woman with her was a juvenile officer. At times the brokenness that results from human waywardness is just plain sad.

We see the brokenness in our families. The brokenness in our families is the result of our fractured relationship with God. The high expectations of Christmas celebrated together must be scaled back by the reality of the hurts in our homes and families that prevent the full measure of satisfaction and happiness we might want.

We see the brokenness of sin in our own lives. Amid the dreams of a “perfect Christmas” is the awareness of our own deep imperfections and sin.

So we prayed in the Collect, “Stir up your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sin and saved by Your mighty deliverance.” Psalm 24 asks, “Who may stand in (God’s) holy place?” Someone answers, “He who has cleans hands and a pure heart.” Even though we may con ourselves into thinking we have not done anything wrong; it would take a masterful con job to convince ourselves that our motivations are always pure. Who may stand in God’s holy place? Neither you nor I as we are by birth. The Psalmist says, “O Lord if you should mark iniquities, who could stand?’ Yet the psalm continues, “But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.”

In the weeks heading up to Christmas, the world will offer us, with a vigor that is unique to this season, its answers to our sins. New toys will be dangled before our eyes, each one promising to make us better or happier.

Salvation is measured by Black Friday, rather than Good Friday. Redemption comes through what we buy, rather than our life that Jesus bought with his precious blood. For all who have experienced the brokenness of sin, who have been driven from comfort by their failures and have cried out to God for deliverance, there is good news: Your king comes to you! Here and here alone, we find our comfort and our peace!

Absalom was not David’s only son. Today, we behold another son of David, Jesus, born a thousand years later, coming down the descent of the Mt. of Olives, across the Kidron valley to Jerusalem. He comes to the Holy City from the place where David suffered his shame to renew the Kingdom of God. He comes humbly and gently. David’s son Absalom rode about on a military steed accompanied by an entourage of 50 men demonstrating his power while currying favor with the people. Jesus entourage is made up of 12 disciples of no importance, and power. It includes those who followed him from the healing of the blind beggar, the citizenry of Jericho who witnessed him eating at the house of the tax collector Zacchaeus and the resurrecting of Lazarus in Bethany. He was popular with the people but soon he, like David would be driven out of the city - rejected, not for his sin, but for your sin and my sin, even those in thought, word and deed we have heaped upon him this week. He will die, rejected even by the heavenly Father. He will even share the curse of Absalom. Remember Absalom’s thick hair caught in the branch of a tree as he fled from David’s men. An ally of David put three darts in his heart. When Jesus died on the cross a sword pierced his side and he too suffered the curse, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”

Luther says, “He is a peculiar King: you do not seek him, he seeks you, you do not find him, he finds you; for the preachers come from him not from you; their preaching come from him not from you; your faith comes from him not from you; and all that your faith works in you comes from him not from you.”

He comes in lowliness so that no burdened sinner is driven away. He established his kingdom, not by shedding the blood of his enemies, but by shedding his own blood. Now once again today he comes to us lowly in words of preaching and in the common elements of bread and wine. He comes to us personally and individually, to forgive our sins and renew us once more as sons and daughters in the family of God.

This time of year begins with the Thanksgiving parades and concludes with New Years day parades. However, the parade that captures our attention is one that happened on a Sunday in Jerusalem long ago. The Son of David returns to the city and comes to us in humility and forgiveness to give us the comfort the world can never give, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Come, Savior of the nations, come.”