“JESUS IS IN YOUR MIDST”
Saint Matthew 21: 1-9
First Sunday of Advent: 29 November Anno Domini 2015
Father Jay Watson SSP
The days have come upon you. This is THE DAY OF THE LORD! The Word of The Lord is in your midst. His promises to you are this morning fulfilled! You were feral mongrels of your father Beelzebub but you have been rescued in the Blood of the Lion of Judah Who is also the Lamb of God. Brought back to the fold in the wounds of the true Judah—descended from Judah and Isaac and Abraham and Seth and Adam—Jesus The Israel, Son of God, makes you all royalty; not wearing royal blue or even violet but shining bright White of White all bleached cleaner than any fullers soap by His own vein’s flowing Blood.
The Word of The Lord is in your midst.
You were weeds choking out your neighbor’s life by hate and malice, and, curving in on yourselves. You were noxious and unprofitable parasites: brown, black and dark in the filth of your daily rebellions. You were not just a neurotic and obsessive “cutter” carving hurtful lines on your arms and legs but you were a dead psychotic zombie shredder that literally cut yourself out of your Father’s family and line and jumped into the dust and thorns of separation, death, and hades. The wages of sin is death.
This seeming repetition of Scripture stories and the appearance of cyclical “church years” ad-infinitum is only because you continue to trespass. Adam before falling was never hungry with a need but rather with a joy. But after the fall hunger must be satisfied or one dies of starvation. After the fall your daily crimes of thought, action, and utterance must be satisfied by The Law of The Word and it’s thick, warm, salty, Blood of Sacrifice—Jesus’ Sacrifice. Jesus daily comes to your own self-made village of Jericho not to taunt and mock you and make you feel scared with hurt feelings. Jesus rides right through your gates and walls of pride and greed and smashes you dead. The same way the smallest grass can grow up through a crack in concrete and even displace pieces of cement to reach the sun, so too this smallest of trees and plants, this mustard seed which is in reality the great cedar of God, the Palm of the Paraclete, The Vine of Eternity is Jesus Himself—The “Branch of Righteousness… grow[ing] up unto David…execut[ing] judgment and righteousness in the land.” [Jer. 33. 15] He has grafted you into His vine—His Body, His heart, by the surgery of Salvation, with the sutures of His Blood—an adhesive that doesn’t just bind and stick “on,” but places you IN Him and He IN you. You are Bride He is Groom you are one flesh.
Soon, maybe today or even in minutes, He will be here visibly; first in the skies than upon His Throne of Glory—so magnificent and perfect as to make the Great King Solomon’s throne look like a rotted milking stool. But for now He is here on His donkey throne of humility and service. See how much The Christ loves you that he didn’t ride the ass and colt only once into Jerusalem but He rides continually to you, “for you,” on paper and words from His servants and on water, bread, and wine.
Daughter, He comes to you meekly that you will see not power but forgiveness; not thunder but embrace; and not far-flung conquest but peaceful restoration.
David and his purely human descendents shall never want for a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. The Triune One has deigned to sit the God/Man Christ on the Throne of The Word made flesh. The Word of The Lord is in your midst.
There is no need for a priest after Aaron to offer up burnt offerings and meat offerings for The Great High Priest of your Atonement is here right now offering up His Sacrificial Offerings of obedience and fulfillment on the New Testament altar of His Catholic Church.
Wet, moist, fresh, clean, and invigorated with His olive-oil of immortality—Water and Blood from His side, you dwell safely in His Name.
The Word of The Lord is in your midst. Hosanna to The son of David; blessed is He that cometh in the Name of The Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost