Jeremiah 23:2-6
Christ the King Sunday - 20 November 2016
Rev. John Derme
Over the last three weeks, we have considered some 2500-year-old promises from the Lord that have just as much meaning to you and me today as they did to the first people who heard them. The Lord promised, "I will make a new covenant with you." With these words he promised that he would forgive our sins. The Lord promised, "I will relent… and I will judge." He promised that when he returns to judge the world, he will not punish us as our sins deserve. The Lord promised, "I will create a new heavens and a new earth." He promised that he would bring us to a perfect new home after this world is destroyed. What is our response to these promises? Yes please, Lord!
Today we will consider one more old promise from the Lord, one that may be harder for 21st century Americans to appreciate. He promises to raise up a righteous Branch. Why would the Lord promise to give us a branch? What does that even mean? He promises to give us a King. Why would we want a king? Americans think that kings are bad. Why should we appreciate it when the Lord promises us, "I will raise up a righteous Branch?"
The people of Judah needed this promise, because they'd had such terrible kings. In our First Lesson from Jeremiah 23, the Lord calls the kings of Judah and Israel "shepherds." They were supposed to lead and protect his flock, his chosen people of Israel. The Lord himself was the chief Shepherd, and they were supposed to work for him. But many of the kings were wicked and led the people away from God, scattering the flock rather than protecting it. The Lord's promise was a warning to those wicked kings. He was going to remove them from their positions. He himself would gather his people and bring them back to himself. He would replace the wicked shepherds with faithful shepherds, who would serve the Lord.
This is a promise of the Lord's love and faithfulness to his people. But he also spoke an even bigger promise in our Lesson. This is where the Branch comes in. The Lord promised that he would raise up a righteous Branch from the line of King David. This Branch would rule as a perfectly wise and just King. He would be a far better king than those wicked shepherds had been. This King would save Judah and bring Israel perfect safety. And the Lord even said what this King's name would be: the Lord our righteousness. The Lord promises that the Lord will be the King!
The fulfillment of these promises happened over the course of the next 600 years after the Lord spoke them through Jeremiah. The Lord removed Judah's kings from their positions when he allowed foreign kings to come and conquer them. At that time, the people also were scattered into foreign lands. But years later the Lord brought his people back to their own land. Never again, however, would Israelite kings from the line of David rule over them. Most of the time they would be subject to foreign kings.
The kings of Israel were supposed to be descended from the line of David. But with no more kings, the line of David had been cut off. Nobody paid any attention to it anymore. But even when Israel was politically subject to kings who did not know or serve the Lord, their greatest King of all came. The Lord himself became a human being. He was born of the people of Israel from the human line of David. He was named Jesus.
Throughout his life Jesus showed that he was exactly the King that God the Father had promised. He saved people by proclaiming his gospel. He lived a completely righteous life, never sinning. He suffered and died on the cross to pay for all sins, so that he can declare his people righteous. Then he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, where he lives and reigns now over his people in perfect wisdom through his Word. He has ruled to forgive sins through Baptism and the Lord's Supper. He will come back to carry out perfect justice for the nations. He will bring his people to heaven, where he will make them completely righteous. This is the Lord our righteousness.
The Lord doesn't use human kings as spiritual leaders anymore. He is our only King. The Lord Jesus reigns from heaven now, and he still reigns through human means. That is what he promised in our Lesson, when he said that he would send faithful shepherds. These are people who are called to proclaim his gospel.
The Lord reigns over his people through the gospel, so he uses human shepherds to proclaim it in the Word and administer it in the sacraments. We usually call them pastors, which means "shepherds." From his ascension into heaven, when he sent his apostles out to preach his Word to all nations, until he returns again at the end of time, the Lord will use pastors and called servants of the Word to bring his gospel so that he may deliver his righteous rule to more hearts, to declare more people righteous through the forgiveness of sins, and to bring more people to be completely righteous in heaven.
This is the best kind of king ever. This is exactly the kind of king that all people need. And this is the opposite kind of king than the world wants. The people in our society don't even like the idea of kings, so we have a representative form of government by which people have the ability to vote for their rulers. We like to think that ultimately we are the ones in charge, because we don't want to live under somebody else's reign.
That is why we elect a president and other rulers to do the work of kings for a limited time, as long as they can keep getting elected. And our nation sure gets worked up over the election of these people. Some of us were dedicated to getting Hillary Clinton elected. Some of us were dedicated to getting Donald Trump elected. Some of us were dedicated to stopping Hillary Clinton from getting elected. Some of us were dedicated to stopping Donald Trump from getting elected. Some of us didn't like either of the presidential candidates, so we were upset that we wouldn't get to pick someone better. Ultimately the election process chose one of the two of those candidates. That left some of our nation's people satisfied. It left some of the people so upset that they are rioting in protest of the result.
I think that the level of energy and emotion that people have tied up in the selection of rulers goes to show that we are not a Christian nation. We are a political nation. Politics is the national religion. People worship the process. They see it as life-and-death serious. Do you think I'm overstating things? I wonder, over the last year, how much time Americans spent watching and reading election coverage compared to how much time they spent reading and studying the Bible. I wonder how much money was given to election campaigns compared to how much was donated to churches.
If we really and truly trusted that Jesus is the King, would we get so worked up about the election process and results? I understand that you may have good reasons to favor one candidate over another. But as a nation, we've treated this election as though this is the most important thing that will ever happen in our lives. Yes, I heard and read people saying that. I heard it four years ago, as well. And four years before that. But who has more control over your life: the president of the United States, or the King of creation? It doesn't even compare! Yet it is so easy for all of us, including you and me, to be led astray by the religion of politics and lose sight of that.
And what if we would get the perfect candidate elected president? We Christians pray that all our elected officials govern in such a way that is in accordance with God's will for his world. But we would be foolish to think that any politician is going to lead people to the Lord. That is not why government exists. The Old Testament kings were supposed to do that, but most of them failed. They led more people away from the Lord than to him. You and I need to repent of the times when we have sought an earthly salvation from oppression or taxes or anything else from the government as though it were more important than the salvation that Jesus gives. And we need to watch out so that we do not trust in any human being and be led away from the true King.
The Lord knows that we are tempted to look for the wrong salvation in the wrong places. That is why he speaks to us in this promise from 2500 years ago to refocus us on what we really need from a King. We need salvation from our sins and the eternal suffering that we deserve in hell. We need the righteousness that Jesus earned to get us into heaven. And our true King gives us exactly what we need.
The Lord didn’t look like much of a King to the people who only looked at him with human eyes. The line of David was nothing by the time he came. He was born in humble circumstances, never lived in a palace, didn't order servants around, and never delegated the dirty work to others. Jesus did the hard work himself as he fought off temptation, preached among a hostile nation, and finally suffered and died. But Jesus was reigning on the cross as he won our salvation. Now he continues to reign through the gospel to deliver our salvation to us. Jesus is the Lord our righteousness who has declared us to be righteous. He is the righteous Branch promised for you and me.
"Branch" sounds like a strange name for a great king. We'll actually look at some more unusual names for Jesus in our midweek Advent services, beginning on Wednesday, December 30. In the Old Testament, Jesus was also called a Rock, a Star, and the Sun. Today we see that "Branch" is a very fitting name for Jesus, because he came out of the stump of the line of David to become the greatest King of Israel and the King of all. The righteous Branch that the Lord promised is exactly the King that we all need.