Christ's Procession [Advent 1; St. Matthew 21:1-9]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Jesus speaks to us on this first Sunday of the Church Year, through His Gospel and says,

“And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting,

‘Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’”

If nothing else, I want you to understand that the Divine Service comes from the Bible, even if all you may see sometimes is an imitation of Jesus. For that is what this reading of the Triumphal Procession of Jesus is: a ceremonial procession.

Indeed, we see this procession of Jesus as Triumphant, but also His next procession more so: His procession from Pilate to His crucifixion. In the same way, there was a crowd that went before Him and followed Him. At first glance, Jesus processes and so His Church after Him does as well.

He is also simply copying what David and Solomon have done before Him. In 1 Kings 1, it is time to name the successor to King David’s throne. Is it going to be one of his wicked sons or is it going to be Solomon, as David swore? Apparently, one of David’s sons had already appointed himself king, without his father’s blessing. When David learned of this, he commanded Solomon be paraded about Israel on his very own mule (v.33).

Thus it is that the true son must be marked and proclaimed otherwise no one would know which is true and which is false. In the case of Solomon, David said, “Take with you the servants of your lord and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel. Then blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ You shall then come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, for he shall be king in my place. And I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.” (v.33-35)

It was a kingly procession meant to let the people know where the king was, what he was doing, and who he was. Attended by royal officials and Temple authorities, the king is singled out. But being singled out is not always a good thing.

Just before Solomon is anointed king in this way, David’s son Absalom, who was in open rebellion against his father, also rode on a mule one day. This mule did mark him as the king’s son, but to a darker end. Ridding it, Absalom’s head stuck fast in some low branches he was passing and the mule left him hanging there. David’s officers saw him and pierced him with three spears, in 2 Sam. 18.

“And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on.”

In Absalom’s case, the son of the king was marked for death. How unfortunate that he was not Solomon. But in both sons were the sins of the father. David’s sins did not go unnoticed by his progeny: Absalom’s wicked rebellion and Solomon’s apostasy are both lessons for us, pointing to today’s Gospel, that a Son will process.

The mule is also another sin here. Crossbreeding was prohibited in Israel as Lev 19:19 declares. So mules were a part of Israel’s black market, were very scarce, and thus symbolized wealth. God’s prohibition for kings to not multiply horses for themselves in Deut 17:16 made David careful in this. Solomon, to his own destruction, was not so careful (1Ki 10:26, 28).

So it is that God’s Son processes as well. Not on the king’s mule, but on a donkey, with those going before Him and after Him, just as Nathan and Zadok had done. It is an exact copy. A fulfillment of prophesy. An example for the Church.

Absalom, Solomon, Nathan, Zadok, and David all were mimicking, behind a thick veil of smoke, unable to see what their actions would show us, today, much less did they realize that God Himself would use them as examples in order to show us His plan of salvation.

And what is the key here? It is that God became man. How would we know the Son if He didn’t look like one of our sons? How can David raise a righteous branch and expect us to recognize Him if He weren’t of our race, as Jeremiah told us in our Old Testament reading today?

As the Lord lives, He comes also to lead us out of sin, death, and the power of the devil with two human hands. He comes to reign as king, not as a terrifying alien, or an immortal god, but as a man. The importance of Christmas begins to come into view, but sharply focuses when we have to do something about it.

When it comes to worship ceremony, we have the Word and that is enough, but not enough for faith. Meaning, faith won’t let us sit around all day and listen to readings. We need something to do and God gives us that in the Procession we have in the Divine Service. 

When we participate in the Divine Service and we process with cross and pastor and candle towards the beginning of this Service, we are not just playing games to show off. We are imitating Jesus. And not just plain imitation, but imitation to confess that we too believe that the God-man, Jesus Christ, comes to us today.

We strew our sins and death in front of Him, singing “Hosanna in the highest”. He deathlessly marches over them, declaring them forgiven and cast away. The Palm Sunday procession that is also heard today teaches us that the Church is eternal.

From David, to Solomon, to Jesus, to us. The Church’s ceremony and celebration all come from Scripture, all align with the Apostles’ doctrine, and all confess Christ in the flesh. Even though today we imitate, tomorrow when Jesus comes, we will commune fully with Him. For He has not just allowed us to mimic, but to show by our actions that we believe.

The Procession, then becomes another way that the Church tells the whole world that Jesus is the Christ and that He has been made man. We not only hear the story, but put words to action. The acts of the body are of infinite importance because our Lord has a body.

The Procession is not a magical formula, as in, if we do it just right, Jesus will come to Church. The Procession is a comfort for us, like everything else in Church. I tis something we do in order to see that we do believe; that we have heard the Word and that we want it done among us also.

Where Absalom processes to his death, we too march with the full weight of our sins towards a holy God. Where Solomon gains recognition, but lives a life turned from God, we too are marked in baptism, but continue in sin.

Where Jesus processes into death as the true Son, death shrinks back and is thrown to hell. Where Jesus processes towards recognition and glory, the cross is made to bear the full weight and wrath of God. Where Jesus processes in every Church that confesses His Advent and His Easter, life, light and eternal salvation are given to all.

When we see a Church procession then, we should be reminded of all this, every time, and confess with our own lips this part of the Bible, this part of Advent, the next part on Palm Sunday, this part of Easter, and then the part where our own sins are forgiven for free.

A Church procession, just like the Church bells, is there to mark the entrance of Jesus, God Almighty, into the Church. It is to mark out the true Son, the true Branch. It is to reveal that the time of our salvation is near and now, at the Word of Christ. It is to tell us that the night of the End of All Things is ending and that dawn is about to break.

The first rays of the Son being the Absolution, the remembrance of Baptism, and the true Body and true Blood of the Incarnate Word, given and shed for you.