First Sunday in Advent
Title: Justice and Righteousness is Christ!
Text: Jer. 33:14-16
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14 “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. 15 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. 16 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.’
7 There shall we all our praises bring
And sing to you, our Savior King;
There shall we laud you and Adore
Forever and forevermore
Jeremiah’s text for today brings with it the Lord’s promise of restoration; both the restoration of the divided kingdom as well as the fullness of restoration. Previously the Lord had said:
10 “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. Jer. 29:10
And now says:
15 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.
Justice and righteousness.
God will both condemn sin and forgive and set free.
Jeremiah had a tough job. As the court prophet for King Zedekiah he brought God’s word to the King. At times God’s word through Jeremiah could proclaim blessing and joy and at other times it could proclaim judgment and sorrow.
Judah was in bad shape. They had been falling away from God and His word and trusting in their own righteousness. Even Zedekiah’s name in Hebrew means “Just” and “Righteous,” though he was anything but.
David was anointed to be King, called by God as one after God’s own heart. But King Zedekiah was hearing judgment from God through Jeremiah’s proclamation and it was only a matter of time before God’s judgment would come, in the form of King Nebuchadnezzar and the entire Babylonian Army, carrying the entire nation away into exile.
So what do you do if you’re the King and you don’t like what God’s word says?
You continue to trust in yourself and in your own righteousness, reason and understanding and lock God’s prophet up in the palace prison so you don’t have to hear it.
It’s what Zedekiah did and at times it’s what we do.
But the joy that our lesson today proclaims … and the blessing we wait in anticipation for this Advent season is that:
Justice and Righteousness is found only in Christ!
Don’t you and I at times shut up God’s word in our own prison of indifference or rejection?
When God’s word condemns sin, it is often easier to reject the truth God’s word points out than to turn in repentance, asking for forgiveness and receiving the forgiveness God so desires to give you and me to hear.
For Zedekiah, the judgment of God would come through the Babylonian Army.
Where might your judgment come from?
For you and for me and through the ages, the Army that many times caries us away is found in our own wisdom, understanding and reason.
What God’s word says and that which we can’t understand or wrap our arms around we often reject as foolish or only intended for a certain place and at a certain time.
We set ourselves up as God’s judge and determine what is and what is not relevant to me. Our society, or Kingdom if you will, is being judged by God’s word.
The truth is we are falling short as a nation.
We are all going our own way, as Israel did in the Book of Judges, having everyman doing what was right in his own eyes so that only a generation or two later … they neither knew the Lord or what He had done for them. How or when we get carried away into our own exile as a nation remains to be seen. But, understanding and reason is a constant battleground.
Martin Luther once said:
“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but—more frequently than not—struggles against [God’s] divine Word, treating with contempt all that [comes] from God.”
—Martin Luther, Table Talks in 1569.
But even though we fall short there is still reason to rejoice because:
Justice and Righteousness is found only in Christ!
In those days, as today, God’s word brought judgment and blessing and for those who needed to hear, just as we need to hear, listen:
14 “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. 15 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.
The promise of a savior, Christ the Lord, would spring forth from the righteous branch of King David. He, Jesus, would execute justice, fulfilling at the cross, God’s work of redeeming mankind from sin and the works of the Law which cause many to stumble and fall short, trusting in their own works and own righteousness.
But you … are FREE!
By the power of the Holy Spirit you have in Christ been brought to faith and trust in a foreign righteousness, one outside yourself, and by that same Spirit you cling to Christ and the eternal hope for which He came.
Justice and Righteousness is found only in Christ!
16 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.’
The Lord is our righteousness indeed!
He has come for you and as we wait in joyful anticipation this Advent season for the coming of the babe in the manger … which is Christ the Lord, we know that he came for you and me.
But how, you might say, can I know and be sure that he came for me?
By faith through baptism and the preaching of the gospel, God has called you to believe and be His child.
As the Apostle Paul put it in 2 Cor.5:17-21:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (in Christ) we might become the righteousness of God.
In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!
The Lord is our righteousness … that we might become the righteousness of God!
1 O Savior rend the heavens wide;
Come down, come down with mighty stride;
Unlock the gates, the doors break down;
Unbar the way to heaven’s crown.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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