“THE MISSING PART”
Matthew 21:1-11

I once saw a church sign—the kind where the little catchy phrase changes from week to week—and on this particular occasion, it spelled out the letters CH, and then there was a couple of blank spaces, and it concluded with the letters CH. And beneath it posed the question, “Do you know what's missing?” And then it gave the answer, “ UR ”. Get it? UR missing from “church”? I guess it's one of those visual things that loses something in the telling of the story.

Well, today's Gospel reading takes a somewhat similar approach. What really draws your attention is the part that is missing. You see, St. Matthew, from whom this Gospel account comes, was writing to a specific audience. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Matthew wrote his Gospel primarily to the Jews. The Jews were God's chosen people. However, they had, by and large, rejected the message that Jesus was the Messiah- God's anointed one who would bring salvation to all people.

And so Matthew appeals to the Jews by way of the strongest evidence possible. He takes the Jews back to the Old Testament Scriptures which served as the basis for their beliefs. There are, in fact, more Old Testament references in St. Matthew's Gospel than in the other three Gospel accounts of Mark, Luke, & John. And today's text, is a prime example of that where Matthew, once again, cites an Old Testament Scripture passage to convince his Jewish readers of the truth.

But, it is what Matthew doesn't say which really makes the strongest impact. In telling the story of what happened on Palm Sunday, Matthew quotes from the Old Testament book of Zechariah who said: , "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

Now, the Jewish people may not have known who Jesus really was but they did know their Old Testament Scriptures. And one thing quickly became evident. Matthew had left something out. He failed to quote that entire verse from Zechariah. Here's what the verse really says, and see if you can identify the missing part . “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion ! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem ! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey,” (Zech. 9:9).

The part which Matthew omitted was the phrase, “ righteous and having salvation is he.” That's a significant statement, isn't it; the fact, that their King would be righteous and having salvation?

Well, Matthew knew just how significant that statement was too. And he knew that in leaving out that part of that Old Testament, he would get his readers to be thinking about the main thought, the critical part of the message; that, this King coming into Jerusalem is bringing salvation. The missing part proved to be the most important part.

Today marks the beginning of the Advent season. The word advent means, “coming.” We look forward to celebrating, in just four weeks, the Advent or the ‘coming' of our Lord Jesus Christ as He first came into this world in the manger in Bethlehem. In addition to that, this season also focuses our attention upon Christ's second coming. One day He will return to judge the living and the dead and to lead all believers into that Kingdom which shall have no end.

But there seems to be a missing part; something in-between the first coming and the second coming. And, most importantly to us, we are the ones who are caught in this in-between time. You see, sometimes it's as if everything that is important, as far as the words of the Scriptures are concerned, seems to be happening all around us—Christ' first coming and His final coming—before us and after us but not to us personally, right now. But, you'll be glad to know that, once again, it's that missing part, the silent part which draws our attention, which will also prove to be most important to us. For, in that Old Testament text from which Matthew was quoting, Zechariah says, “Your King is coming to you.” Not, your King will come to you. And not even, “your king has come to you,” in the past tense. But, rather, it is written in the present tense, “Your King is coming to you. ” It's happening now.

This is not a silent time for us. This is not an in-between time. Christ is coming to us right now and the place to look for Him is in His Word and in the Sacraments.

It's easy, sometimes, to think of ourselves as a people who have been short-changed. We read in the Bible about Jesus' life when He was here on earth and we imagine that those people who were with Him had it better than we do. After all, they had Him physically present with them. They had the miracles. They had the one-one-one teaching which came from His own lips.

We, on the other hand, think of ourselves as having to exist on mere memories. It's as if you had been unable to attend Thanksgiving dinner with the family this past week and, now, all that you had was the leftovers and stories about what a great time everyone else had. “Wish you could have been there.”

And it would be a cruel God, indeed, Who would give Himself in such a special way to one group of people in history and yet deny the same satisfaction to others in another place and time. But that is not the case. We do have the Lord's physical presence. And we do have the miracles. And we do have the one-on-one teaching from His Word.

You see, the Lord has promised to be with us, not just in an ethereal or sentimental way, but He is actually with us in a very concrete manner as He comes to us with His true body and blood in the sacrament of the Altar. Christ is actually present there, no less than He was in the manger in Bethlehem . The shepherds could point to the manger and say, “There is Christ!” just as we are able to point to the Sacrament of the Altar and say, “There is Christ!”

Think of the words of the Sanctus which we sing often together as we are about to celebrate the Lord's Supper: “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who come in the name of the Lord.” Those are the words of today's text. It was the cry of the people who welcomed Jesus into their presence… it is the same cry of jubilation which God's people raise today as we welcome Christ Who comes to us under the elements of bread and wine.

And the miracles! Not just in the Lord's Supper, but also in the wonderful sacrament wherein people are put to death and raised back to life again- the sacrament of Holy Baptism. It's the miracle of the resurrection every time the water is applied in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And we also have the Words of Jesus to teach us. But the tragedy is that we don't use them as we should. We could convince ourselves that, if by some magic, we could be transported back in time some 2000 years ago to Jerusalem , we would literally run to find Jesus so that we would be able to listen to His Words. And yet, today, we might not even walk across the room to pick up the Bible which contains all the Words that our Savior would have us know.

And we realize that that careless attitude is just symptomatic of the fact that we are still poor sinners who fall so terribly short of God's will for us. And we remember the words of today's text that this God of ours is a just God. That means that He has to exact punishment upon those who are guilty. He couldn't simply turn a blind eye to our transgressions and pretend that they weren't really there. He is just. He is righteous. Sin has to be punished.

And punished, it was, on the cross of Calvary because Christ also has salvation. And that's why He entered this world as a human being. That is why He entered Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday—in order that He could bear the punishment of a just God in our stead and, through the cross, bring to us salvation.

And knowing that we are sinners right now, in the presence of a just God- sinners who need salvation right now- we cry out, “Hosanna!'—that ancient word which means, “God, save now!” And thanks be to God, He does! For, the righteous King is present with us. Salvation unto us has come. Christ heard our fervent plea and He now brings that which is able to fill in the missing part. For, He Himself stands between sinners and the just God, bridging the gap, to reunite God and man; so that the peace which surpasses all understanding is able to keep our hearts and minds in Him, until His final Advent.

Jeremiah 23:5-8

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the L ord , when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The L ord is our righteousness.' "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the L ord , when they shall no longer say, 'As the L ord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but 'As the L ord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' Then they shall dwell in their own land."

Romans 13:8-14

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Matthew 21:1-9

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth-phage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and he will send them at once." This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Say to the daughter of Zion , 'Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.' " The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 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!"

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