Christmas Day
Ex
40: 17-21, 34-38
12/25/17
Recently Timothy asked me about what
happened to the ark of the covenant. Now
admittedly I was a little surprised by this, because certainly, he already knew
the answer. An Egyptian Pharaoh took it
from Jerusalem back to Egypt to the city of Tanis. He had the Well of Souls built deep in the
ground and entombed the Ark there.
However soon after this a sandstorm that lasted an entire year destroyed
the city.
Around 1936 Tanis was rediscovered
and a German archaeological team sought to find the Well of Souls and recover
the ark of the covenant. However, the
American archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones obtained the ark and it was
brought to the United States where the U.S. government crated it up and stored
it – presumably to this day – at Hanger 51 in Nevada.
Of course, none of that is really
true and comes from the Indiana Jones movies.
In fact the 1981 movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” got just about
everything wrong. An army that carries
the ark with it is not invincible – the Israelites tried that and were defeated
by the Philistines, who in fact captured the ark. While the Egyptian Pharaoh
Shishak did loot the temple in the tenth century B.C., he didn’t take the
Ark. 2 Chronicles tells us that the ark
of the covenant was still at the temple during the reign of King Josiah at the end
of the seventh century B.C.
What happened to the ark of the covenant
is in fact a mystery. In 587 B.C. the
Babylonians captured Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and took the people of
Judah into exile in Babylon. After this,
the Ark is never heard of again. Most
likely the ark of the covenant was destroyed or taken back to Babylon where it
later perished in the course of the wars and conquests that swept through
Mesopotamia over the centuries. Legends
later arose that Jeremiah buried it, or that the ark was taken to Ethiopia, but
we have no evidence that these are anything more than just stories.
Today, the Feast of the Nativity of Our
Lord teaches us that it really doesn’t matter what happened to the ark of the covenant. It doesn’t because all of the things the ark
meant and did for Israel have been fulfilled in the incarnate Son of God, Jesus
Christ. The baby in the manger in Bethlehm
is the ark of the covenant for us … and more.
Our text describes what happened
when Moses first set up the tabernacle.
Earlier in Exodus Yahweh had said, “Then
have them make a tabernacle for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this
tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.” God said that a tabernacle would be the means
by which he would dwell in the midst of his people. Moses didn’t have to figure out what this
would be like. Instead, Yahweh gave very
specific designs – a pattern that they were to follow. The Holy Spirit endowed certain craftsman
with skill to carry out this work.
The heart
of the tabernacle was the ark of the covenant. And while we often just speak
about “the ark,” the biblical text very clearly identifies one part of the ark
as being unique and significant. This was the lid of the ark which had cherubim
on each end. The lid was called the
mercy seat. It was the part that was
particularly associated with Yahweh’s presence.
In the Psalms, Yahweh is often described as beings enthroned above the
cherubim of the mercy seat.
We learn
that when all was completed, the mercy seat was placed on the ark and the
tabernacle was set up. The ark of the
covenant was screened off from the rest of the tabernacle in the holy of
holies.
Next we hear, “Then
the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the
tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the
cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”
A cloud
covered the tabernacle and the glory of Yahweh filled it. This glory was the
perceptible presence of God. The holy
God was there, and because of the presence of this glory Moses was not able to
enter the tabernacle. When the temple
was dedicated in Jerusalem by King Solomon as a replacement for the tabernacle,
and the ark of the covenant had been brought inside the holy of holies, the
exact same thing happened again. The ark of the covenant was the located
presence of Yahweh. God’s people knew
for sure where God was present for them.
On that
first Christmas morning, Mary and Joseph awoke in a stable. Their first born son, Jesus was with
them. He was, as we heard in last
night’s Gospel lesson, lying in a manger.
Just as Gabriel had announced to Mary, the Holy Spirit had come upon
her; the power of the Most High had overshadowed her, and though a virgin she
had conceived and given birth to the Son of God. John describes this for us in today’s Gospel lesson
when he refers to the Son of God as the Word and says, “The Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one
and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Son of
God, the second person of the Trinity is God from all eternity. John tells us, “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus Christ in the manger was true God and
true man. His flesh was the located
means by which God was now present, just as the ark of the covenant was the
located means by which God was present with Israel in the Old Testament. John
makes this connection impossible to miss when he uses the language of “dwells”
and refers to “glory.”
But there was more going on than
just the fact that God was now present in this way. In the Old Testament the cover of the ark –
the mercy seat – was the central piece in the Day of Atonement. Once a year the high priest entered the holy
of holies and sprinkled the blood of a sacrificed bull and goat on the mercy
seat. Yahweh told them, “In this way he will make atonement
for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the
Israelites, whatever their sins have been.”
God is
holy. He had told the people “Therefore
you shall be holy as the Lord your God is holy” – but they were not. Their sin had to be atoned – the contagion of
their sin removed – in order for the holy God to continue to dwell in midst of
Israel.
God has not
changed. He is still the holy God. And you are no different than Israel. You are sinners who complain about what God
is or is not doing. You are sinners who
doubt God. You are sinners who create
false gods whom you serve. This sin
clings to you from the moment of your conception. It remains an infection until the day you
die. And because of this you can’t have fellowship with God. You can’t be in
the presence of the holy God. Instead,
the only thing you can deserve is quite the opposite – you deserve God’s wrath
and eternal judgment.
But that is
why the Son of God had entered into our world.
He came to be the means by which our sin was atoned for once and for
all. He himself was the means by which
the sin that separated us from God was removed.
The writer to the Hebrews develops this fact at some length. He says, “But when Christ came as high priest
of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and
more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is
not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats
and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood,
thus obtaining eternal redemption.”
Jesus
offered himself has the sacrifice to remove our sin. He used his own blood to cleanse us. The
writer to the Hebrews goes on to say, “But he has appeared once for all at the
culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” The flesh of the baby in the manger will grow
to be the flesh of the man nailed to the cross. This is why the Father sent the
Son into the world. Jesus Christ was
born to die – a death that has freed you from sin.
However the writer to the Hebrews also goes on
to tell us, “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face
judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to
bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” Jesus will appear a second time because he
did not stay dead the first time.
Instead, he defeated death as he rose on the third day. This too was why the Son of God became
flesh. He became flesh not only to die
as a sacrifice, but also to begin the resurrection of the last day – to transform
flesh so that it will never die again. This is what he will give to us when he
returns in glory on the last day.
The Son of
God entered into our world and dwelt among us.
He has made atonement for our sin by giving himself as the sacrifice on
the cross. He has given us the living
hope of the resurrection. He has done
all this for us – people who dwell in the
midst of others. He has done this so
that we can now live for them. You have been freed from sin so that instead
of spending time worrying about your standing before God, you can serve the
neighbor who stands before you.
This is not
something you can do on your own. So in
order to make this possible, Jesus Christ still uses located means to dwell in
our midst. He no longer lies as a baby
in a manger, yet he does this in way that is no less located and tangible; no
less bodily. In the Sacrament of the
Altar Jesus Christ is present with you in his true body and blood. He comes to you bodily and sustains you in
faith so that you can serve your neighbor with your body. He gives us
forgiveness for the times we have chosen to ignore these others. He feeds us so that we can continue in the
life of faith, forgiven by God and loving one another.
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