“THE BRANCH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS”
Jeremiah 33.14-16
Advent Midweek Vespers I: 1 December Anno Domini 2004
Fr Watson
More beautiful than the greenest spruce wreath, more joyful than even a cluster of fine Bordeaux branches, is The Branch of Righteousness. And I'm looking at it right now. You are that Branch, the spiritual body of the Messiah, the glory of Thy people, the New Israel.
"Behold days are coming" spoke God through the prophet Jeremiah. A promise made during the dark days of the Babylonian captivity. A promise fulfilled: "But when the fullness of the time had come. God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law." [Gal. 4.4] These days, now, are the days which Jeremiah foretold, the eternal-era of Messiah.
The Lord said: "I will fulfill the 'good word' which I have spoken." The good thing I have promised will happen. Done! "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 'Glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace, good will toward men.'" [St. Luke 2.13] But not a word on the wind, breathlessly uttered and then gone as the 'down of a thistle,' but a solid, hefty, meaty word: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."[St. John 1. 14]
This was the promise made by the Lord to both the "House of Israel" and to the "House of Judah." This was no bi-lateral contract with stipulations of performance from both sides. This was no covenant of conditions precedent. The promise of God was an unconditional guarantee of restoration, repatriation, and homecoming. God's word was His will and His will was His Word. There would be re-union and forgiveness; there would be nourishment, clean clothes, singing, drying of tears, and peace. Israel, the new name given the patriarch Jacob meant "the people of God." Israel was the special nation; God's chosen ones; chosen in love. Judah was the brave "Lion" who issued forth from Jacobs' loins, not the eldest son, but the chosen son, entirely by grace. From Judah's clan would come the Redeemer. A Redeemer was needed because both Jacob and Judah, and all of theirs, were pitiful sinners. They got everything wrong. God acted. God sent a New Israel, a New Lion of Judah, the carpenter from Nazareth. He was slandered by his enemies as not even being a true Israelite. Appearing as a lamb to the senses, this great Lion would win back His people by blood sacrifice, not by blood glory. From His riven side would come the New Israel, all of His brothers and sisters who are born and fed by His water and blood. This isn't accident of birth, this is choice made by bloody sacrifice. "...but the children of the promise are counted as the seed." [Rom. 9.8b]
Jeremiah gospeled the exiles in Babylon and in Olathe: "I will cause a righteous branch to sprout up for David, and He shall execute judgment and righteousness on the earth." Jesus is the son of Mary and thus the son of David. Jesus is the only begotten of His Father from eternity and thus the Son of God. Jesus is the righteous one, the right one. Only His person and work makes things right between you and God. This universal and eternal Tree of Life, this Alpha and Omega Mighty Oak, is the small sprout that springs forth from the womb of the virgin, tiny, yet green, small yet destined to fulfill the ages. Christ indeed "executed" judgment by being judged guilty in your place and then executed in your stead. By His precious blood his stump of a family, His church was watered. By His body his planting was fertilized. You, brothers and sisters are that church. No matter how you sin and fall, you are lifted up by the Good Gardener. No matter how much the church is assaulted, persecuted and burned out, rooted up, it still constantly sprouts forth to the end of time; watered and fed not by "Miracle-Gro"® but by Word, Water, Blood and Body.
Yes, the Christ, your Advent King, is the righteous branch in His person; He is divine perfection. But you the church are also the sprout of righteousness. You come from Christ, He is in you. Or as the Lord says elsewhere: "I am the Vine you are the branches, He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit. [St. John 15.5] Your righteousness, your being reconciled to God, is an imputed righteousness, a status legally declared by God only because of Christ's vicarious perfection.
And now the Church is the Lord's instrument through which He establishes judgment until He comes in His Second Advent. How so; through the Gospel procured by Him on the Cross; offered, conveyed and sealed by the Gospel.
"Jerusalem will dwell safely." Yes she does so this very night. The holy city of God; the dwelling place of God; where you meet around the word purely preached and the sacraments rightly administered [Augustana Article VI]; the Church itself can also be called: "The Lord, our Righteousness." The two have become of one flesh because of His Presence.
Dear Church, as you soldier your way through Advent to Eternity, you do so as "The Lord, our Righteousness." His promise through Jeremiah to you is kept. You are more beautiful than the freshest cut evergreen wreath; you are "The Branch of Righteousness."
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost