The First Sunday in Advent
The Strange Look of Your Righteousness
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ! Amen. In today’s Gospel, two disciples of our Lord boosted a
donkey:
They went and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they
untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing,
untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them
go.
Dear Christian friends:
God wants you to know that He has to two kinds of righteousness that He wants
very much for you to have. If we were to call the first kind of righteousness
“The Righteousness People CANNOT See,” then the second would be “The
Righteousness People CAN See.”
1. The first righteousness—the unseen righteousness—was given to you in your
Baptism, when you were clothed with Christ Jesus. This is also the
righteousness that God confirms in you through every hearing of His Word and
every reception of His Holy Communion. This righteousness is the forgiveness of
your sins in the blood of Jesus. It is the complete and unblemished holiness
that is now personally yours because Christ has been wrapped around you. God
calls this unseen righteousness “the righteousness of God through faith in
Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:22). This righteousness is
completely yours and it will never be taken away from you. It is also “The
Righteousness People CANNOT See.”
2. The second kind of righteousness—“The Righteousness People CAN See”—this
righteousness has nothing to do with your salvation and eternal life. This
second kind of righteousness has to do with the way you act on a daily basis,
according to the Ten Commandments. This righteousness has to do with what your
neighbor hears and sees and receives from you.
Today’s Gospel will help you gain perspective on this second kind of
righteousness, “The Righteousness People CAN See.” According today’s Gospel,
your righteousness looks strange and seems odd to those who see it. But you
already knew that, didn’t you?
• Many unbelievers around you think of your righteousness as strange and
odd because your righteousness does not measure up to their mental picture of
how they think you should. Case in point: several Christian pastors in Houston
were recently subpoenaed because they pointed to the Word of the Lord and
publically declared, “God forbids homosexuality and same-sex unions.” Some
people think these preachers are guilty of hate crimes on account of what they
preached. Stated another way, some people think these preachers have acted
unrighteously and now should be held to account. The righteousness of these
preachers seems strange and foreign to the unbelieving world because the
unbelieving world has come to believe in the righteousness (so to speak) of
homosexuality and same-sex unions. When it comes to unbelief, good looks evil
and evil looks good.
• Tragically, your righteousness also looks strange and odd to some of
own fellow Christians, whether they are sons and daughters, extended relatives,
or even the people who share membership in this congregation. They have not
listened to the lessons of their youth, growing up in these pews. They have not
taken to heart that Word and command of our Lord, which requires all Christians
to remain very close to God’s Word and His Baptism and His Holy Communion. The
righteousness of your weekly worship seems oddly too churchy for them. The
righteousness of your weekly communion seems strange to them because they are
not as sinful as you are. The righteousness of your sacrificial giving into the
offering plate seems odd because they can think of many better uses for their
hard-earned money. The longer our fellow Christians remain separated from God’s
Word and Spirit, the stranger your righteousness seems to them and the more
their Christianity transforms
itself into something that is not Christian and not able to save.
• Truth or dare: This second kind of righteousness that God has given to
you—“The Righteousness People CAN See”— sometimes seems odd and strange also to
you. I know that I sometimes wonder why I keep trying. Surely I am not alone in
such tempted thinking!
What does Jesus give to each of us in today’s Gospel? First, He gives us the
example of two disciples who did a righteous thing that seemed odd and strange
to those who could see it. Second, Jesus also offers here the assurance that
His Word is more than sufficient to guard and keep and defend us, even when
people are taken aback—possibly offended—by the seemingly strange and odd
righteous things they see from us.
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem… Jesus sent two of his disciples and said
to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it
you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring
it.”
Our Lord fully understood that, when the disciples untied the colt, some people
would think that an unrighteous thing was happening. Some people would think
that these two Christians were stealing. Therefore Jesus instructed to them,
“If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it
and will send it back here immediately.’”
What happened? These two Christians trusted the Word of their Lord, despite the
way it would look to the other people around them. These men acted righteously,
obeying and keeping the Words of Jesus, even though their act appeared
unrighteous in the eyes of those who saw it. The other people around them
thought these men were acting unrighteously by stealing, even though there is
nothing more righteous than hearing the Word of the Lord and keeping it!
Despite the outward appearance of things, Jesus’ Words proved reliable:
And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and
they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, ‘What are you
doing, untying the colt?’ And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let
them go.
The disciples spoke not their own defense. They simply spoke the Word of the
Lord—the very Words that Jesus had given them to speak—and they left the rest
up to their God in Christ. You may speak with the same confidence and security
when people likewise think your righteousness looks odd and strange. There is
no need to defend yourself with many arguments. You content yourself with the
example of these disciples, simply speaking the clear and divine Word that
Jesus had given them to speak and allowing God Himself to work out the rest of
the details.
We should take careful note of the fact that the obedience of these two
disciples had absolutely nothing to do with their salvation and eternal life.
Jesus was, even in the moment of today’s Gospel, busily going about the work of
earning forgiveness and life for His disciples and for you. That is why Jesus
needed a donkey. After Jesus rode humbly into Jerusalem, He suffered, He died,
He was buried, and He rose again on the third day. In so doing, Jesus earned
for His disciples and for you the first kind of righteousness—“The
Righteousness People CANNOT See;” the righteousness that cannot be taken away;
“the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe”
(Romans 3:22).
Jesus wants you to know in today’s Gospel that you can trust Him for both kinds
of righteousness—both “The Righteousness People CANNOT See” and “The
Righteousness People CAN see.” You do not need to feel afraid or
self-conscience when people see you doing the righteous things that God
commands. You do not need to worry when your righteousness seems to be very
unrighteous in their eyes—as it happened with the donkey-stealing disciples
here today. You may simply trust Jesus. He has you safe and secure in this
life, as well as in the next.
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