Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Joy is something that we tend to expect as a given, especially now at this point, with Christmas barely more than a week away. You’d think joy would be quite plentiful, given how busy we are, trying to have fun and be a little friendlier than other times of the year. If you happen to be one of those people who don’t feel like being joyful or compassionate to others, then you run the risk of being lumped in with either the uncompassionate Scrooge, or the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Sadly, for many, the joys of this season are oftentimes overshadowed by sorrow, loss, grief, or depression. It’s especially hard on those who are widowed, divorced, those who live alone, who are estranged from their families, or happen to be far away from home. Yet again this year we have no lack of horrible violence that frightens us on the news.

When you have a taste of tragedy, stress, or setback, then all this holiday cheer that everyone talks about seems to last only as long as a fresh-cut Christmas tree from the corner lot. Its greenness is a symbol of life in the midst of wintry death, and yet even that has been dying from the moment it was cut off from nourishment. It makes you wonder how much of our joy within us is real enough to survive when the time of celebration and joy comes to a sudden halt.

That makes great anxiety and fear set in, the more you think about it. You could be concerned about whether your own kids and grandkids will be OK during the coming year – whether marriages will endure, or if your health will hold out. Those are the kinds of worries that can easily overwhelm one’s rejoicing, and anxiety is closely tied to our instinctive fear of death. The fact is we see death all around us – not just in the drying-up Christmas tree, or on the news, but even in ourselves. These observations raise our anxiety and threaten to take away our expectation of joy. And that’s precisely why we need God’s Word to point us to the joy which goes far beyond normal, commercial holiday cheer – that joy which is anchored in the love of God, grounded in the Incarnation of His Son, and seen in the fruits of the Holy Spirit. “The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst,” the Prophet says in the Old Testament reading, and “never again will you fear evil.” “Rejoice, for the Lord is near.” That’s what we celebrate at Christmas – Christ’s conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, His becoming flesh, and making His dwelling among us.

But what about the people of Zephaniah’s time? The days when he preached were filled with anything but joy. The people were full of anxiety over the growing military threat from the north – and the knowledge that God was going to let in the invading armies of Babylon to wipe out the city of Jerusalem and cart her people off into exile in a day of wrath, distress, anguish, and ruin – a day of darkness, gloom, clouds and blackness – a day of trumpet and battle cries. Zephaniah’s name in Hebrew means, “The Lord is hidden” – and to be sure, it seemed as if God was nowhere to be seen – Yet the prophet was quick to add that the Hidden Lord could be found in the words of hope and rejoicing that this preacher spoke to them. The Lord may chasten, he reminded them, but He also heals. The Lord kills but He also makes alive. He brings down, but He also raises up. Even though because of sin the people would be forced to live in a land that wasn’t their own, just the same, because God’s mercy and love are always greater than our sin, God would also bring them home.

This is also God’s message to you today! You the Church – as the true Israel of these last times – are on this third Sunday in Advent being called on to sing, shout aloud, and be glad with all your hearts. And the Prophet gives you three good reasons for this rejoicing. The first is that the Lord has taken away your punishment and turned back your enemies. The Son of God came to do battle with the devil – to be tempted in the flesh even as we all are – to steadfastly resist it with the Word of His Father – to crush the head of the Serpent – and to beat the devil by dying and rising from the dead. The holy Law of God condemns and kills us as it makes its list and checks it twice and then finds out that we’re all naughty, not nice. But Jesus came into the world to overthrow the Law’s threats, to keep it perfectly and satisfy all its demands so that now as the Book of Romans says, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He was punished, He suffered and died as the Sinner in your place so that you might be spared that awful sentence on the Day of His coming. Remember, the ax that John the Baptist warned you about chopped down Jesus instead of you. He was nailed to the cursed tree of the cross, so that you might eat of the fruit of the tree of life and live forever.

Jesus came – wearing perfectly your flesh and blood – to do battle with and fully defeat your sin and the cause of every possible worry and anxiety. Sin is our enemy, there is no other possible course of action but to destroy it or it will destroy us. Indeed, we must not say nor may we believe, that “to sin is human” – for to sin is anything but human. It’s the very opposite of human. As a matter of fact, it’s inhuman. It’s an insult to our humanity that was created in the image and likeness of God. Since He was a Man without sin, Jesus the Son of God was the only man who possessed the fullness of humanity. He’s the Man to come and do the job – to destroy sin by absorbing it into His own flesh and nailing it to the cross, so that through His divine, human flesh you might be healed of this terrible spiritual cancer that invades and robs you of the true joy that you were created to expect. Is there any enemy greater than death? Of course not – not the Babylonian armies that the people of Zephaniah’s day feared, nor the threats that we face in our own age. Death is the curse that sin brings with it. It’s the enemy, not a friend, not a convenience when we feel overwhelmed. And Christ conquered death by dying – offering the Father a ransom in exchange for your life.

The second reason Zephaniah gives us for rejoicing is God’s real presence among His people and His power to save. Ours, you see, is not an absent God – lording over things from a distance. He’s not uninvolved and remote. Ours is a God who gets involved – who rolls up His sleeves and acts with an outstretched arm. He’s a “hands on” God who came to our world to touch us, to be one with us, and to be one of us. Sin leaves a person isolated and alone – isolated from others, focused on one’s self, and locked away from God. According to the prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus would be called “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” And He is “God with us” in the most intimate of ways. He is “God with us” from the manger crib to the cross, from the cradle to the grave, and then on into eternity.

This is more than God’s ability to be everywhere by sheer Divine power. This talk of God’s presence among His Church is special. Zephaniah is here speaking of God coming to be in a close relationship with us – that special, Gospel presence such as we find when He’s there for us and for our salvation in the womb of the Virgin Mary, in the manger, on the cross, in the water of Baptism, in the preached word of forgiveness, and in the Supper of His very body and blood given and shed for us sinners to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of our faith. That is God’s Gospel presence with us and for our eternal benefit. And that’s the second reason for our Advent rejoicing.

The third reason Zephaniah gives for rejoicing is that the Lord “will take great delight in you.” In other words, God intended His joy to be your joy. What a beautiful statement the Prophet here brings to your ears! “He will quiet you with his love” the way a parent tenderly comforts a frightened child. “He will rejoice over you with singing” like a mother or father singing a lullaby, patiently rocking their child to sleep. God delights in you, dear child of God, but not because of anything you’ve done or haven’t done. Rather He takes His delight in you because He sees you as He looks through His Son, through His sacrifice, through His perfect obedience, and through His suffering and death. Sinner though you are, the crucifix gives you a picture of what God the Father sees when He looks your way. Because of this, you are the apple of His eye, as the Psalmist says. You are His beloved sons and daughters – His very own children called to belong to Him in the water of your Baptism. He quiets your fears with His love and rejoices over you with singing, for His song is His Son, and that song joyfully sings everything that has to do with Jesus.

Zephaniah heard the melody of that song – as did the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Aaron – even all the prophets up until the time of John the Baptist. They all heard God’s song of love. They taught others its beautiful, ancient melody as they watched for the signs of Christ’s coming. It’s the song of the angels that rang out in the fields around Bethlehem as shepherds were watching their sheep and they heard, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” It’s the song that rang out again in the darkness of Good Friday as God the Son sang out in the midst of His holy death, “It is finished.” It’s the song which the Holy Spirit sang at Pentecost, as Peter urged the people to “repent and be Baptized” – and thousands were added to the rolls of heaven thereby. It’s the song God sang to you at your Baptism – and every time the Supper is offered, you hear it yet again with the words, “Take, eat, this is My body given for you. Take, drink, this is My blood, shed for you.” Above and beyond anything you might think of as a blessing this Christmas, most of all, rejoice in this Christmas gift list of the prophet Zephaniah. God has taken away your punishment, and He’s turned back your enemies. He is with you to save you, He delights in you, He quiets you with His love, and He rejoices over you with singing.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Zeph. 3:14–20 Sing, O daughter of Zion!
Psalm 85 Righteousness will go before Him, And shall make His footsteps our pathway.
Phil. 4:4–7 Rejoice in the Lord always
Luke 7:18–35 Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?