Although the Season of Advent is strongly associated with the celebration of Christmas, its historical development and emphases were multifaceted. Even now it is a season of repentance in which the Church anticipates the coming of her Lord, not only in the Liturgy with His Word and Sacrament, but in glory for the final judgment of the living and the dead at the end of days. It is not without hope or rejoicing that the Church watches and waits upon her coming Lord, but it is with serious and sober expectation, especially knowing that this present world is passing away.
The best and most appropriate way to discern the diverse aspects of Advent is to consider the Holy Gospels of the season, as well as the other Lections and Propers appointed for each of the four Sundays in Advent. It is, after all, the Word of the Lord that is proclaimed, confessed, and prayed which actually constitutes the character and content of the Church Year in every season.
There are differences, of course, between the historic one-year lectionary and the modern three-year series, but the overarching goals and the underlying gist of Advent have persisted through those differences. In considering the scope and sequence of the Holy Gospels across the Sundays of Advent, one finds a strong continuity between the two lectionaries. All of the historic Gospels remain within the span of the three-year series, at least as options, whereas the LSB one-year lectionary has included an alternative Gospel from the three-year series as an option on Advent 4. The most significant differences between the lectionaries are found in the preaching of St. John the Baptist on Advent 2, and in the Annunciations of Gabriel to St. Joseph and St. Mary, respectively, in the Holy Gospels now appointed on Advent 4 in the three-year series.
The “triumphal entry” of our Lord into Jerusalem in the historic Holy Gospel for Advent 1, also indicated as the first option in the LSB three-year series, sets the tone not only for this season but for the entire Church Year. Although that narrative is also heard in connection with the opening procession on Palm Sunday – with obvious anticipation of our Lord’s Cross and Passion at that point – in this case the emphasis is more on His coming in general, and on the ways and means by which He comes to save His people from their sins. The Gradual for Advent in the three-year series highlights this emphasis by echoing the greeting and response of the people in Jerusalem.
The humility and meekness of our Lord are indicated by His riding on the borrowed donkey; and the sending of His disciples to retrieve the donkey at His Word, to unloose it and bring it to Him, anticipates the mission and ministry of the Apostles in calling the nations to Christ in His Name. St. Matthew and St. Luke also include reminders of their nativity accounts in their descriptions of His “triumphal entry,” thereby recalling the coming of our Lord in the flesh and connecting His Incarnation with His Cross and Passion. In St. Luke’s Gospel, the crowd of disciples acclaim Jesus with words that recall the song of the angels to the shepherds at His birth (St. Luke 19:38; 2:14), and in St. Matthew’s Gospel, the whole city is stirred when Jesus enters Jerusalem, much as Herod and all of Jerusalem were stirred at the coming of the Magi in search of the newborn King (St. Matthew 21:10; 2:3). In each case, He is identified as the King who comes.
The alternative Holy Gospel for Advent 1 in the three-year series, corresponding to the Gospel for Advent 2 in the one-year lectionary, highlights the historic emphasis on eschatology at this time of the year. In the conclusion of His “Little Apocalypse” (St. Luke 21:25–36 and parallels), Jesus calls His disciples to be awake and alert to the signs of His coming for the final judgment. Those admonitions echo the final Sundays of the Church Year, as the Season of Advent looks not only backward but forward to the coming of the Lord. It is also in view of the coming judgment that Advent is characterized to a large extent by the preaching of repentance, explicitly indicated in the Proper Preface, which also indicates the significance of St. John the Baptist for this season (all the more so in the three-year series, as for example on Advent 2).