Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Commemoration of Jonah

22 September 2019

Text: Neh 7:1-4; 8:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

After ignoring the warnings of the prophets for decades, an unthinkable judgment fell on the people of Judah.  Their kingdom was overthrown by Babylon.  Their temple was ransacked, defiled, and destroyed.  The walls of Jerusalem were felled.  The people were either put to the sword or taken into captivity into Babylon, where they were forced to live as slaves of a people with a foreign language and culture and religion.

If God had allowed this to stand, His promise to preserve a remnant from which would come the Savior would not have happened, and the people of the entire world would remain dead in their sins.

But after some fifty years of captivity, something else unthinkable happened.  The Babylonians were defeated by the Persians, and King Cyrus allowed the people of Judah to return over the course of twenty years.  Only the oldest of the people of Judah even remembered what it was like to live in their own land as free people.

Ezra the priest led the rebuilding of the temple and the spiritual life of the people, and Nehemiah the governor led them politically. In the midst of evil people who tried to seize power and impede progress, the temple was rebuilt and the walls of the city were restored.  God’s judgment of sin yielded to God’s mercy and forgiveness of sin.  And so we see both Law and Gospel play out in history, with the Gospel prevailing, as our Lord Jesus Christ was indeed to be born of this chosen and forgiven people more than 400 years after these events.

For the first time in decades, the people gathered in Jerusalem as “they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses.”  And we learn that Ezra was not just a scribe who could read the Law, but also a priest, who could preach and lead worship.  Over the next few days, Ezra read the entire books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy to the people.  They had forgotten God’s Law.  They had forgotten how to worship.  But the people repented.  Ezra the priest blessed the people, and they replied, “Amen, amen.”

The people rightfully mourned their sins, “the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.”  But Ezra and Nehemiah told the people, “This day is holy to the Lord.  Do not mourn or weep.” For this was a time of forgiveness, of reconciliation, or restoration.  The people were ordered to hold a feast: “Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord.”

Dear friends, we Christians likewise feast on the Lord’s Day, Sunday.  Every Sunday is a mini-Easter.  And even in the Lenten period, our fasts are traditionally broken to celebrate our deliverance from the bondage to sin, death, and the devil, as our priest and governor, our Lord Jesus Christ, feasts with us in the Eucharist.  The temple is now the church, and the wall around Jerusalem is now the Church’s holiness and separation from the world.  The pastor who leads the service is actually called the “celebrant.”

Every Sunday, we join Ezra, Nehemiah, our Lord, and the apostles – and all of God’s people in the great cloud of witnesses to celebrate our freedom.  We feast on our Lord’s body and blood.  And though we are grieved by our sins, our tears are dried, the curse is broken, and we are raised from death.  And even as we are joyful, we remain reverent: “Be quiet,” we are told, “for this day is holy; do not be grieved.”

Let the reading of the Scripture and the festival of our forgiveness continue in our midst – even unto eternity!  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.