Second part of Sermon I. for the First Sunday in Advent.
Rom. xiii. 8-14. St. Matt. xxi. 1-13.
Behold, Thy King cometh unto thee.—ST.
MATT. xxi.
5.
(for the first part, on the Epistle.)
...Thus the Epistle for to-day is like the herald voice in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make His paths straight. It sounds
all of preparation for His appearing in light and glory. But the
Gospel carries us back to His former Advent, and His visiting us in great
humility. It is the account of His great kingly entrance into Jerusalem
on Palm Sunday. As the Great High Priest that was to be, He offered up
Himself on the Cross; as the Prophet,. He foretold of Heaven and Hell,
and of all future things pertaining to His Church; but as the promised
King of the Jews He showed Himself on this occasion;—condescending to take
upon Himself something as it were of earthly pomp, yet with such extreme
lowliness, that the circumstance is precisely of the same character as
when He was born in a stable; when He girded Himself as a slave to wash
His disciples’ feet. The Prophets had described Him as a King, and as a
King He appears to fulfil the Prophets, and by such fulfilment to strengthen
the hearts of those who would hereafter look upon these things as fulfilled
in Him. As a King indeed, but as one Whose kingdom is not of this world,
and Whose only manifestation here below is in more exceeding lowliness;
as a King indeed, but to the eyes of this world having in His appearance
something so little kingly, as not to have alarmed the Roman, nor given
occasion to Chief Priests, nor exalted any disciple with ambition.
When they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, says St. Matthew, and
were come to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,
saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway
ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them
unto Me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath
need of them, and straight-way he will send them. Never was a royal
procession, a kingly entrance into a kingdom, like unto this; for where
are the carriages, and the horses, the attendants, and the soldiers? it
is as much the opposite to any-thing of this kind as words can describe.
It is an ass— the humblest of all beasts to ride on; nor this only, but
the foal of an ass, the colt with the dam by her side, as of one but half
fit to ride on at all; and both together as signifying all meek love and
tenderness, as shown by the mother and her colt, neither separated from
the other; both combined setting forth something very unlike kingly state
and pride. And not this only—for the Great King has not even this of His
own, it is borrowed; but borrowed of one whose heart He knew and governed
as King of kings; say, “The Lord hath need—and he will send them.”
But what occasion was there for all this at all? The Evangelist then
explains the reason of it; which the disciples, says St. John, did not
observe at the time, but they afterwards understood. All this was done,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell,
ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting
upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. Not the Law only, but the
Prophets also, did our Lord with the greatest carefulness fulfil, that
no one mark or tittle of the letter should fail of the Word of God.
And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them: and brought
the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set Him
thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the
way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.
And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying,
Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the
Lord; Hosanna in the highest. The reason of this concourse was, that
Christ had come the day before to Bethany, which was about two miles from
Jerusalem, and many of the Jews had come there from Jerusalem to see Him,
and also Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead. And on this occasion
they fell in with many coming from Jerusalem to meet Him for the same cause;
and therefore it was in fact as acknowledging in Him the power of the Resurrection;
as the King who had not only the keys of David, his kingly authority, but
also the keys of hell and of death; as the King who was putting under His
feet every enemy, visible or invisible. But in this they knew not what
they did. Their hearts were in His hand and He moved them. But they were
probably nearly all of them poor people; and these, with the little children
who caught up the strain, and sang afterwards, when He came into the Temple,
and the blind and the lame who came there to be healed, were His most meet
kingly retinue. Let us, too, join them as on this day, and say, Blessed
is He that cometh, the Infant of days, with the babes and sucklings His
attendants ! Blessed is He that cometh in our hearts, the King of Peace,
Who inviteth us the blind and the lame into His kingdom! Blessed is He
that cometh, the King of glory !
And what were the feelings of our King Himself on this His great kingly
coming; His entrance into His own festival city; His triumphal entrance
as Conqueror of death? They also were suitable to this occasion of His
great meekness, for St. Luke says, that when He came in sight of the city
He wept over it. His entrance was meet for the “Man of Sorrows,” it was
with a heart full of tears; as suited to Him who now in a few days was,
by the hands of His own people whom He loved, to be lifted up upon His
throne, and His title of King to be written thereon in every language,
and this His throne was the shameful and painful Cross. He wept at the
grave of Lazarus, because he was dead; He wept at the sight of Jerusalem,
because it was as a whited sepulchre without, and within worse than dead.
Thus was He now approaching as one goeth on his way weeping. But as
He moved the hearts of men to do Him this little appearance of honour,
so did He also move His own city at His appearing, that they might afterwards,
when they had crucified Him, know and remember how this was He to whom
the Prophets had borne witness.
And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying,
Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth
of Galilee. This was the answer of the multitude, for the common people
were not ashamed of the lowly Nazareth, and the despised Galilee; while
the fact of His coming from these obscure places was an offence to the
great, and the rich, and the learned.
What a wonderful contrast is all this to His next appearing, for which
we daily wait, when all the dead shall be moved at His coming, and all
the living; when the sun, moon, and stars shall fall, and earth and Heaven
shall take wing before His face, and when there will be no more asking,
Who is this? For all shall know Him, from the least to the greatest—all
shall know Him as “Jesus the Prophet “—the Prophet, indeed the more than’
Prophet, bringing about the fulfilment of all things—the Prophet of Nazareth
of Galilee, Who “rideth upon the Heavens as it were upon a horse ;“ Who
maketh the clouds His chariot; Who cometh with ten thousands of His Saints,
when some He will “bring with Him,” them that are “with the Lord;” and
some shall go forth to meet Him at His coming, the saints that are on earth.
But now, when He came in so much meekness without, and with so much
sorrow of heart within, He showed by a remarkable sign what was the occasion
of that sorrow remarkable, as differing from every other action of His
life, when He came not to judge but to save; remarkable as showing that
in the Lamb of God Who came to offer up His life for us all, there is also
wrath hidden which shall one day break forth, that the King Who is the
Lamb of God, is also the Lion of Juda. For the account thus proceeds.
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that
sold and bought in the temple; and overthrew the tables of the money-changers,
and the seats of them that sold doves; and said unto them, it is written,
My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den
of thieves. Now what is this transaction to us? Much no doubt in every
way, as it is the only act of judgment and wrath recorded in the Gospel,
it seems to put us back when we would approach Him, Who in meekness and
mercy received all men, and warns us to pause and consider. “The Lord is
in His holy Temple.”
But what is the peculiar lesson which our Lord would teach us with such
altered tokens of His gracious Presence? There can be no doubt but it signifies
that it is of the very utmost importance how we keep holy the House of
Prayer. This lies at the very heart of all religion; it is the very fountain-head
and spring from which flows the stream of life, and if this be polluted,
all must be full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Judgment must begin at the
house of God. Surely there was great evil then in Jerusalem; in the councils
of the Chief Priests, in the court of Herod, in the popular keeping of
this festival; but one thing only made the wrath of the Lamb to burst forth
as a flame anticipating the last Judgment, and this was want of reverence
in God’s House. This is the most obvious and important lesson it would
impress on us. Worship God aright, and all will be well. Come before Him
without fear, and all your life will be as a city over which Christ weeps.
But again; when our Lord spoke of the temple—of destroying it and rebuilding
it—lie was under that symbol speaking mysteriously of His own Body, which
evil men took literally, but good men, when they afterwards thought of
it, understood what He meant. It is right, therefore, that we should reflect
whether by this action in the Temple our Lord did not intend us to consider
its application to that spiritual Temple made without hands, which is His
own Body the Church.
Nay, further, to bring the case more closely home to each one of us,
the body of every Christian is called in Scripture the Temple of the Holy
Ghost; it should be the House of Prayer. It is of infinitely more value
in God’s sight than the Temple of the Jews was of old; and He comes to
it in the day of visitation,—in various ways giving us tokens and warnings
whenever He discloses Himself. He will come to it in the day of Judgment,
and be revealed therein in mercy or in wrath. What have we to regard with
awe and reverence so much as the Presence of Christ in our own souls ?
To conclude; we are to look to the Gospels as the treasure-house of
all mercies, and therein to study all meekness, love, and goodness as in
the face of Jesus Christ, and so to prepare for the coming of our King,
Who will receive as His own the poor in spirit, the meek, and the merciful,—this
is putting on the armour of light, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
preparing ourselves for His coming. But then in the same Gospels we must
remember the dreadful judgments lie has declared will await impenitent
sinners at His next appearing, and this awful token He has given us of
the same when He appeared in His Temple of old.
“Behold, the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Temple,
even the Messenger of the Covenant, Whom ye delight in: behold, He shall
come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who way abide the day of His coming?
and who shall stand when lie appeareth ?" (Mal. iii. 1,2.)
