[AI translation] It is with hope and desire that I would like to proclaim the Word among you now, so that this old Advent Gospel, almost 2500 years old, may be a message of joy for us too!I know that today the expectation of the world is not usually directed towards Jesus, the One spoken of in this Word. People living in the nuclear age are not waiting for Jesus, but for many other things: perhaps the calming of much unrest in the world at last, or an even higher standard of living, or perhaps a little quiet joy in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, or a little lottery win, or the fulfilment of a thousand wishes... But the news that Jesus is coming: a little disappointment, not a heartbeat, not the joy that the messenger shouts, "rejoice greatly!" We don't get the feeling of "Oh, how good, how wonderful! But God intended this message to be good news, then and now! - And if God intended it to be good news, then it is good news, very good news!Because look, however much the world has changed since this news was spread among the Jews in Babylonian captivity, the human heart itself has remained exactly the same! - What? - Peaceful, restless, selfish, sad, bitter, dissatisfied, always wanting more and better! It was like that in the past, and it is like that today. The heart of us all! I have now been to four different foreign countries and I have experienced once again that, however different we human beings may be from each other, however different we may be in terms of language, way of life, customs, historical situation, we are, deep down, in our hearts, exactly the same! And however far this whole world may be from God, the human heart needs God above all else!
All that insatiable longing there in the depths of our hearts for the better, for peace; all that mad pursuit - especially in the West - of money, is nothing but a great, painful cry of the heart, of the tortured heart, the heart that unconsciously longs for redemption, for God! For the lost God! For I have now experienced it very closely and have heard it personally from many people, that in spite of wealth, prosperity, advertising glitz, a new type of car every two years, in spite of having so much money that one has to give up almost nothing that one desires for oneself: one cannot buy peace of heart, contentment, true joy! Seeing more, I can now almost hear better the unconscious longing of the world for God!
And what do you think, if I and many other people hear it this way, how much more does God hear this longing groan of the world! The message says to Jesus, King! With the ever-growing republican form of government, the very word king seems a bit old-fashioned and outdated. But let us not understand this word as we might imagine it from reading a history book or a newspaper article - it is a symbolic word, a symbol of the supreme authority, of the Lord above all. Just as there is no greater lord in a country than a mighty and powerful king, so this word represents the King, the Lord of the universe, the supreme power. God! We have no words to designate or name the Almighty God, we cannot describe or define His very different being. This word, King, is not a designation of God's majesty, of God's power, but only a pointing out, only a reference to the inexpressible, the intangible! And in the Advent King, in Jesus, this God comes to us, to human beings!
Because look, if I were to say that God is coming, it would remain an unimaginable, elusive, improbable concept for us alone! Who could realize in themselves that God - whom we cannot even name, so different from us - that God would knock on a door, that God would sit down at our dining table and eat with us knife and fork like a kind guest, that God would stroke our troubled cheeks in the evening when we are in bed and say: Now I wish you good night, sleep well, I'll be watching over you. Who can realize that God - whom no one has ever seen, and whom one cannot even imagine, because if one imagines what He is like, one has already created a false image of Him - that this God, this supreme Power, sits down on the edge of a sickbed like a good friend and says: "Fear not, I am with thee! But you can imagine it, can't you, if a man does all this, a real man, a man whose name is Jesus, you can imagine it even if you can't see him, even if he is invisible, because he really did it, knocking on doors, sitting down at tables, eating with knives and forks, talking to people... And he did all this so that you could realize, so that it wouldn't remain just a theoretical concept hanging in the air, a beautiful idea, that God is coming, that God is so really here among us! You can open the door to him, you can call him by his name, you can put him down like a good friend, like this: Jesus! You! In this Jesus comes to us God, the King! Behold, your King is coming to you! So such a King announces his coming, his arrival!
I mentioned that this word King is only a symbol. It means that the one who is coming to you and to me, a rich Someone, has everything that you and I do not have! But what we all need so very much! Of course, this light and richness is not visible on the outside. He was mocked then, and many people today do not believe that he is the Lord of all! By worldly standards, He is indeed very poor in appearance. The message also notes that he is poor - i.e. outwardly - sitting on a donkey's back! And even now He comes in such a poor, unadorned appearance, as a piece of bread and a sip of wine at the Lord's table, or as through a sentence of a book much mocked by science, the Bible, or as sitting on a donkey to the simple human words of a preacher, but in this poor appearance He comes, the King! The God! Jesus! That supreme Lord, To whom be all power in heaven and earth! Such power, that at His one word a whirlwind can calm the sea and the human heart, at His one wave of His hand a dying sick man can be healed, if He will, in His presence tears dry up on the face of the mourner, shackles of sin fall off, and a defiled soul be whitened again! In whose presence even material poverty becomes so abundant that others have plenty of it!
This King announces his visit to you today! Behold, your King is coming! Once a famous foreign conductor gave a concert in Budapest. Everybody was excitedly waiting for him. My little daughter, then a child of 10-12, wrote him a letter without our knowledge, inviting the great artist, a complete stranger to us, to our house for lunch. Suddenly, we received a message saying that the great artist thanked us for the invitation and would be there the next afternoon! He promised to come! There was great excitement! We didn't really believe that he was coming. At the invitation of a child! And the next day, a big black state car pulled up in front of the house and the great conductor got out. He came! Well, now someone bigger and more famous than any great person is telling us, promising to come! He is coming to you, to us! Behold, your King is coming!
Or did you not call him? And perhaps we don't really want this Advent King to come to us! "Stay, Lord, I love to see and hear of you only from afar! So that You are somewhere in heaven, in the distant uncertainty, and I am here in my own domain! Don't come, just send me a parcel, or just a nice Christmas tree with a television underneath, we've been wanting one for so long, or a nice cosy Christmas Eve..." Isn't that what we think, if not say?! Because we know very well that if He would really come and sit down at our table, we would have to do many things differently. Yet in the presence of a King, we would not be able to behave, to speak with such passion, to treat people as we are used to... It would be intimidating!!! Perhaps we should rearrange our whole life, we should do a great spiritual clean-up, which we have already done... Maybe we should give someone back a book, money that was long overdue... Maybe we should forgive somebody, reconcile with somebody, because it's not possible to receive such a Someone, a King in the house... - "Don't come, Lord!" But He is coming! Not because you called Him - He wants to come! Behold, He sings, "Rejoice, O daughter of Zion, rejoice, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming!" Since He made that great bloody sacrifice for us there on Calvary, He has a right to all men, to you and to me! He comes with good news, that you are redeemed! God loves you! He says to you personally: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine' - He says, not I! I'm just interpreting! Whoever you are, no one is excluded from the redeeming love of God, no one, unless one excludes himself! It is not sin, however great it may be, that excludes someone from God's grace, but the fact that someone does not need that grace! If one does not accept what he brings! What he comes for!
Imhol comes your King! He could wait for you to come to him, but he won't! He comes to you! He comes uninvited! He will simply announce, as to Zacchaeus, "I want to dine with you tonight!"- He is coming to you, yes to you, sitting here now, hearing the message. Take it very personally! Believe me, you need Jesus, just as much as I need Jesus and all people need Jesus! If not, Jesus would not come. Do you think it was just a beautiful gesture from God, the manger at Bethlehem, the cross at Calvary, if it wasn't for you, if it wasn't for all of us! As the eyes need light, as the lungs need air, so the heart needs Jesus! Here on earth, at least! Surely there are planets in other solar systems, surely there is some kind of self-conscious, human-like existence on them, - how it is there, only God really knows. But that only through Jesus can one truly live here, so that one does not only exist, but lives, I have now experienced it again! It is in communion with Jesus that one's life is fulfilled, it is in Jesus that one finds one's true self. I have heard from everyone who has taken Jesus seriously that he has found his true self in Him, that he has found his true place in the world, that he has been happy - that he has been alive! Well, that's why this message is such good news: "Behold, your King is coming!"
He is coming to you, who are perhaps very alone, perhaps not because all those you have loved have gone ahead and left you alone, but perhaps even more spiritually alone, lonely. Or maybe you are really so alone that the radio is the only thing that says good night to you and that's why you listen to it until midnight. Behold, you no longer have to be so alone in the world. "Behold, your King is coming!" You can live with a King! From Him you will hear Him say to you in the evening: good night, sleep in peace, I will watch over you! A King can be your friend, for you, who may be shunned, not understood, not loved - The Advent King himself wipes your tears, who weeps! He comforts you personally! He understands you and wants to stay by your side from now on! Perhaps you are tired of all the work, the chase, the struggle, your worries are giving you sleepless nights - perhaps the memory of some sin is pressing on your conscience - well hear, he says to you, "Behold, your King is coming!" Whoever you are - better off or poorer, young or old, happy or miserable - today the Advent message is for you: "Behold, your King is coming!" It is for you personally. This little word: Behold, in the original text, is actually a great exhortation, as if someone were saying: Look! So he is encouraging you to look not at all the troubles, sorrows, miseries, problems that are around you! Direct your eyes to the coming King, Who will bring light into the darkness! Take your eyes off all the troubles that beset you, and see: your King is coming! Your helper, your Savior! Jesus!!!
But! The King is He who is coming! And before this King we must surrender, we must bow down, we must kneel, it is on our knees that we can truly receive Him! More than a King, but I can't say more than that, that's why I say KING! Try to wait once really like that: on your knees - he will come for sure. God will come to you! Yes, on your knees, as one who knows you are unworthy of him, as one who knows you have nothing to give him but YOURSELF! God comes to you and embraces you!
And then there in His arms you will find everything you have longed for - your life will be happy and blessed!
Amen.
Renewed in spiritual joy
We adore your holy Majesty,
That turning to us again
To contemplate thy old love.
We open our hearts,
Open our bosoms,
To our Jesus
In this way we receive,
By faith we give
ourselves to Him.
(Song 308, verse 4)
Date: 5 December 1965.
Lesson
Zsid 1,1-8