Jesu Juva

“Our Journey Home”

Text: Mark 11:1-10; Isaiah 64:1-9; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

ot too many years ago, if you were going on a trip, driving in your car, you needed something called a map. Some of you might remember what that is. It was a large piece of paper, all folded up, which, when you unfolded it, showed all the main roads in a state or region. It was hard to unfold while you were driving, even harder to fold back up, and if your passenger was holding it, it blocked your view out the window! It couldn’t get you exactly where you wanted to go, but it could get you close. If you wanted to know the smaller roads, you needed another map, closer up, of the county or something. Somehow, we managed to get where we needed to be. Sadly, our children won’t get to experience the joy of trying to fold one of those things back up properly!

Then came the internet and you could get directions online. No more pile of giant paper maps in the car, just type in the address of where you were going and out would come the step-by-step directions. That was awesome. Unless you forgot to print out the directions or needed to go to a different address - then back to the old paper maps!

But today we have GPS. You used to need a separate device for that, but now anyone with a smartphone can just type in an address and get directions anywhere, at anytime, to wherever you want to go.

Well, today we’re again starting on a journey. Through a new church year. And the Holy Gospel we always hear on this day tells us where we’re going. For if you’re going on a journey, you need to know where you’re going. So today is our map or GPS. And where we’re headed is Jerusalem and the cross of Jesus. That is our destination, for that was Jesus’ destination. And as disciples, or followers, of Jesus, we will follow Him there. So this season of Advent isn’t really getting ready for Christmas - that’s just our first stop along the way. The birth of Jesus on our way to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It will be a familiar journey. One some of you have taken a great many times. A well worn road for you. We’ll meet familiar people on the way - John the Baptist, Mary and Joseph, lepers, Pharisees, King Herod, Pontius Pilate, and more. We’ll go to familiar places - to Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galiliee, Capernaum, and more. And we’ll hear familiar stories - just like at a family gathering. But even though the journey is familiar, it is always different. Not because the route or the people or the places or the stories change, but because we do. We see things we never saw before. We hear things in a new way. We relate to these things differently when we’re 90 than when we are 9. So the journey isn’t boring, but ever new. And the joy at arriving at the destination no less.

So we set off again today, this first Sunday in a new church year, to follow our Lord to Jerusalem.

But just as important as knowing where we are going is knowing why we are going. That’s the mistake the people of Jesus’ day made. They got the where right, but they got the why wrong. When they hailed Jesus as their king, crying out Hosanna! and spreading their cloaks and palm branches on the road, it was to welcome - they thought - an earthly king, on an earthly throne, for an earthly kingdom. That’s why six days later looked like such a bitter defeat, with a bloody and battered Jesus dead on a cross. They didn’t realize that was Jesus’ destination. When those nails went through His hands and the cross was lifted up and put in its place, the GPS said: You have arrived at your destination. And Pontius Pilate was exactly right (though he didn’t know it!) when he put that sign above Jesus’ head - Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews - marking the cross as Jesus’ throne. But it was. That’s where He was going. And from there He would bestow upon His subjects the greatest of all gifts - the forgiveness of sins.

Sadly, some don’t think that much of a gift. Because they - sometimes, we - still get the why wrong, wanting Jesus still to be a king of this world, bestowing gifts that will make our life here better, happier, richer, or fuller. And if He doesn’t . . . well, He’s not much of a king . . . if we don’t get what we want, if our life isn’t going according to our plan, if we wind up bloody and battered as He was by the things and the people of this world and life.

But when we get to Jerusalem, we find out how great that gift is. For who the prophet Isaiah talked about today wasn’t just Old Testament Israel, but us, too. It is WE who have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds - the best we can do! - are like a polluted garment. It is WE who fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, - our guilt - like the wind, take us away. It is WE who sinned and with US the Lord is angry. WE are the clay ruined and misshapen by sin that deserves to be smashed down by the Potter, by our Creator. WE are the ones who should be on that cross pierced by the nails of divine justice.

But when we get to Jerusalem . . . we’re not. We’re not there. Jesus is. In our place. The clean one is unclean. The righteous one is unrighteous. The innocent one is declared guilty. He becomes what we are. All that is ours placed on Him there. And He is taken away in death. Our death. As the King who came not to be served, but to serve and give His life for the life of the world (Matthew 20:28). That’s the why. Not so you can be happy or rich or full or better off, but that you be hosanna-ed; saved.

Which means Jerusalem is our destination, but not our final destination. On the third day, when Jesus’ tomb was found empty, all the earthly GPSes went crazy! Recalculating! Recalculating! There was an unexpected turn. Unexpected for the women and the twelve and the guards and the Jewish leaders - but not for God. His GPS was working exactly right. It is ours that sin has broken. But for the Father, the death of His Son was never going to be the final destination. He died to defeat death. To rise from the dead, and start the second leg of our journey - to the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem where these is no death, only life. Because death is the wage of sin (Romans 6:23), and our sin has been atoned for by Jesus’ blood. So no more sin, no more death.

And so our journey through the church year and to Jerusalem brings us here every week - not just to hear again where we are going, and not just to have our GPS reset from a week of getting lost and making wrong turns and bad decisions - but to receive that atonement, to be washed in the blood of Jesus’ forgiveness, and to eat and drink that Body and Blood that hosanna-ed us. For this is what sustains us, as Paul told the Corinthians, sustaining us guiltless until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. The day of His return. For guiltless we are not. Only when our guilt is constantly taken away, forgiven, are we without guilt, sin, spot, blemish, blame, or anything that could separate us from Jesus. He came and united Himself to us, to unite us to Him. And so we also are united to each other; one fellowship in Him. Traveling companions. For while Jesus took this journey alone (John 13:33), we never do. Even in this time of Covid separation and isolation, we are united in our Saviour, in our Jesus, by His Spirit given to us.

And so we are enriched, as Paul told the Corinthians. With true riches. Not of this world, but eternal.

So what we sang in the Introit today really is true - not just historically, but even for us today. Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation. Yes, that is history. But it is also happening here and now, as our King is coming and forgiving us and feeding us and speaking to us. And it is true because our King is coming again in glory, when the gates of the New Jerusalem are finally opened to us, once and for all. When all of our GPSes can finally be turned off, because we’ll never need them again. We’ll be there. At our destination. Never to leave.

So we prayed in the Collect of the Day earlier: Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, - advent! - that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance. And come He did. Come He is. And come He will. Because only He can get us safely to our destination. There is no other way to the New Jerusalem than Him. His death and resurrection. His forgiveness. His life from the dead.

So as we begin the journey again today, this first Sunday of a new church year, the journey to Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem, we do so in repentance, for when we get the why wrong, when we sin and veer off the way. We do so in joy, hearing the word of forgiveness and life spoken to us here. And we do so in thanksgiving at the faithfulness of our God, who always keeps His Word.

So we’ll travel to Bethlehem and see the baby Jesus. We’ll continue to the Jordan and see Jesus baptized for us. We’ll follow Him through Galilee and hear His gracious and life-giving words. We’ll cry out our Hosannas! and see Him on the cross. We’ll sing our alleluias when He rises from the dead. Familiar places, familiar stories, familiar people - our brothers and sisters in Christ. How many have taken this journey before us? How many still to come? But for us all, one and the same destination: the throne of David not on earth, but in heaven. And the Son of David seated on that throne, who will say to you: Welcome home.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.