Ezekiel 37,24-28. Christmas Eve Vespers

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Ezekiel 37,24-28   0520

Christvesper  05

Adam and Eve

24. Dezember 2019 

1. О Eternal God, the Little Christ Child, once again we celebrate Your birth among us this evening and may our praise impact others so that they welcome You in their lives, in their homes and in their country.  Amen. (VELKD Weekly Prayer for 4. Advent 2019 § 1)

2. »The Word of the Lord spoke to me: „My servant David shall be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will walk in My rules and be careful to obey My statutes. They will dwell in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children will dwell there forever, and David My servant will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.“«

  3. When the Prophet Ezekiel spoke the words of the Lord, Judah was in dire straights; they were caught in the cross roads between the struggle of Egypt and Babylon for control of the region. Judah had thrice been defeated and Jerusalem sacked (1. 605 bc, 2. 597 bc and 3. 586 bc). In one of these deportations, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had been deported to Babylon’s capital (the Magi in Matthew 2 descend from these Jewish prophets and sages). Ezekiel was writing c. 585 bc in Chapter 37 to the Jews living in Babylon following the 3. and final deportation that also beheld the utter destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Chapter 37 begins with the famous Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. Judah would not again experience such a time of upheaval until the Maccabean Revolt (167-60 bc) against the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire ruled by the infamous Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Chanukah celebrates the temple’s rededication as the Festival of Dedication/Lights, which Jesus and His disciples celebrated in John 10,22-23. 

4. Ezekiel promised the disheartened Jews that God will restore them and Messiah will arrive. Fast forward about 600 years and Judah was in similar straights. Rome now ruled the region instead of Greece; Judah had a king, Herod the Great, but he was not a descendant of David; his father, Antipater the Idumean (Edom) and his mother was Cypros (an Arab Nabatean), but he was raised Jewish and educated in Rome. God promised His people a King from the line of David, and that was not Herod; he was merely a temporary king until the true Davidic heir appeared. Where do we find ourselves 2019 years later? What disheartens us? What ails our bodies? What politician vexes us? What tribulations do we endure simply as the people of God? 

5. Ezekiel has some good news for us too; his name literally means God strengthens. The Lord told Ezekiel: »David My servant will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I  will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.« Jesus fulfilled these promises from Ezekiel 37. We celebrate the birth of this Savior tonight as the Prophet Isaiah reminds us tonight: »For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He shall inaugurate endless peace for He shall establish and uphold this peace with justice and righteousness forever and ever« (Isaiah 9,6-7). 

6. The very Son of God was incarnate in the virgin Mary, has taken into His Godhood human flesh and was born in the city of David. St. Luke’s Christmas narrative tells us: »Joseph went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time arrived for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and placed him in a manger.... And an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and said to them: „Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord« (Luke 2,4-7.10-11). Christ’s birth brings peace from God to us for He is born to be our Redeemer from sin and the Devil. In Christ, we have joyous peace. Rejoice and be merry, for unto you this night we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord. 

7. Tonight we celebrate the fulfillment of the gospel shining forth, and it has shone forth ever since that starry night in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. The Lord called Ezekiel υιέ ανθρώπου (son of man), and 600 years later Jesus would take that title for Himself: Luke records 24 times were Jesus called Himself the Son of Man. Jesus chose this title because it was devoid of any messianic baggage, and thus, Jesus could make this phrase, the son of man, a contemporary title of the Messiah, and in doing so He was able to teach people what the true ministry and mission of the Messiah is, namely: »The Son of Man must suffer, die and on the third day be raised« (Luke 9,22). The shepherds went with haste and found the Son of Man, the newborn baby Jesus, lying in a manger. They were among the first to see the fulfillment of God’s promises extending all the way back to the first in Genesis 3,15, where God promised to send Adam and Eve a Savior from their fall into sin; the baby Jesus born in Bethlehem is the fulfillment of this and every Messianic promise that winds its way through the pages and the centuries of Israel and Judah beginning in Genesis and ending in Malachi. 

8. Tonight Luke continues the story: Messiah promised is now Messiah among us. Behold and marvel at the mercy of God who sent His Only Son into our world to redeem us back to Himself. Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart; the shepherds glorified and praised God (Luke 2,19-20). Let us treasure the birth of Jesus in our hearts and glorify God for His birth. This Baby beams with the light of redeeming grace, Jesus, Lord at His birth. He is our Savior and Friend.  Amen. 

9. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, born this night our Savior, whom God has sanctified; help us to see this glorious gospel in Word and Carol which proclaims that today Jew’s Messiah and the Gentile’s Christ descended upon the Earth, so that we can rejoice in all things and give thanks to You who is the greatest gift given to us by our Heavenly Father.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Vol. 4. © 1963 Henry Regnery Co. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2019 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.