Advent
2
Mal
4:1-6
12/4/22
“It’s
beginning to look a lot like Christmas, every where you go.” Actually, it’s looked like Christmas in many
places since well before Thanksgiving as the world’s “Christmas season”
advances ever earlier on the calendar.
The world wants you to get into the
“Christmas spirit.” Merchants want you
there so that you will be extra willing to buy gifts and spend money. Charities want you there so that you will be
extra willing to give money to help others.
And people in general want to be there because it is a warm and fuzzy
feeling filled with nostalgia as we remember the past, and also create new
memories. The sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of Christmas are all part of
the “most wonderful time of the year.”
And then, in the midst of all that
wonderful Christmas spirit, you come to church on the Second Sunday in Advent
and hear these words from the prophet Malachi: “For behold, the day is
coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all
evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them
ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor
branch.” Merry Christmas? Not quite.
Malachi’s words wrench us out of the
“Christmas season,” and back into Advent.
They remind us that the name Advent comes from a Latin word that means
“coming.” During Advent we prepare to
celebrate the coming of the Son of God into this world as Jesus Christ was
conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
However, as a Christian, one cannot
think about this first coming without also thinking about the second coming of
Jesus Christ on the Last Day. These words remind us that the season we are
preparing to celebrate has nothing to do with Santa Claus, or snow men, or jingle
bells … not even the Polar Express. Instead, it is about the saving work of God
in Christ. For if it is not about that, then as a sinner the “Christmas season”
and the “Christmas spirit” will only bring you God’s wrath and damnation on the
Last Day.
Malachi’s prophecy was written about
450 B.C. In 538 B.C. the decree by the
Persian king Cyrus had allowed the people of Judah to return to their land and
rebuild the temple. The temple had been
rebuilt and dedicated around 516 B.C. The
people were back, but nothing was the same.
No longer was Judah its own nation, but instead it was just one small
province of the Persian empire. Yahweh
had returned them from exile in Babylon but all the former glory had been lost.
Where was God in all of this?
This produced a malaise – a sense of
indifference to the way of the Lord. It
showed up in the offerings that the people brought, and that the priest were
willing to sacrifice. While the animals
were supposed to be without blemish, at the temple the sick and deformed were
offered. Malachi wrote: “When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not
evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present
that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of
hosts.”
The people weren’t bringing the
tithe – the ten percent - as God’s word had instructed. We hear in Malachi, “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing
me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and
contributions.” Yahweh challenged the people: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse,
that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says
the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and
pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
Men were being
unfaithful to their wives and divorcing them. God said, “So guard
yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the
wife of your youth. For the man who does not love his wife but divorces
her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with
violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit,
and do not be faithless.”
The priests
weren’t teaching the people the truth.
They weren’t confronting sin.
Yahweh charges, “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and
people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of
the LORD of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused
many to stumble by your instruction.”
Yet the worst
thing was that people said none of this mattered. Malachi charged: “Your words
have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken
against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the
profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD
of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only
prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”
It is not hard
to find ourselves in this attitude and list of sins. While the tithe is no longer commanded in
this era of the new covenant, it continues to be a good benchmark for our
offering to God. Has your offering kept
pace with the blessings God has given you?
Sexual immorality pervades our culture. Are we unfaithful by engaging in
sex outside of marriage, or in viewing pornography for the purpose of lust and
self-gratification? Certainly, being a Christian today is more and more of a
challenge, and it doesn’t seem to bring much worldly benefit. We may wonder,
“What’s the point?”
The book of
Malachi ends with the strongest possible assertion that it does matter. Malachi warns, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven,
when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day
that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it
will leave them neither root nor branch.”
Malachi tells us – like so many other places in Scripture – that God
will judge sinners on the Last Day, the Day of the Lord.
Yet, there is Advent good news in
our text as well. God says through
Malachi, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great
and awesome day of the LORD comes.” Elijah had been one of Yahweh’s greatest
prophets. He had been taken up in whirlwind. Now, God says that before the great and
awesome day of judgment, he would send Elijah.
What is more, in the previous chapter Yahweh had said, “Behold, I send my messenger,
and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek
will suddenly come to his temple.” Elijah – this messenger – would prepare the
people. He would prepare the way before Yahweh.
As we
will see the next two Sundays, we now understand that this “Elijah” was the
prophetic figure John the Baptist. He
came to prepare the way for the Lord. He came to prepare the way for the One
who brings the great and awesome Day of the Lord.
Of
course, during Advent we are preparing to celebrate the birth of a baby who was
placed in a manger. There is nothing
great or awesome about that. Therein is
the tremendous surprise about the Christ.
The Christ – the Savior descended from King David – is the mighty and
powerful One. He is in fact, more than a man, because the Son of God entered
into this world as the Holy Spirit caused the virgin Mary to become pregnant
with the One who is true God and true man at the same time.
However,
Peter tells us, “Concerning this
salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be
yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what
person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he
predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.” The way of the Christ was to be one of
suffering and then glory. Luke tells us
that after Jesus opened the disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures he said
to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and
on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and
forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
The Son of God
entered into the world as the Christ to suffer and die. He did because of all
the ways we sin against God. He did because since the fall we are by nature
sinful. As he hung on the cross, Jesus
received the judgment of the Day of the Lord. It happened, but it happened to
Jesus in our place, and so now we are forgiven before God.
If a baby lying
in a manger did not look great and awesome, then a man dying in agony on a
cross looked even less so. It appeared
to be the very opposite, as it was scene of weakness and humiliation. Then as the sun was about to go down on Good
Friday, they left Jesus’ dead body lying in a sealed tomb.
Yet on the
third day, God demonstrated that what had happened on the cross was great and
awesome. It was his powerful saving action to take away our sin. On Easter God
raised Jesus from the dead as he defeated death. In the resurrection of Jesus, God began the
resurrection of the Last Day – the Day of the Lord.
The risen Lord has now been exalted
to the right hand of God as he ascended.
Yet as we hear in the Gospel lesson, Christ declared that he would
return in glory. He will. It will be the
Day of the Lord that we hear about from Malachi. But because of Christ’s death for us, we are
not included among the arrogant and evil doers.
Instead, we are the forgiven children of God. And so Malachi’s words
describe us: “But for you who fear
my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its
wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall
tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your
feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.”
This is a description of joy – of calves leaping in
excitement as they are let out. It is also a description of victory, for notice
how God’s people are described as treading down the wicked as ashes under the
soles of their feet. Both sides are true. We will rejoice in that final
salvation that Christ will give us on the Last Day when he raises us up and
transforms our bodies. We will also
experience a moment of vindication and victory.
We need this
Sunday in Advent to remind us that Christmas is about God acting to take away
our sin through the incarnate Son of God.
Apart from that, there can only be God’s judgment on the Day of the Lord.
But because of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for us we celebrate the
salvation we already have now, and eagerly await his return on the Last Day
when we will receive the consummation of his saving work.
And at the same
time, we need this Sunday in Advent as encouragement. Jesus was not joking when he said, “Enter by the narrow gate.
For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and
those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow
and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are
few.” You have chosen to follow Jesus in
the difficult way of faith. The world thinks you are stupid for being here this
morning. With increasing intensity is
directs its derision against those who believe in Christ.
But the resurrection and ascension of Jesus mean that he
has already won. And so, we win. That’s how all of this ends. Certainly, we want as many people as possible
to receive this same victory that comes by faith in Christ. Yet when we
encounter rejection and scorn, we live in the confidence that Jesus has risen
from the dead, and so, we win. The Lord who will return will not be a helpless
baby in a manger. Instead, he will be the Son of Man coming in a cloud with
power and great glory. He will be the mighty judge who gave himself into death
on the cross to take away our sins. For
us, the risen Lord will be a source of joy, and not a consuming fire,
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