The Advent of Our King

The advent of our King Our prayers must now employ,

And we must hymns of welcome sing In strains of holy joy.

It is Advent, the season of Jesus “Coming” to be with us. Our hymns, our Scripture readings, our liturgies, all point toward the coming of our King. Yet Jesus does not come with all the pomp and show we usually see when earthly kings arrive. Instead,

The everlasting Son Incarnate deigns to be

Himself a servant’s form puts on To set His servants free.

Yes, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). What a glorious gift and mystery this is! “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Truly, this is cause for celebration!

O Zion’s daughter, rise To meet your lowly King,

Nor let your faithless heart despise the peace He comes to bring.

As the prophet Zechariah foretold, “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” (Zechariah 9:9).

And this was how Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. His disciples “brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and He sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” (Matthew 21:7-9).

So our observance of Advent is bound up with Jesus “comings”: His First Advent at His birth in Bethlehem (which we will celebrate on Christmas), His Advent in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (our reminder of the Holy Week that included His suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection: forgiving our sins and promising us resurrection to everlasting life with God!) and one more precious Advent, for …

As judge on clouds of light, He soon will come again

And His true members all unite With Him in heav’n to reign.

Yes, the Day is coming when “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) And how shall we prepare for our Savior’s Final Advent?

Before the dawning day Let sin’s dark deeds be gone,

The sinful self be put away, The new self now put on.

Remember, you were baptized into Christ Jesus, and your sins are forgiven. As Paul wrote, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Rom. 6:11-14) Because of all this, we give thanks and praise to God!

All glory to the Son, Who comes to set us free,

With Father, Spirit, ever one Through all eternity. (Lutheran Service Book, 331)