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You don't have the kind of god that your sinful natures would have. The genuine maker of heaven and earth is not a manageable, circumscribed, localized, enabler. The Lord is Lord not an HMO provider that you go to only when you feel like it. "Behold, your King is coming to you..." "Behold," not just yawn and make a mental note; "Behold," not just have general mental assent, for "even the demons believe" [Ja. 2.19b]

The Holy Spirit causes you to behold, to believe, through the Word of God. You are born sinful and unclean; you enter this ghetto of decay and death, pre-dead. But the Spirit inflates your lungs with the living Word which is Christ; He opens your eyes to the vision of Peace which is Christ. You behold!

You behold your "King." Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Jesus is God in the flesh. All that can be said, and must be said, of God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth, is said, and must be said, of Jesus the God/Man. Many say, or feel, that they "love" Jesus. Their sinful selves rather love a compact, pocket-sized "Jesus-trinket" which always affirms, never criticizes; which always brings comfort, never brings chastisement or discipline over sin. Jesus is not your friend with whom you "relate." Jesus is Lord God Almighty to whom your sins are confessed, to Whom you prostrate yourselves on the ground in front of, (with Moses, Joshua, Ezekiel, Daniel and Peter) confessing your sins and sinful self. Christ the "King" is to be properly feared through, and because of, His Law so that He will be grasped and held and loved tightly through His forgiveness and sweet Gospel of Peace. You don't have to travel down the long, stark, awesome corridor to some forbidding throne room (like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz), because your "King" is a different kind of king. Your "King is coming to you..."

This reality of His "coming to you" is the point of the Holy Season of Advent, is it not? It's what the word Advent means. It's why the season ties together perfectly the last three Sundays in the Church year, with their emphasis on the Final Coming of Christ, with the Celebration of His Bethlehem Nativity, His first physical and visible coming in flesh and blood. The Gospel brothers and sisters is that the Physician, Liberator, Savior, "King" come to you and for you.

The King is totally different from any other king, from any other authority figure that you have any familiarity with. He does not come with fanfare and hype. He makes no grand entrance to drum-roll and horn blast. He is ushered in, not in a Babylonian war chariot, an English equestrian white charger, a "pope-mobile" or a Lexus, but on the back of an ass.

Jesus rides a donkey because He came to be your donkey. Donkeys, from the days of Aesop's Fables to this very day, are ridiculed and lampooned as stupid, foolish and cartoonish. Thus it will ever be with Christ as well. The Apostle tells all: "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty." [1 Cor. 1.27] Jesus, His person and work are still attacked, misrepresented, and made fun of. This is the way of Satan and sinful self as well. But not so with the Redeemed Saints that He has "come to." He has come to you lowly, for the purpose of Hosanna. Hosanna means "save now." He has come on a donkey's foal to "save now," by being the ultimate beast of burden, the final loyal and always trusting servant. As the ass carried the heavy burdens too onerous for the owner, so too Jesus carries your baggage, your unmentionables, your dirty laundry list of sins and failings, on His meek and un-impressive back. As donkeys are whipped and mis-treated because they're "only" donkeys, your "Donkey King" was whipped and mistreated, not just by Jews and Soldiers, but by your every day's sins and trespasses.

But donkeys are peaceful, gentle, and yes, lovable. Your Savior Jesus comes not to terrorize (to be sure, He comes to kill your old-Adam, to put to death your sins), but to have you draw near to Him, to lean on Him, to be on Him, letting Him carry you...not like a roller-coaster or a jet-ski, but safe and sound, like on the back of a donkey. You've had your filthy garments laid on this "donkey's" back so that the King might lay on your backs the Robes of the Righteous One.

To save you, to Hosanna you, so that you might ever more sing Hosannas to Him in the Mass, before the Supper, He came in flesh and blood. First He came to Bethlehem, laid in the manger of a donkey, but then also He came to Jerusalem, to Calvary, to carry your sins to the Cross. There the donkey who was bound for you, was forever "loosed" by finishing His work for you, by nailing your load to the tree in His Body and Blood; there you and all other believers were "loosed" from bondage to demons and death.

Thus this morning you will again sing with faith and joy: "Blessed is He, blessed is He, Blessed is + He that cometh in the Name of the Lord!" Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest."

Amen.

In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost