The First Sunday in Advent
The Lord Has Need of It
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen! In today’s Gospel, Jesus sent two disciples to find Him a colt to ride.
Jesus also gave these two disciples a sermon to preach along the way: “If
anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has
need of it.’"
Dear Christian friends,
Today’s Gospel is a good gospel for Advent, even though this Gospel sounds like
it should be read on Palm Sunday or during Holy Week. Advent means “arrival” or
“coming.” Today’s Gospel depicts the sort of Christ who has come to us and who
interacts with us on a daily basis.
• These Words, “The Lord has need of it,” show us picture of the God who
has come into our midst, in order to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21) and
to be with us forever (Matthew 1:23).
• The Words, “The Lord has need of it” depict your God’s favorite way of
dealing with each of us personally—you and me and all the baptized of Christ.
I. The God Who Has Come to Us
God declares in His book of Job, “Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine”
(Job 41:11). Yet this very same God—the penniless God in today’s Gospel—now
needs to borrow a donkey. God thunders from His book of Psalms, “If I were
hungry I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine” (Psalm
50:12). God has no needs! Yet the God-Who-Has-No-Needs now tells people to say
in today’s Gospel, “The Lord has need of it.”
This poverty of Jesus is the mark of an extraordinarily loving and exceedingly
merciful God! NOTHING was so important to our God that He wasn’t willing to
give it up for us. Thus it is written concerning Jesus:
• “Christ Jesus… did not consider equality with God something to be
grasped, but made Himself nothing … born in the likeness of men” (Philippians
2:5-7). These Words mean that God the Son did not cling to anything for
Himself. He fully opened His fingers and dropped everything that He once had,
so that He may gain and grasp and take possession of us.
• “[This is] the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thought He was
rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become
rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Stated another way, the Lord and Creator of the
Universe so abandoned everything that, in today’s Gospel, now He needs to bum a
ride to His own cross and death.
II. The God Who Uses Stuff to Come to Us
“The Lord has need of it.” These Words do more than describe our Lord’s poverty
for our sake. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son
of Man has nowhere to lay His head,” says the Lord (Luke 9:58). Even so, the
Lord has need of that donkey in today’s Gospel more for us than for Himself!
The Lord has need of that donkey in very much the same way that He likewise has
need of water for His gift of Baptism, or bread and wine for His gift of Holy
Communion. The Lord has need of these things, not for Himself, but for us and
for our salvation; for our assurance and certainty; for our consolation and our
comfort. Simply stated, “The Lord has need of it” because GOD WORKS THROUGH
STUFF.
Today’s Gospel gives us a good picture of how and why God sees fit to work
through stuff—through donkeys, through water, through bread and wine. Think
about the situation in today’s Gospel:
1. Yes, Jesus is as poor as a church mouse. Nevertheless, Jesus is still
God! By a command from this man’s mouth, bodies get healed and dead people get
raised. Despite His poverty, we must not forget that Jesus is still the man who
effortlessly walks on the water (Mark 6:48-49). This is the man who strolled
through the angry lynch mob at Nazareth (Luke 4:29-30). In the book of Acts,
Jesus made His servant Philip disappear from one place and then suddenly
reappear in another place, ten or twenty miles away (Acts 8:39-40). Now in
today’s Gospel, Jesus needs a ride?
2. Yes, Jesus needs a ride. “The Lord has need of it,” not for Himself,
and not merely because He has no money for the bus. Jesus needs a ride for our
sake—for our certainty and for our salvation. In today’s Gospel, Jesus wants us
to know beyond all doubt that He is the fulfillment of God’s ancient promise to
us, “Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is He,
humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt the foal of a beast of a donkey”
(Zechariah 9:9). Jesus has need of a donkey because knows we need to see the
donkey!
3. Jesus is our God. That means Jesus personally does not need the water
of Baptism any more than He needs some smelly donkey. Yet Jesus knows how much
we need the water. By riding a donkey in today’s Gospel, Jesus gave those
crowds of people an historical record. He gave them a specific act for their
salvation. In this Gospel, Jesus gave His dear something to which they could
cling; something to which they could return; something they could cherish for
the rest of their lives:
And as He rode along [on that flea-bitten donkey], they spread their cloaks on
the road. … the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise
God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying,
“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and
glory in the highest!”
A historical record, a specific act they can see and understand, something to
cherish for the rest of their lives—all accomplished by Jesus borrowing a
donkey. Has not your God likewise accomplished the same thing for you in your
Baptism? Jesus is God. He does not need any water. He could save you by the
mere blink of an eye—and yet He calls for water, just as He called for donkey
in today’s Gospel. The Lord has need of the water of Baptism in the same way
that He has need of a donkey: He needs Baptismal water for us and for our
salvation. Jesus needs to come to us through water for our certainty and
assurance. Jesus needs the water of Baptism so that we have something to hold;
something to remember; something that will cause us also to rejoice and say,
“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!”
4. Nothing less should be said of Holy Communion, either! Jesus rode to
His suffering and death by means of a donkey. Now Jesus rides away from His
cross—victorious over sin and death—and He arrives among us riding bread and
wine. “We are talking about the presence of the living Christ, knowing that
death no longer has dominion over Him” (AP X.4).
“The Lord has need of it.” These Words describe the very essence of God’s
tender mercy toward us. Impoverished for our forgiveness and salvation, the
Lord Jesus needs to borrow a donkey, so that He may ride to His cross and our
forgiveness—which He fully accomplished for us. “The Lord has need of it.”
Victorious over everything that would destroy us, our God in Christ still loves
to ride stuff around. He does it for us, that we may never doubt His on-going
Advent among us.
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