Advent Two

Who is this?

This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth.

Today's reading from the gospels is the story of Palm Sunday. Usually we're reading it a week before Easter, in anticipation of Life Winning. We read it knowing that the days ahead bring the last supper and Judas selling out and the rigged trial and the desperate bleak gloom of Friday and the long wait through Saturday and the unfathomable mystery of the resurrection on Sunday.

But today we read it just a few weeks before Christmas, in anticipation of Life Showing Up. We read it knowing not only what comes in the last week of this life, but also through the years before then. The small babe we wait for tonight will be a grown man who sends out his friends to steal a donkey and a colt for him, and who enters Jerusalem unarmed and a grave disappointment to many, but somehow still, our Only Hope.

It's an odd juxtaposition, this man who is, and the babe who wasn't quite yet.

Matthew 21:1-11

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

21 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”^[a]

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna^[b] to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”^[c]

“Hosanna^[d] in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”