Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 8:9-9:7; I Peter 4:1-19
This Week’s Readings: Jeremiah 23:5-8; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 21:1-9
“So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.” (Matthew 21:6)
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). So, let me ask, “Do you?” Don't look at yourself, look at Jesus! That's what faith does. For, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10).
In other words, what God commands of you in the Law, He gives to you in the Gospel. Learn well, then, this lesson: In God's sight it is faith – not you, your efforts and works, but faith – that keeps God's commands. For faith does not point to itself as the propitiation for sins — it points to Jesus. “Because Jesus kept all of God's commands, especially the one to go to the cross and lay down His life for me, God now loves me, calls me His own, even declares me righteous in His sight, now, a keeper of all He commands.” God can do this, for Jesus is no ordinary Man. Conceived of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is also true God. That means, God has purchased you with His own Blood (Acts 20:28). Purchased you from the law!
Thank God, for by our “doing” we never “keep” what He commands. It's always a struggle — as it was for the disciples the day Jesus commanded them to go and find a donkey for His triumphal entry. They knew what awaited them. For Jesus, it was to “suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” (Matthew 16:21). For them, it would be to share in His sufferings (Philippians1:29). To say the least, their hearts were not entirely in it. So it often is with our own hearts and works. They, too, are far from “those pure desires the spirit of the Law requires, and lost is our condition” (LSB #555 stanza 2).
No wonder His disciples today sing the “Hosanna” (“Lord, save us!”) on Sunday. Lost is our condition, until Jesus arrives for us lowly, on beasts of burden: bread and wine. These now carry and deliver to us our Savior and His forgiveness. And, dear friend, when what is not kept has all been forgiven by God, then — in God's sight — all has been kept. So, we pray:
“Stir up your power, O Lord, and come to rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins, and save us by Your promised deliverance; for You now live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” (Collect for First Sunday in Advent)