Expectations. We all have them. We have them for the people around us. And others have them for us. Have you ever heard “You didn’t live up to my expectations!” Have you ever said it or thought it? Parents and children have expectations for each other. We have expectations for the government. They may not be great expectations, but we do have them, otherwise we wouldn’t be disappointed. You can’t be disappointed if you don’t have expectations.
And then there’s expectations we lay on God. We expect Him to be there for us when we need Him. To alleviate all suffering, no matter what the cost. To right all wrongs, avenge all injustices, reward every good for us, punish every evil of our enemies, redirect all destructive storms way from our area. Bring rain when convenient and sunshine on demand. We do have expectations of God whether or not they are right.
The Israelites also had expectations. They were God’s “chosen people”, His “holy nation” after all. They had been selected, protected, and set apart from all the other nations. A people given a land, a covenant, a Law, a Promise. No other nation in the history of nations was quite like Israel of the Old Testament. Let’s be clear, no other nation will ever be like it again in this world and this life. God is finished with nation building. Now it’s all about His kingdom of Word and Sacrament.
When Israel grew faithless and idolatrous and adulterous, God punished His nation, His people. He sent the Assyrians to ransack the northern kingdom. He raised up the Babylonians to capture the southern kingdom, to depose the earthly Judean king from his throne, that “son of David” to cast him into chains and captivity, to destroy the temple, God’s house, and to cart the people off into exile.
Jeremiah the writer of our OT lesson prophesied during those latter days of the south. He looked ahead to their coming destruction and exile. He warned the people of what was coming. But they ignored him. In fact, they actively tried to silence him. They said “He was depressing. Unpatriotic. God would never let such a thing happen.”
He spoke of desolations. Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah utterly laid waste. But he also spoke of restoration and healing and resurrection. Exile and return. Destruction and construction. Death and life. Where the streets were deserted, they would again be filled. Where there was silence, there would be music and joy and laughter. Where the pastures were empty there would be flocks and herds. In the place of death there would be life.
That’s the background for today’s reading from Jeremiah.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” God keeps His promises. Even as He permits destruction and desolation and death, He keeps His promises. A righteous Branch. A sprout from King David’s family tree. A Son of David will return to the throne forever. He will do justice and righteousness in the land. “In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely.”
The Israelites clung to that promise. When they lived in exile during the time of Daniel, they clung to those promises of God that a Son of David, a righteous Branch would sprout from David’s line and deliver His people. They believed that there was a coming day when Judah would be delivered and Jerusalem would live in peace and safety. They longed for it, they hoped for it, they lived in expectation of it.
Then came the decree of Cyrus and the return to Judah, the rebuilding of Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah, the temple rebuilt. Not as good as before, but still…. They were back. Yet they found it wasn’t the same. It was kind of a cheap copy of the glory days. When the old timers looked at the rebuilt temple they wept and said, “It isn’t as good as the old one.” And it wasn’t. There was no longer an ark of the covenant. No glorious presence of the Lord. And no freedom, really. They lived on borrowed land under the grace of Persia, then Greece, then Rome. But the faithful Israelite never forgot the words of Jeremiah the prophet, the promise of a righteous Branch from David’s line. One who would do justice and righteousness and bring salvation. They remembered and looked forward in hope even in the darkest of their days. There were great messiah type figures who came along: Judas Maccabeus, who rescued the temple from the hands of the Greeks. There were others who gathered their armies of well-intentioned holy warriors bent on liberating Israel from her captors and bringing in the kingdom of God. The royal robes were always at the ready, kept in the temple. Every Israelite was watching expectantly for the coming One, the son of David, the messiah, the righteous Branch who would do justice and righteousness in the land, but what kind of justice, righteousness, and salvation? Their expectation was an earthly reign and rule.
Then comes Jesus, riding into Jerusalem on top of a borrowed donkey. His disciples formed a welcoming party, as though a victory parade was passing from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. They hailed him as a king. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” It was true. Everything they said was true. This was the One, the righteous Branch of David’s line.
What were the expectations of Jesus’ disciples that day? Most likely it was a holy war, the coming of the kingdom of God and the eternal establishment of the throne of David. That’s precisely what happened. But not in the way they expected. Jesus rode into the city to suffer and die. He came to make a sacrifice to satisfy justice to sin for you and all people, He came with steadfast love and faithfulness for a people who did not love God nor their neighbor faithfully. For all people who did not live up to the righteous expectations of the Law, Jesus came as to do righteousness, to fulfill the Law. He came to fulfill what you and I would not and could not. Jesus, the king, came to execute an exchange – your sin for His righteousness. He came to be the true faithful Israel reduced to One, the true righteous Branch of David’s line. Called and chosen to be the tree chopped down and burned in the fire of God’s wrath against our sin upon the cross. He came to do holy war all right, but not against nations or people but against Sin, Death, and the devil along with all the powers of darkness that threaten to consume us. He came to die so that we might have life and salvation in His victorious death and resurrection to bring people from the captivity of sin and exile from God in their unbelief and sufferings into an eternal kingdom with God in belief and joy.
We have expectations of our leaders, projections of what a proper and respectable leader should look and act like. We might be surprised at how short the founding fathers of our country were. Or how the great figures in history actually looked in real life. Or the great figures of the Bible – Moses, David, Paul, yes even Jesus looked and were perceived. I think we’d really be surprised and our expectations would be turned upside down.
It is curious that nowhere in the Gospels or the epistles do we get a description of Jesus. We don’t know how tall he was, whether his hair was long or short. Forget all the images of religious art, bulletin covers, and movies portrayal of how Jesus looked. We just don’t know. We do know that the prophet Isaiah said that men would hide their faces from the suffering servant, though that was probably more of a reference to Jesus’ crucifixion.
The only description we get of Jesus is in the Revelation, and then it is a terrifying, unearthly picture. Perhaps it is better for us that we don’t know exactly, that we don’t see Him as He was in the flesh nor as He is in the resurrection. Faith is about hearing, not seeing. This righteous Branch who does justice and righteousness is not for us to see, at least not yet in full, but for us to hear and to trust that He is mighty to save and to expect that we shall see Him at the last day when He rides triumphantly in power from the sky to assemble His saints: soul and body and judge the living and the dead.
That is the theme for Advent, it is the looking forward to and the preparation for His final return, knowing that He promised to come once and for all, and that we are called to be prepared, to work, to study, to be faithful until His final reappearing. This is what we are called to do not just during Advent but throughout our lives. For in Jesus and in Baptism, we who were scattered by sin, darkness, and unbelief have become a new nation, a new people. Your sins have been covered in Christ your righteousness. His Spirit has given you faith to see His workings in this His kingdom which has no end.
But you know what? We do see Him, we do hear the voice of the King. It is just not where and how we might expect. Your king still comes to you with righteousness and salvation. He comes and speaks to you in His Word, through the called and ordained office of the pastor to give absolution for your sins, in that physical presence of a man who may also not meet your expectations. You also get to see your crucified and raised king coming to you not on a donkey, nor in great power, might, and fanfare, but in the simple means of bread and wine where He delivers His body and blood crucified and resurrected for your sin to strengthen and keep you forgiven, faithful, and bearing witness to His truth until He does come again in His full glory.
Soon He will come in power and glory at the end of the days to raise you in Righteousness. Your King will come at the dawn of the new creation. Expect Him. Wait for Him. Hope in Him. “Behold Your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas