Has the countdown begun at your house? “What countdown?” you might ask. But don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about. The countdown to Christmas, of course! Now that countdown might be driven by different things. Some of you might be counting down the days to Christmas because you’re hoping to receive the Christmas present that over the last couple of months you’ve been dropping those not-so-subtle hints of that Christmas present you really, really want. Others of you might be counting down the days till Christmas because you’re thinking of all the different things that you need to do to get ready for Christmas – gifts to purchase, decorations to be put up, parties to plan, houses to be cleaned. Yes, the countdown to Christmas is certainly on – Christmas is coming!
The countdown to Christmas is not actually anything new, or even unique to our time or place in history. In fact, the countdown to Christmas has been going on ever since God first made the promise to send a Savior to rescue people from the punishment of sin. The clock started ticking as soon as God first made that promise to the first sinners, Adam and Eve. “Christ is coming!” As the countdown continued throughout the centuries, God continually reminded his people that Christ is coming. He sent prophets, like the one we heard of this morning, the prophet Jeremiah, who repeatedly echoed the call, “Christ is coming!” Why were those constant reminders necessary? Because, like people today, they had very short spiritual attention spans. Some became distracted by all the different things they were convinced they had to get done, and they lost sight of God’s promise. Other people, after waiting so long, doubted that God was ever even going to fulfill his promise. And still others, just gave up completely and decided that the wait just wasn’t worth it.
That’s where we find the prophet Jeremiah. There were plenty of people in Jeremiah’s day who looked at Israel, or what was left of it, and wondered when, how and maybe even if God would still send the Savior he had promised. You see, God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, had been ripped apart by civil war. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been slowly dismantled, its cities destroyed, its people killed and carried off into exile by the Assyrians. All that was left was the speck of a nation called the Southern Kingdom or Judah with its capital city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah was now watching as the newest world power, the Babylonians, brutally terrorized the cities of Judah, killed its people and carried them off into captivity. He was about to witness the Babylonians successfully starve the city of Jerusalem into submission and burn it to the ground. Things were bad in Israel. Just listen to what the Lord said to Jeremiah, “For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses in this city and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used against the siege ramps and the sword in the fight with the Babylonians: ‘They will be filled with the dead bodies of the people I will slay in my anger and wrath. I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness’” (Jeremiah 3:4,5). Things were really bad for Jeremiah and his fellow Jews.
The people that God had set apart from all the other nations on earth, a chosen people from whom God had promised to send the Savior for the world, had lost their way and deserted the Lord. They had run after the gods of their neighbors. Israel’s kings were far from perfect. Too often those chosen to lead God’s people failed to provide Godly leadership, instead leading the people even further away from the Lord. The religious leaders who should have been calling God’s people to recognize their sin and repent of it, remained silent and so encouraged them in their wickedness. The voice of faithful prophets, like Jeremiah, sent to remind people that Christ is coming, often fell on deaf ears. It appeared that God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, had been cut down to a lifeless stump because of all its wickedness, no longer capable of producing much of anything good at all.
But hold on! Just listen to what the Lord goes on to say to Jeremiah just a few verses later, "'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. "'In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.'” (Jeremiah 33:14-16) Did you hear that? Despite what Israel was like, the countdown to Christmas did not stop! From this seemingly lifeless stump of a nation, a Branch was going to sprout and not just any branch, a RIGHTEOUS Branch. Yes, from this nation of Israel, from the family of King David, the promised Christ was going to one day come. Why would God ever do that?
You’ve likely heard the secular Christmas song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”. As you listen to that song, have you ever heard WHO he supposedly brings gifts to? He brings gifts to people who are good and nice, who don’t complain or pout. If you’re really honest with yourself, would you have any real confidence that if he came to your town that you’re going to be getting any gifts at all? Remember, you only get gifts if you’re nice, don’t complain and do good things.
Contrast that thought to what the Lord says here, “The days are coming when I will fulfill my good promise…at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout…he will do what is just and right in the land.” Did you notice who is doing everything? It’s the Lord! Why is Christ coming? It is NOT because people have been so nice or good, or have not been pouting or complaining. No! In fact, it’s because people have NOT been good that Christ is coming. Christ is the “righteous Branch”, the one who does “what is just and right.” Christ comes to give righteousness to those who have failed to do what is right. Christ comes to do what is just in the place of people who have not always made God-pleasing decisions throughout our lives. Christ comes to be perfect and right for people who are imperfect and have not done what is right.
Why would the Lord do this? He tells us when he says, “In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety” (Jeremiah 33:16). Remember what was going on when the Lord said this to Jeremiah. The people in Judah lived in a constant state of fear wondering when the next attack from the Babylonians was going to come. They had watched the Babylonians sweep through Judah, destroying town after town, cruelling killing many and carrying thousands into captivity, and it was just a matter of time before Jerusalem would also be destroyed. The Lord uses that picture to describe what the righteous Branch, Christ Jesus, would do for all his people when he came.
“The Lord our Righteous Savior” brings us safety. When our consciences attempt to convict us by bringing up our sins of the past, or our ongoing struggles against sin in the present – and the devil tries his best to get us to question how God could forgive us or accept us – it is the Lord’s righteousness that protects us and brings us peace. The devil may bring those sins to our minds, but they never enter the mind of our God when he looks at us. Why? Because through faith he sees only the righteous Branch of Jesus, someone who did all things just and right in our place. On the final day of our life when the devil pulls up your life’s profile certain that he will find more than enough evidence that you belong to him for eternity, the only thing that it will show is the perfect life of Jesus – every decision correctly made, every word lovingly spoken, every thought perfectly pure, every action right in line with God’s will. Yes, it is only because of the Lord our Righteous Savior that we can be certain of God’s love and our entrance into life eternal.
If you’re one of those people who feels like Christmas is never going to arrive, imagine waiting 550 years. It was another 550 years from the time that Jeremiah lived until Jesus, that righteous Branch, was born in Bethlehem. Although there would be some who would lose sight of the countdown, some that would give up waiting, there would still be those who would cling to God’s promise in faith, trusting that Christ was going to come to make them right with God and give them eternal safety.
Have you noticed the number of home security systems that are currently on the market? It seems that every other commercial is an advertisement for some sort of easy way for you to protect your home and what’s inside of it. People want to feel safe and secure.
How many people do you know who are feeling insecure about their relationship with God, or are uncertain of what is going to happen to them at the end of this life? Where are they looking for answers? How many people are banking on the “religion” of the man in the big red suit, hoping that they’ve been nice enough or good enough to be accepted by God? Dear friends, by God’s grace, you know of a real and lasting safety that has NOTHING to do with YOU being “enough” for God. You know the security that has EVERYTHING to do with the righteous Branch, Jesus, who came just as God promised he would, to do EVERYTHING right for you and to make you right with God and ready for heaven. So let the countdown to Christmas continue because Christ’s coming as that righteous Branch of our salvation is worthy of our anticipation, our celebration and our invitation to others to come and see this amazing thing that God has done. Amen.
