December 06, 2009
“What Kind of a Christmas Is This?”
Malachi 3: 1-5 & 4: 5-6
December 6, 2009
These passages constitute some of the final words of one of the last prophets of the Old Testament. Next week we will see that some of these words were quoted by the Angel Gabriel on his visit to Zechariah as he announced the birth of John the Baptist and the coming of the Lord.
But I wanted to look at these words in their original context during our communion service this morning because they have a bit of a cutting edge to them. They announce the coming of the Messiah and the forerunner of the Messiah, but they predict that the advent of those two will not be all that the people had been looking for.
Some 400 years before the birth of Jesus, the Jews were hoping that God would come and sit in judgment on their enemies. The Jews had about a hundred years before reentered the holy land after their captivity in Babylon and had been rebuilding their towns, cities, Jerusalem, and the Temple. But they had been receiving a lot of opposition from the other peoples who had been settled into and around the Holy land while they were in exile in Babylon. The historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe some of the events of this period. Malachi was a prophet during this period.
His word from God to them was that God would come for judgment, but that they might be the objects of God’s judgment as well as their enemies.
Verses 1 and 2 present a good news – bad news scenario. Verse 1 reads “See I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. That is the good news. The bad news is in the next verse. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.
Now about some of the images in this verse: silver and gold were refined by being melted in fire 7 times so all the impurities were burned or separated out. This image predicts severe judgment that will lead to purity.
A fuller was one whose occupation was to prepare new wool to be used in making garments. Fullers used a lye soap to get much of the natural oils out of the wool. Lye soap was a harsh soap made out of wood ashes. Indiana native and Big-Band leader Phil Haris helped make a song about lye soap popular in the 1950s. That song referred to a fellow named Therman and his brother Herman who had an aversion to washing their ears. Grandma washed their ears with the old Lye soap and they hadn’t heard a word in years. This song was a reminder that Lye Soap was a harsh way of getting things clean. This imagery also points to a harsh judgment leading to purity.
Those of us who like to apply systems and summaries to the contents of the Bible like to say that the first coming of Jesus was one of grace and peace, and at his second coming he will bring judgment. That is true to a point, but we ought not forget that many of the things Jesus said and did on his first coming to earth were about judgment. He often condemned the practices and teaching of the Priests and Pharisees and even his own disciples. And don’t you forget that some of the actions and attitudes he condemned are still in our lives. We do them.
In our gospel reading this morning we read that as Jesus was being taken out to be crucified, women were mourning over him and he told them to mourn for themselves because a terrible judgment was in the works for the city of Jerusalem.
Some 40 years after his death, Jerusalem was destroyed and most of its inhabitants killed.
There was and is a cutting, judging edge to Jesus at his first coming. We need to remember that as we prepare to celebrate his birth.
But we also need to remember that after he condemned many of our actions and attitudes, he took God’s judgment on himself on the cross. He died for our sins.
Today we remember the first coming of Jesus and that his life and ministry was about Judgment and grace.
As we come to his table and eat and drink the reminders of his death we acknowledge that he condemned our sins and then suffered and died to forgive them. All Praise be to God! Amen
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at December 6, 2009 07:12 PM