The Second Sunday in Advent Double For All Your Sins Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen. From today’s Old Testament: “Jerusalem… has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” These Words seem to indicate that God has punished His people twice for every one of their sins. “But that is NOT the way you learned Christ!” (Ephesians 4:20). Dear Christian friends: Sometimes, when you need to remove a nut from a bolt, two wrenches are required. If you use only one wrench, the bolt will rotate and the nut will not loosen. Two wrenches, one on the bolt and the other on the nut, will get the job done. Some verses in God’s Bible are comparable that bolt with a tight nut. Sometimes you need two wrenches, so to speak, to “loosen” the verse and get at its meaning. Today’s Old Testament has a good example of a “two-wrench” verse, as it were: “Jerusalem… has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” First we will need to find our two wrenches. Then we will go after that bolt. Wrench #1: Jesus is Jerusalem. God’s New Testament depicts Jesus as the sum total of all the children of Abraham, the one Promised Son in whom all the sons of Israel live. Jesus encompasses, represents, and embodies the whole people. For example, • During infancy, Jesus went to Egypt to escape King Herod. But Herod was not the only reason for the trip. Jesus went to Egypt to walk the path of Israel; to relive Israel’s history; to be Israel. As St. Matthew explained, “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called My son’” (Matthew 2:15). • Again, after He had passed through the water of Baptism (cf., the Red Sea, 1 Corinthians 10:2), our Lord walked forty days in the wilderness (Mark 1:12-13). Forty was not random. Our Lord’s forty days matches Israel’s forty years of wandering in the Sinai desert. Jesus entered the wilderness to relive the life of Israel. • We also have the transfiguration of our Lord. St. Luke reports that Jesus stood with Moses and Elijah on the top of the mountain, “speaking about His exodus” (Luke 9:31). The word “exodus” was deliberately chosen, again to help us make the connection between the life of our Lord and the life of God’s people Israel. In these ways and more, the Scriptures present Jesus as the sum total of all Israel and the epitome of all God’s people everywhere. This picture of Jesus is a powerful tool—a good, solid wrench—for today’s Old Testament and for many passages in the Scriptures. Because Jesus IS Israel, we should look at certain Words in God’s Bible—Words such as Jerusalem in today’s Old Testament (cf. Hebrews 12:12)—as references to Christ (John 5:39). But we still need another wrench to loosen the “bolt” of today’s Old Testament. Wrench #2: You are Jerusalem. Throughout His Scriptures, when God speaks about the People of God (Revelation 14:12), or the Children of Abraham (Luke 3:8), or the Children of Promise (Romans 9:8), He is speaking about you and all the baptized of Christ. This is what the Lord says: • “Once you were not a people, but not you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10). • “Those who have faith are children of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7). • “You, brothers, like Isaac, you are children of promise” (Galatians 4:28). There is another good wrench, Christians! By including you with His ancient people—by adding all New Testament Christians together with all Old Testament Christians—God has given you a powerful tool—a good, solid wrench—for today’s Old Testament and for many passages in the Scriptures. Because you ARE Israel, we should look at certain Words in God’s Bible— Words such as Jerusalem in today’s Old Testament (cf. Luke 2:38)—as references to you and to all the baptized of Christ. So we have our two wrenches: (#1) Jesus is Jerusalem; (#2) so are you. Now let’s loosen the nut from the bolt: “Jerusalem… has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” • Why was Jerusalem worthy of warfare and hard labor and double punishment? Because you and I are Jerusalem; because our sins are many and great; because we willingly sold ourselves into bondage, creating our own need “for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). • How is it that Jerusalem was punished twice for all her sins? How is it that the wrath of God went out in double measure? Because the Lord laid upon Jesus in iniquity of us all. The punishment for our sins was so severely meted out upon our Christ that He took two blows for every one we deserved. “Jerusalem… has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” • “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God.” Why is it such a comfort for God’s people to hear that a double price was paid for every part of their debt? The comfort is this: God’s grace and mercy toward you in Christ cannot ever expire or go empty or run dry. No matter how large the load of your sin, Jesus paid twice the going rate for it. No matter how worthy of punishment you see that you deserve, Jesus bore double that amount for you. Another Analogy, to Press the Point “Jerusalem… has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” Now I will give you another way to thinking these Words—another analogy totally unrelated to wrenches and nuts and bolts. Think about three sheets of glass laid, one on top of the other. If you look through them all together, it will be very difficult to see three separate sheets of glass. The three sheets of glass are there present, but from your point of view, they seem like only one. In today’s Old Testament, the Word “Jerusalem” can be compared to those three sheets of glass. The Scriptures allow us to see Jerusalem as 1) a literal reference to the city, 2) a reference to Christ, and 3) a reference to all God’s people everywhere. But all three of these meanings have been stacked together like three sheets of glass, so that the three all appear as one. That is the Season of Advent! Your Lord Jesus Christ has drawn so close to you; He has made Himself so much like you in every detail; He has given so much of Himself to you and He has taken so much of you into Himself, that you and He are nearly indistinguishable. You and Jesus are like sheets of glass laid together in a stack. Your sins appear on Him and His spotless holiness appears on you and it is very difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends. That is the reason why God wants His prophets to comfort His people and speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Your warfare is ended. Your iniquity is pardoned. Because you and Jesus are stacked together indistinguishably, you have already received from the Lord’s hand double for all your sins. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
