Jesus Comes Today

Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent

Matthew 21:1-9

November 30th, 2025

Today is the first Sunday in Advent and all around us is the feel and anticipation of Christmas. It would be easy to think that the season of Advent was all about Christmas as we prepare and anticipate December 25^th. But the season of Advent is not mostly about Christmas. If we actually lived according to the Church liturgical calendar we wouldn’t put our Christmas trees up until the Christmas season actually begins on December 25^th.

But the Christmas trees are up, the lights are hung, and the snow is falling. This most blessed Advent season is well underway, even as the feel of Christmas is in the air. And I must confess, I would be a bit sad if we didn’t have our tree and Christmas decorations up from Thanksgiving all the way through the actual Christmas season which doesn’t begin until December 25^th. Along with all of you, I do love it, even if it isn’t following the Church calendar perfectly. It is a joyous time of the year, even if it’s not Christmas yet.

It’s easy to get caught up in all the emotions and feelings of joy, warmth, and nostalgia this time of the year brings. It’s in the music, the delicious food, the lights, the decorations, the sights, and sounds. It’s in the comforting smell of the season that takes your mind back in time, as White Christmas and Feliz Navidad play endlessly in the background as you decorate cookies and sip on eggnog. Our minds wander back to days past and memories that seem like only yesterday as we reflect on all of life’s many blessings.

We love it all and we should, love it and enjoy it to its fullest. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, even the simple things in life that last only for a moment. We thank God for all of it, He’s given us these times in life to stop, reflect and enjoy, because before you know it - these things are gone. The grass withers and the flower fades, and so do our earthly treasures and moments in time - but our Savior doesn’t fade. He doesn’t go away. He continues coming to us. In the past, in the present, and into the future where He will come again one Final time and take us home for eternity.

All the ways in which Jesus comes to us, past, present and future, are at the heart and center of our meditation during the Advent season. The word Advent comes from the Latin and means arrival or coming. The Gospel reading for this first Sunday in Advent is Jesus Triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It’s the same reading we have on Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus is coming to His people in humility, riding on a donkey. His purpose is to go to the cross and die that we might live eternally. It’s the way God loves the world, in the death of His only Son on the Cross.

This reason and purpose for His coming into Jerusalem that final time must be understood before we can celebrate the tiny babe lying a manger; the Word of God made flesh. Before we can hear the angels sing, the shepherds confess or marvel at the magi’s gifts, we must first contemplate God’s answer to the crowds that shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

This word Hosanna in Hebrew means “Save us, we pray, oh Lord!” It’s the same thing we cry out to God in prayer during the Sanctus every Sunday right before the Lord’s Prayer which leads into the Words of Institution in the Lord’s Supper. God’s answer to our cry of Hosanna is the same to us as it was to those people in the crowds at Jerusalem.

The answer is the body of His only Son nailed to the cross for our sin. The body that absorbed all of our sin and failure, sickness and death. All of it put to death in Himself. The Father’s wrath we deserved appeased. Jesus blood shed made atonement for our sin and redeemed our bodies and souls from eternal death. And then the tomb that could not hold His body more than three days.

Then the resurrection to life eternal and the ascension to the Father’s right hand to reign in glory over all things. And He will come again to take us to paradise. That’s the answer to the Hosanna cry. The most holy time in the history of the universe was Jesus hanging on the Cross with our sin. That’s how God saves us.

It’s the reason for the flesh and blood of God that came to that little town of Bethlehem to be born in a manger, to lie in the muck and the mud, so He could up grow and ride that donkey, that colt into Jerusalem and die on the Cross. And then rise again victorious. And with eyes of faith we believe He has come, the work is finished to save us all those years ago. And yet Jesus continues coming to us in His fullness bringing the fruit of that work to feed us and keep us alive us spiritually until He comes again in glory.

That’s why we sing the Hosanna in the Sanctus. And God hears our cry and God answers. And He gives us Jesus in His Word and Sacrament. Today is another coming of our God in flesh and blood in His Word. The flesh and blood that is true food and drink.

As Jesus said, Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

This present coming of Jesus is found in His Words spoken and in the Eucharist, the Thanksgiving, which is His true body and blood at the rail that we eat and drink. He has come. He is coming and we feast on Him today. And if we believe He is the Son of God who came into the world in our flesh and that He is still coming to us and if we feed on Him as He desires, we can be assured that He will come again and take us to be with Him for eternity.

That is truly something to celebrate this Advent season as we view all things through faith in Christ. It’s the reason we rejoice and enjoy all the simple blessings this time of the year brings. And we can have hope, peace and joy moving forward even if we are suffering in our bodies and minds or if we have loved ones not with us this season. With faith we know that God has come in the flesh and blood of Jesus to redeem us from all of our sin, failure, and loss; all of our sickness and death. And He continues to come and abide with us until the end. We can rejoice today, give thanks for yesterday, and look forward with hope to whatever the future may bring.

Whether we lose or whether we gain in Christ we have all things needed. Wherever we find ourselves in life with eyes of faith we see past the temporary and fleeting, past ourselves, past our failures, our sin, and past the struggles and suffering found in the world around us. Because we know Jesus has dealt with all of it on His cross. And He will come again one last time in glory. It’s to that final coming we press forward with hope and peace in Christ. Thanks be to Jesus. In Jesus name. Amen.