Advent King

Psalm 24 - Advent 1 Midweek - November 30, 2011

  Christ Comes as our King

For our midweek Advent services this year, we’ll consider a three-part theme by taking a look at what is often called the three-fold office of Christ, known as Prophet, Priest, and King.  The Old Testament is filled with prophets, and priests, and kings.  Sometimes these offices would even overlap.  Moses, for instance was a prophet and a priest.  David was a king and a prophet.  God appointed various men to these positions throughout Israel’s history, and He did so always for a specific purpose: to point them to Christ who was to come as their Redeemer.  When we talk about how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament, we usually think about all the explicit promises that were made about Him.  But Jesus also fulfilled the very offices that God instituted and filled for the life of His Old Testament Church.  The offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, were once so necessary for the existence of God’s chosen people in the Old Testament.  Well, they still are for us in the New Testament. But today we find them all revealed in Christ alone. 

In the next couple weeks we will consider how Christ comes to us as our Priest and as our Prophet.  But today we consider what Psalm 24 teaches us about how Christ comes as our King. 

Israel wanted a king.  They wanted to be like other nations; they all had kings.  But God didn’t want to give them one.  He ruled them.  He was their King.  But they wanted to be able to see the glory of an earthly kingdom.  But that’s not what they needed.  They needed God.  But they kept demanding a king, and so God eventually relented and gave them one.  The children of Israel found out the hard way what it meant to have an earthly king.  Just as God had warned them, their kings taxed them, they took their sons and their daughters to serve in their armies and work in their palaces; they took the best of their land and animals and used them for their own benefit.  That’s what a king does.  He exerts his power in order to retain his power.  He requires the wealth of others in order to make himself wealthy.   All this in exchange for a having a king.  But by relenting and giving them kings, God had something much greater in mind.  He taught them their need for their true King who would gather all nations to Himself. 

The Israelites had a rough history.  Because of their sin, God eventually took their kings away.  But He Himself never left them.  In due time, God sent His Son, their true King, to take on human flesh and blood, to be born in the city of His earthly father David, to triumphantly ride into the holy city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to be crowned with thorns as King of the Jews, and to die on the cross for the sins of all men.  But this same King rose from the dead on the third day.  And before He ascended into heaven He instituted the Office of the Ministry, so that through Word and Sacrament today He continues to come to us as our King and rule us by the Gospel. 

During Advent, we consider what it means to welcome Christ our King who comes to us as our Savior.  “Lift up your heads, O you gates,” we sing, “and be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.”  “Who is this King of glory?”  “The Lord strong and mighty…” It is none other than He who won the victory over sin death, and the devil.  But how do we prepare a place in our hearts fit for such a glorious King?  What do we give someone, after all, who has everything?  As the Psalm also says, “The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.”  So what do we give Him to prepare for His coming to us when there is nothing He needs?  How do we lift the gates of our hearts to welcome Him in? 

This question has been asked many times.  And all sorts of answers have been given.  Many people teach that we prepare for Jesus’ coming to us by cleaning up our lives and making our hearts pure.  Some teach that we need to fully submit ourselves to His guidance and yield our hearts to His control.  Perhaps there is some ritual that we can accomplish that will prepare our hearts for Jesus to come and rule our lives.  Surely there is something that we can do to welcome the King of Glory and be saved. 

But of course there is not.  We are sinners.  This doesn’t just mean that we mess up sometimes.  It means that we are incapable of pleasing God or even welcoming God.  We were born in sinful corruption and all our efforts, no matter how determined and devoted to the task, will most certainly fall short, and amount to nothing but sin in God’s sight.  In order for our hearts to welcome the King of glory, we must first be visited by the King of mercy. 

And what can we do to draw Him to us?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing, and this is such good news because He comes out of His own love alone, as the hymn puts it so well,

Ye need not toil nor languish
Nor ponder day and night
How in the midst of anguish
Ye draw Him by your might.
He comes, He comes all willing,
Moved by His love alone,
Your woes and troubles stilling;
For all to Him are known.

Christ comes to us.  Just as all our efforts could not compel the Son of God to be born of the Virgin Mary, so also all our efforts can do nothing to compel Him to dwell in our hearts.  And so we listen to the Gospel that we hear where all the effort is made by God.  It is here where Jesus comes to us and tenderly invites Himself into our hearts by forgiving us our sins and demanding nothing from us. 

In order to prepare for Jesus where He promises to come, we need to know where He has been.  And that is why we consider Psalm 24 on this Advent evening.  It is an interesting Psalm.  It has been used during the Advent season for hundreds of years and more as a Psalm to prepare for Jesus to come and be our Savior.  But interestingly enough, this Psalm is not about how the glorious King of Israel would come to earth and take on human flesh and blood.  And it’s actually not about opening the doors of our hearts so that Jesus can enter in as our King – although poetic license in our hymns presents it this way.  But in its actual context, this Psalm is actually talking about Christ’s ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.  Now, this seems like a strange Psalm to focus on during Advent then. Isn’t Jesus’ incarnation –— and ascension about as opposite as can be?  Well, no. 

Consider this.  The Son of God came down/descended from heaven, not in Glory, but in deep humility in order to live a perfect and righteous life in our place.  He offered to His Father what we could not and His Father was pleased.  And then He offered to His Father what He came to earth to spare us from: His body to be scourged and crucified and His very soul to suffer the condemnation of His own holy law against all sin that he did not commit.  He came to win salvation for all mankind.  And that is what He did.  On the cross 2000 years ago, Jesus won salvation.  But that is not where He gives it to us. 

And that is why Jesus ascended into heaven as the King of Glory.  “Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you doors! And the King of glory shall come in.”  This was for our benefit.  As St. Paul recites, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” That is, He conquered sin and death and gave to His Church the Gospel and sacraments that deliver to us today the salvation He won for us.   Jesus ascended into heaven in Glory so that He might take His throne of Power and continue to serve us today in mercy. 

Israel demanded a king.  They wanted to be like other nations.  They wanted glory.  But their glory failed them time and again, and is now no more.   Sometimes we want a king.  A glorious one that can lead us into our own glorious victory over sin.  That’s what earthly kings do.  And that’s why so many people fashion Jesus into a different kind of king today.  But a king who does not lead us by the Gospel that we have learned can only lead us by the law.  This imitation King might promise more glorious works and a more successful life, but just as God warned the children of Israel, such a king will oppress us.  He will demand more and more until there is nothing more to give.  And even the glory of our works will fade. 

That is why we do not trust in our own works and preparations to find the glory that God promises to His people.  Instead we wait on Christ who comes to us through the lowly means of grace that appear to have no glory at all.  But Jesus does not rule us like earthly kings.  Instead, He who emptied Himself of His own wealth and glory now showers us with all the treasures of heaven.  He rules us not by taking what is most precious away from us, as earthly kings do, but by taking our worst upon Himself and forgiving our sin forever.  When Jesus comes as our King of Grace, only then does He prepare our hearts to receive and know Him as our King of Glory who fully accomplished what He became Man to do. 

That is why we welcome our King of kings with such great joy.  And so in true repentance and faith, we sing to our own hearts as God Himself has prepared us to do: “Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you doors! And the King of glory shall come in.”   And He comes.  He keeps coming to give us foretaste of our heavenly joys by forgiving us our sins so that by preparing our hearts today for His mercy, He might also prepares us for eternity’s glory. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.