The First Sunday in Advent
He Went On Ahead Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. In today’s Gospel, “*Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem*.” Perhaps you already know what awaited Him there. Dear Christian friends: Old Testament King Saul had a son named Jonathan. Like many people in the Old Testament, Jonathan offers us an ancient picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Promised Messiah of old, whose coming we celebrate in Advent. There was one time in particular when Jonathan gave us an especially good portrait of our Lord and Christ (1 Samuel 14). Jonathan and his armor-bearer had left the main camp of Israel’s army and went off by themselves. It was during one of the many wars that Israel fought against the Philistines. While separated from their fellow soldiers, Jonathan and the armor-bearer spotted a Philistine garrison encamped on top of a high hill. Jonathan said to the armor-bearer, “God can easily save a lot of people with just a few men. Get behind me. We’re going up there to do some damage.” · That is the first way Jonathan shows us a picture of Christ Jesus. Jonathan’s armor-bearer should have been out in front of Jonathan, protecting the king’s son. With Christ-like love, Jonathan told his armor-bearer to get behind, so that Jonathan’s own kingly life would stand between that man and his mortal enemy. Has not Christ Jesus our Lord done the very same for us, placing His body and life in front of ours, so that He may offer continual protection to us? When Jonathan and the armor-bearer made it to the top of the hill, they worked their way through the entire enemy crowd. In each case, Jonathan made the first strike, singlehandedly dropping every man that came out to face him. The armor-bearer had the easy work of coming along behind, finishing off the minor details. · Here again we see a beautiful portrait of our crucified and resurrected Lord. At the cross, Jesus our Champion moved into battle ahead of us, facing an entire host of the enemy. There He methodically destroyed with His own suffering and death all that would mean to do us harm. One man dropped every enemy. One man shouldered the load that should have borne by everyone who follows along behind Him. “*Jesus* *went on ahead,*” as you heard in today’s Gospel, “*going up to Jerusalem*.” This is our Jonathan moving forward into battle, climbing up the deadly hill toward the enemy garrison while we travel safely behind. During those Old Testament days of the Philistine wars, how did the Lord our God respond to Jonathan’s courageous warfare? Amazingly, when Jonathan toppled the enemy, an earthquake took place. Everyone remaining in the garrison felt the shake, and it cause “*a very great panic*” (1 Samuel 14:15). It might seem strange that the earth would shake in response to such a seemingly small event as one man defeating his enemy. But maybe the strangeness is not so strange when we bear in mind what has been written concerning the moment of our Lord’s death on the cross: “*Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit… and the earth shook*” (Matthew 27:51). The word Advent means “coming” and today is the First Sunday of Advent. Today’s Gospel is a good Gospel for this day, and not merely because it speaks about our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, which is the traditional theme for this first day of the Church Year. The goodness of today’s Gospel is also found in the fact that Advent means “coming”–and because St. Luke the Gospel writer took pains to write that “*Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem*.” Here comes our Jonathan! It remains for us to follow, as closely behind as we are able. Safely behind our Lord’s back, we will find here the benefits of His bloodied sword, which means forgiveness of our sins. Huddled closely behind Him we will find relief as our Champion undertakes for us the danger and peril that should have been ours to bear. Here, too, we may step confidently over our incapacitated and fallen enemies—sin, death, and the devil—no longer hampered or intimidated by their power. The Lord bless your Advent season.
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