The text this morning is from the Old Testament lesson, the prophet Zephaniah, chapter 1, specifically verses 7 through 16:
Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near;Thus far the text.
the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.
And on the day of the LORD’s sacrifice— "I will punish the officials and the king’s sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud.
Dear friends in Christ,
In these days of November, when our daylight savings have run out, the days are getting darker as the setting sun comes earlier and earlier. This now is the forerunner time of the great season of waiting, the season of Advent, when the Son of God brings His light into the world, first as a new born child and soon again as the coming king of the universe. But it is a time of waiting and we struggle to see the light.
We see that we are living in dark times, not only in the setting of the sun, but also in the world. We have wars, rumors of wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes, and floods. The world is not getting any better. In fact, the world appears to be getting darker and darker.
The Old Testament text today is a grim warning against the people who have rejected God. The prophet Zephaniah was a man with a dark message. He wasn’t one of these modern day prophets who’ll tell you that God spoke to them in the night that He wants you to be happy and wealthy. If such a prophet is around you, cast him out! No, a prophet like Zephaniah speaks the Word of God. He speaks of sinners and He speaks of God’s forgiveness.
Zephaniah was a prophet, that, unlike his contemporary, unlike his friend, the prophet Jeremiah, seemingly had nothing good to say for God’s people, Israel. In fact, his prophecy, as you read the book, brings to mind the starkest, bleakest imagery one could imagine.
He tells of a darkness coming over the whole nation, a darkness that is from God, but mirroring the people’s own deep, depraved souls. It is so dark; there is no light at all. There are no moon or stars to give illumination. It would be like locking yourself in a closet in the windowless laundry room, during a solar eclipse, with a thunderstorm with no lightning raging in the sky above you. There. Is. No. Light. No light at all.
It’s ridiculous to think of, isn’t it? We can’t comprehend it. How can there be no light? Imagine with me, however, a dark spirit, a dark mist, winding its way through the streets, over the tops of houses, peering in every window, looking for the next person to suck into its blackness. This dark spirit has been seen before. This is the same spirit, the same angel of the Lord, that massacred the firstborn of Egypt, that caused mothers to wail over the loss of their children, that caused fathers to attack with a sword nothing but dark mist.
This is now the spirit that Zephaniah prophesies will cover Israel. And it is the same spirit that covers us. We have in our souls, the deepest dankest dark that we could ever imagine. Our sin permeates from within us. It is our condition. It is as if we spoke to people and nothing but a black haze of the nastiest garlic and onion breath was received by those we were speaking to.
We bring the darkness upon ourselves, and yet, to hide ourselves from the horror of the reality among us, we attempt to clothe ourselves in the brightest array of clothing. We adorn our bodies with beautiful robes made of the finest silk to cover over our sin of hatred of others. We put on shoes of the finest leather in order to cover over the bunions and corns and callouses of treading over the needs of others for us to gain by their distress. We put on crowns of jewels trying to reflect light to distract others from the ugliness in our faces as we look at and judge other people. This is our foreign attire. It doesn’t look like us, in that it doesn’t look bleak and dark. And it doesn’t look like God. It is foreign to Him. It is offensive to God.
Because you see, these clothes, these are our good works. Our good works are foreign to God. He can’t accept them because they are awful. They are evil. We place our good works on ourselves thinking, “Oh, if I am a good person, if I help people, if I take pity on them, if I do such and such, (WHATEVER IT IS!), then God will let me into heaven!” NO!!! NO!!! God will not let you into heaven because you did good works. In fact, it is just the opposite. You can’t do anything good! You are a fraud and a cheat if you think you will trick God by getting by on your own good works! You are a sinner! Nothing you do will ever, ever be good enough! Quit thinking that it will! Stop it!
Because here in the text now, Zephaniah tells us that the day of God’s sacrifice is upon us. God is going to sacrifice His people because they have asked for it. Their so-called “good works” are NOT good and are in fact still evil. You only do evil outside of God.
So, God is preparing His people to be sacrificed. It’s like the old joke, “I’d like to have you for dinner.” “Okay! What’s the main course?” “I just told you… you are the main course. I’d like to have YOU for dinner.” God is saying that He is preparing His sacrifice, and that sacrifice is His own people. He is consecrating them, making them ready, preparing their bodies, cleaning them in order to be thrown onto the altar, the same altar that they burned sheep and bulls in honor of God. God is going to sacrifice you on the altar where you offer up your good works to God, thinking that they will earn you His forgiveness. You sacrifice the bull of your good works on God’s altar and think that it will work to bring His grace? A bull? Bull-hockey! Your good works were only for you, be honest. They are not for your neighbor, for the person in need. You don’t even do them for God; they are only for the selfish, selfish you.
Yet, it seems that there is something else going on here. It seems that Zephaniah is proclaiming something else entirely. For you see, even though God must show His wrath, He also loves His people. Moreover, you are His people. He presents to them something more different than they had ever seen. God’s day of wrath did indeed come as Zephaniah prophesied, my friends, but it was not poured out on you. No, God’s wrath for you was poured out instead on the head of Jesus Christ.
God the Father took His only Son, both who loved you more than you could ever know, and in the ultimate act of love, sent that Son, sent Jesus Christ, to the cross in your place. Jesus took all your clothes that you put on yourself. He took all your finely arrayed robes and crowns and gives you instead the bloody, beaten body that belongs to Him, delivered to you by the Holy Spirit through your baptism and the Lord’s Supper. That is all He has to give and it is more than enough. All Jesus has to give you is His naked, unadorned, crucified body and blood.
Not to bring it up in sermons too often, because you can never hear it too often, but this is the Great Exchange Luther spoke of. Jesus gives us everything He is, which is righteousness itself, and He takes on Himself everything we are, which is everything sinful and nasty. In this way, His good works are placed on us and we are made righteous by them, and He takes on our quote-unquote “good works,” which are truly evil and sinful, and places them on Himself. He becomes Sin in our place for us so that we might become Righteous in His sight!
This is more beautiful than anything you could possibly think of putting on for yourself. You see, in Jesus’ body and blood are the perfect righteousness of God. He has obeyed every Law, made every sacrifice, done every good work, said every right thing, has never done any evil, has never done any bad. His body and blood, while disgusting to the princes and rulers of this world because of its naked, unadorned, savagely beaten flesh, is the most beautiful thing in the world for it is perfect and unblemished and it is given to you freely.
God strips off your good works, your good works that will never earn you salvation, and He places on you instead the good flesh and blood of Christ, coming down to you from His own cross. Because you wear Christ, you are the light in that darkness Zephaniah spoke of. You can see into the dark, not by your own light, but by Christ’s light. You are a child of God and, as a child of God, you have the wrath of God redirected from you and placed on Christ so you never have to bear it.
And because you now wear Christ, the work that you now do is righteous. Your vocation, that role that you find yourself fulfilling, that baby’s diaper that you, the mother change, that emptying the dishwasher as a loving husband, that lending a listening ear as a caring sister, that cleaning your room as a dutiful son, that field that is readied for the next year as a farmer, that phone call you take as a secretary, that lesson you instruct students in as a teacher, all these things are your good works, not for your own good, but for your neighbor. This is your vocation. This is your duty. This is what God is calling you towards. Moreover, this is the result of Jesus’ death for you: that you may now serve your neighbor in good works, not for yourself, but always for them.
God did indeed prepare the day of His sacrifice, but it was not you, dear Christian, who would be sacrificed, but the very Son of God. You are consecrated, dear Christian, but not to make you ready for your death, but in this way you are made holy, not by your works, but by Christ’s work, in order to receive new life in Christ. You are no longer filled with fraud, deceit, conceit, evil, but you have been fully forgiven in the name and by the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. Adorn yourself with Him for He has given Himself to you freely. Amen.
Now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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