What is Christmas? It is the two words, "Christ" and "mass." It's the name given to the worship service that celebrates Jesus' birth. Imagine if one of these Old-Testament saints was to climb into a time machine and see the way we celebrate Christmas now. Let's take one of them, put him in a time machine and bring him to Zion in Morris MN on Dec. 25 this year at 9:00 in the morning. He will look up front at the altar and see bread and wine under a shroud. He will hear singing, and praying, reading and expounding on the readings, and everything will not be all that different. Sure, he will experience central heat. He will have electricity. We won't speak Hebrew, but the worship won't be terribly different from what he would have had in a local synagogue, but when it comes to what it under that curtain, that's when He would revolt. He would not be ready to learn what it is. When he hears it, he will not be able to believe it. It is not just bread and wine but it will be the body and blood of the Messiah under that sheet, and not simply to sit there, but to be eaten and drunk by God's people gathered that morning, that Christmas morning. If he were to hear about that, he would probably faint.
So, Christmas would be pretty hard to take for him. But even the idea of celebrating the birth of the Messiah, the Promised One, would be kind of strange for him. Whenever he heard about the Messiah from his father, it was never, "Wait until he is born." His birth never was that much of an issue. Yes, he figured some day the Messiah would be born, but that wasn't the big deal.
Now that would be tough for us. His birth is just about the biggest deal. We love the birth. We love to talk about how the actual delivery took place. The animals that stood around. The awe of the shepherds and their story about the angels. The magnificent star; He would think we were kind of strange as we rehearsed those details every year.
No, the Messiah meant one thing for him. God's reign over His people and victory over His enemies. It's what they wanted to hear about when things were getting rough.
The time that Jeremiah is speaking to them was one of those times. But we have to go back, a little bit. The Old-Testament saints remember the days when David had ruled. Ahh, those were the good days. The economy was strong. The army was invincible. The people were happy. God's man sat on the throne and everything was right with the world.
But this was not the Messiah. David had been anointed, which Messiah meant, but He was not the one promised to Adam and Eve. Nor the seed promised to Abraham. For all they cared, though, He was. The hopes for a Messiah, kind of faded. But their vision was too short-sighted. The prophets and the seminarians knew the Messiah was going to do more than have a peaceful earthly rule. The Messiah was going to bring peace between God and sinners. He was going to restore creation to what is once was like.
Think about that! To go from an earthly king who directs a country and is general of the country's army to being the one who makes peace between God and man, who cleanses sinners of their sin so they can approach God. Wow! To think he would be only an earthly king is so short-sighted. But life was good under David, and so preaching had to be like it has been for us.
The prophets (who were basically pastors) would preach so people would see their sin and recognize that in the Messiah their sin would be removed. There was never a shortage of sin. David himself stepped into it in a big way, so that one of the pastors had to confront him directly. But the need for a Messiah, was always seen as a spiritual one.
But after David and his son, Solomon, things started getting kind of shaky. The country split and the Northern part ran off on its own, starting to worship gods of its neighbors. For 200 years it got shakier, and by the end of that time, it was in shambles. A world power at that time, swooped in and destroyed them.
The Southern kingdom watched all that happening, and you can imagine what they were doing! The Messiah, the Messiah, the Messiah! Oh, Lord, please send the Messiah.
Meanwhile, the Lord is sending more Prophets. They are coming out of seminary, having received their training and some of them are lured by the power, some by the money, some by the prestige and they don't speak for the Lord. They enroll in the seminary but are not sent by the Lord.
Others, however, faithfully speak the word of the Lord, and it's not a popular message. "Judah," that's the name of the southern half, the one that still sitting there, the one that ought to be scared to death that they will go the same way as the northern part, "Judah, what do you think you are doing? You think because you have the temple in your capital city, that God is going to spare you. What's the matter with you? You are going through the motions of worship, but you have rejected me. You ask for the Messiah, but only for your earthly gain. You don't acknowledge your sin, but you want to see judgment on your enemies. Who do you think has become the Lord's enemies? Hmmm... Do you think when you reject Him as your Father, when you reject His shepherds, the ones who He sends to speak to you, that you are still His people? Your kings have been misleading you, and pastors with false messages have been misleading you. And you are unwilling to even acknowledge this."
Now, the prophets speak of the doom coming upon them. By the time Jeremiah comes out of the seminary and begins his ministry, Judah, the Southern Kingdom has about 60 years left. 60 more years and then it is going to be destroyed.
For the first part of his ministry, he actually has a good king. But things are already in tough shape. The seminaries have been corrupted with false teaching, and so the pastors they put out don't speak the word of the Lord. Instead, they just keep saying the same wrong things the people already believe and want to hear.
The king tries to do the right things, but he's working against what has already been put into place. It's tough for him to make any kind of reform. He works at it, but it only puts the judgment that is about to come on hold for a little bit.
Now, the king dies. His sons get put into office. Bad news. They just slip right back into the things grandpa had done. They skip the generation of their dad who was a good king and do the things grandpa and great grandpa had done. It was too easy. All the bad teaching was already in place. Dad had wasted his time. The people slip right back into their rebellion.
The faithful pastors have been warning them about the doom and they can see it coming. The country that destroyed Israel is gone now, it's no longer a threat, but the country that overpowered them is more than just a little scary looking.
It's time to pray for a Messiah again, because they can see the writing on the wall. O Lord, send a Messiah, we need a Messiah. Is one of these yahoo kings going to be our Messiah? And here's the thing. The Lord tells them through Jeremiah. "I'm not going to stop them from taking over the city. Don't you realize who made it so they could be here? I've been warning you and warning you and warning you. But oh, no, you won't listen. Now, I've got to make good my threats. Babylon is here to destroy you, and I'm the one behind them, because you need it.
Boy, can you imagine what it was like in Jeremiahs church when he preached that. I know I have said some things that get people upset, but that would have no one saying, "Let's hear it again, brother."
I caught a bit of Joyce Meyer this morning. Most of you know who she is. She preaches a lot of law messages, condemning law messages and the people love it. I couldn't believe it. She was talking about dedicating our bodies to the Lord, and then started talking about the skimpy clothes women wear. "Now, ladies, the dress with the slit all the way up the side may be fashion but it is not godly." And these women are cheering. How is that? "Your necklines are too low and too revealing." More cheering, and amens.
Yeah, I can imagine it for Jeremiah. "The Lord will turn against you and will fight for your enemies. Yeah, Jeremiah. Preach it brother. We love to hear you tell us we are going to lose our country." NOT!
But then....and yes, we finally get to the good part. "The days are coming. Here comes Christmas. "The days are coming when I will raise up for David a righteous branch. He will do everything you wish the Messiah would do. And He will be called the Lord, our righteousness. Yes, here is the one who makes peace. The One who is your righteousness. You will stand before a holy God, as holy yourselves, because He will be your righteousness.
Jeremiah goes on, "I've got some other good news. But you have to get the bad news to get to it. Yes, you will lose the country. Everyone is going to be scattered. There will be hardly anyone in this country that I had given to you. It will be completely deserted, basically a ghost town, BUT, I will bring you back to the land. You will come back to this country again."
The land, which is the place of my gracious reign, the symbol of my gracious selection of you will be yours again. You won't just speak about being rescued from Egypt, but now you will talk about being rescued from Babylon. I will deliver you from your enemies and everything will be right again.
Did you catch that? The Land is the way the people saw they had been graciously selected. To be promised it again, was to tell Old-Testament people they had not been forgotten. The Messiah would restore them, through His work they would be considered.
We don't speak of land, but rather God's claim and gracious selection in your baptism. That is your hope. It seems kind of far afield from Christmas, but like I said, the celebration of Jesus' birth, what we call Christmas, is all about the coming of the Messiah the one who gives us the Land of eternal life through His own death and resurrection. Although they may not have seen Christmas the way we do, they still saw the Savior the way we do, and just as us rejoiced to see the day.
AMEN