“Often Waiting is the Hardest Part” Mount Olive Lutheran Church Season of Advent Sermon December 1, 2024 – Luke 19:28–40

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday December 1st 2024: Season of Advent / Luke 19:28–40 “Often Waiting is the Hardest Part”

And when [Jesus] had said these things, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as He rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As He was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends: Often waiting is the hardest part, but what do you do while you wait?

There was a man who, along with everyone else, was waiting. As he waited he did many things, he found a wife, he made a home for her, they raised children together, he provided for her needs, he loved her and the kids, looked after his extended family, made repairs on the house, woke up every morning and worked, went to bed tired from his work six days of the week, rested on the Sabbath, loved God; and while he did all this he waited along with everyone else, and while he waited he cared for some donkeys.

Each donkey required care—he would always need to provide food for the donkey—however sometimes he would need to tied it up, and sometimes he would need to untied it and put it in the small pasture. He certainly needed to provide regular physical care for the donkey like brushing their coat and checking their teeth. And because donkeys are “not just horses with long ears” you have to be aware of how to care for their hooves. Their hooves grow slower than a horse’s hooves and are not the same as a horse, if you trim them like a horse the donkey will end up lame and then no one will be able to ride it. So this man needed to know about donkeys and he had to faithful care for his donkey. He had to know that a donkey’s coat absorb the rain so they need a shelter, and a donkey will eat anything (in that way they are like a goat) so you need to be careful what you leave laying around. And like a goat they can be a bit ornery at times, sometimes they will stomp a dog until it’s dead and their kick is harder than a horse 3 times their size. And when a female donkey, a jenny, is pregnant you don’t just wait 9 months, it can take anywhere between 11 and 14 months for the donkey to bring her foal to term. If 9 months seems long waiting for 14 must feel like forever. So each day he would feed the donkeys, and clean out their shelter.  

This man with his donkeys would have known the promises of God, he would have know what the prophet Jeremiah in the Bible had said about the coming Saviour, the Messiah, the heir of the throne of David, when about 580 years earlier Jeremiah inspired by the Holy Spirit said to the people, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”[1]

“The days are coming,” ... but when?

‘Waiting is the hardest part!

Dear Lord it’s been 580 years, How much longer are we to wait?’  

And so the question comes again: what do you do while you wait? You take care of the life God has given you, you do as Moses says in the Book of Deuteronomy at the beginning of the Ten Commandments, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”[2] And you do what Moses says in the Book of Leviticus, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[3] You do these things and you take care of your wife, your family, your house, your donkeys.

And then one day two men come up and untie one of your donkeys[4] and as they untying the young colt, you say to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they say to you, “The Lord has need of it.” And with those words the waiting is over. The long expected Saviour, the Messiah is about to be fully and publicly revealed, He is about to sit down on that donkey and ride into Jerusalem no longer a miracle worker, preacher and teacher from out in the country rather now this Jesus is Lord of lords, He is King of kings and He is about to ride into Jerusalem on the donkey you feed and cared for faithfully not knowing how it would be used to the Glory of God the Father, to Glory of God the Son and in fulfilment to prophecy to the Glory of God the Holy Spirit, “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”[5] on a donkey fit for a king, and not just any king, The King of kings; on a donkey made ready for God.

We don’t know in what ways God uses our daily labour, some have an idea, but not all of us know exactly how God used the work He gives us to do with our hands. We are not fully aware, and it’s not so obvious, rarely is it revealed to us in the moment that we are doing it. Yet we are to be faithful in our work, faithful as we care for our family, faithful as we care for our neighbour, faithful as we love God with our service in the community and in the church. Had this man not faithfully cared for his donkeys as he waited his donkeys would have been lame and unable to carry Jesus into Jerusalem.

As we now wait for the celebration of Jesus’ first coming this Christmas, as we wait for The Day of Jesus’ second coming on The Last Day, as we contemplate Jesus’ these arrivals of God in our midst through the season of Advent, and as we likewise wait for the happy reunion in Christ Jesus with all those who have gone on ahead of us in the faith, consider the call to faithfulness that you receive from Him: that as you wait you are called to faithful work and pray and love and care and labour all the while knowing that God has use of these endeavours and there is nothing so small and seemingly insignificant that it isn’t of interest and use to God. From trimming a donkey’s hooves to shoveling his manure out of the stall right up to running a company and caring for the needs of hundreds of employees God takes the work you do and makes it a benefit to others, therefore dear Christian in whatever you have been given to do be diligent and avoid laziness. As Jesus says, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”[6] Likewise avoid the temptation to bitterness and frustration as the wait grows long, The LORD operates on His own timetable. A pregnancy, with a natural birth, roughly take nine months but some children come more quickly and some take more time to arrive, and who can calculate down the minuet when the baby will finally be born: God knows that intended moment right down to the microsecond, we do not, for this reason we are called to be faithful in our waiting. Remember what Jesus says about The End, “concerning That Day and Hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”[7] And so we are called to remain steadfast and faithful as we wait going about our work diligently to the glory of God and the good of our neighbours.

Scripture doesn’t tell us if the man with his donkeys followed after the disciples, or if he and his family ended up in the crowd that greeted Jesus as Jesus road into Jerusalem. Scripture doesn’t tell us whether they cast down their cloaks on the road or waved palm branches and called out, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”[8] “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” along with the whole multitude of Jesus’ disciples. Either way his faithful work is to be highly praised and is remembered for all time. It did not earn this man a seat in heaven, no it was the one who sat on the man’s donkey, Jesus, who earned the man his seat in heaven; and if that man was to become a man of faith and part of the Christian church, it would be by the working of the Holy Spirit the one who gives both the gift of faith and the ability to hold fast to that faith. It would only be by the workings of the Holy Spirit who by the Gospel of Christ Jesus would have called and enlightened this man with His gifts; yes it would only be by the workings of the Holy Spirit that this man would be sanctified and kept in the true faith, Faith in Jesus, just as it was for you and me. Remember, dear ones, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”[9]

This man’s forgiveness likewise would come from Jesus, for every time he failed to feed his donkeys on time, for every time he didn’t go out into the rain and untie them so they could get into the shelter, for every time he let the hooves go too long without their trimming, for all the times he was harsh with his wife, for all the times he didn’t do the repair on the house when it first needed being done, for all the times he was short with his children or with his neighbours, for all the times he failed to love his neighbour as himself, for all those sins and more his forgiveness was not in his own work or in his own faithfulness it was in the Work of Jesus, in the faithfulness of Jesus. Which in obedience lead Jesus to the cross and in faithfulness brought Jesus to His cross and passion, the shedding of His Holy and innocent blood for all people,[10] for me for you, for His disciples, for this man with his donkeys and his family: the man who waited along with everyone else, who went about the work he was given to do, not knowing when the time would come, when the day would come, when the hour would come.

Waiting is the hardest part. What do you do while you wait? As you wait for Jesus’ appearing? As you wait for the celebration of Christmas and His birth that first Christmas: As you prepare, as you do your work, resist temptations towards selfish living when it comes to your time, talents and charity; likewise pray and keep your eye on Jesus and contemplate how He may have use of your work in the lives of others to the Glory of God. Amen.    

Let us pray: Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Jeremiah 33:14, and from Jeremiah 33:15-16, “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’”
[2] Deuteronomy 6:5
[3] Leviticus 19:18
[4] Mark 11:1
[5] Zechariah 9:9
[6] John 9:4
[7] Matthew 24:36
[8] Mark 11:9
[9] 1 Corinthians 1:27–29
[10] Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 2:7-8