Return To Me: A Meditation on Malachi 3 and Luke 3, for the 2nd Sunday in Advent

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me:

and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,

even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in:

 behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

 

But who may abide the day of his coming?

and who shall stand when he appeareth?

 for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:

And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:

and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver,

that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord,

as in the days of old, and as in former years.

 

And I will come near to you to judgment;

and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,

and against the adulterers, and against false swearers,

and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless,

and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.

 

For I am the Lord, I change not;

therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Even from the days of your fathers

ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.

Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.

 

Several hundred years before the advent of Jesus, the Hebrew Prophet Malachi saw the coming of John the Baptist, whose preaching would prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah.  As the preaching and teaching of St. John the Baptist moved through the people like a fire sent by the Holy Spirit, the hearts of the people were being refined so that they might see, hear, and believe in Jesus unto eternal life.  But like all hard and fiery teaching, John’s call was one of repentance and faith, demanding that his duplicitous and evil generation bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, that faith might be shown to be true.  Like Malachi before him and Jesus after him, John taught the people that if they would return to God, God would return to them.  For a nation like 1^st century Israel, under the tyrannical boot of Rome and the corruption of religious leaders, this call to repentance and faith was hard to hear, but absolutely necessary prior to the Lord’s arrival so that the people would not be consumed in their sinful unbelief.

 

The message holds true in our time, as well.  As the Church prepares for the Advent of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day, she remembers more than a well-documented historical event; she prepares anew for the coming of Christ to each and every soul who repents and believes the Gospel, just as she prepares for His coming again at the End of the Age.  Around the world and in our own land, the corruption of political and religious leaders is rampant, and the people who sit in darkness need the great Light of Jesus Christ.  The ancient world had its tyrants just as we do, though they may dress and speak differently today.  Then, as now, people with power and wealth take advantage of those without the means to defend themselves; politicians cook back-room deals to pad their own pockets, while they fleece taxpayers of their hard earned resources; church leaders sell out the Gospel for political advantage and soft living, guiding souls into perdition rather than eternal life; and people of every station and walk of life follow their lusts, passions, and self-interest while they watch their neighbors suffer.  Then, as now, fiery preachers of repentance and faith are few and far between, often persecuted and martyred by secular forces outside the Church, and by those inside the Church who prefer their comfortable sins over the discomfort of God’s Eternal Word.

 

To us and our generation, in our time and our place, the Word of God which echoes through Malachi and John the Baptist comes, calling every soul to prepare for the coming of the Lord.  To us, as it was in every generation before us and will be to every generation after us, the Word of the Lord will ring out that if we will return to the Lord our God, God will return to us.  But what does it mean to return to God?  Malachi goes on to teach ancient Isreal that they must not rob God of their obedience to His Word, including the just works and tithes which supported the preaching of His Word.  John extrapolated the same when he told hearers to bring forth fruits worthy of their faithful repentance:  soldiers to do no unjust violence, tax collectors to collect no unjust revenues; those who have means to share with those who do not.  The brood of vipers in ages past are like us today, and we need to repent of our selfishness, violence, and corruption as much as they did, because like them we will eventually meet Jesus who will thoroughly purge out His threshing floor of every unrepentant evil.

 

Even so, the promise of Jesus’ Gospel is not fear of the Lord’s pending judgment, but rejoicing in His grace and mercy.  Those who hear the Word of the Lord and keep it by faith, cannot help but bring forth the fruits of repentance which His Holy Spirit indwells us to produce.  The Lord will most certainly return quickly to His Temple, both in Jerusalem and in our own hearts, to purge out the evil which torments our consciences, and gather in His people to His Kingdom.  For those who repent and believe in the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world, walking in His Word by grace through faith, the judgement Jesus brings is not against us, but for us—His conquest of sin, death, hell, and the devil is all for our good, that we might through Him have forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation.  He is the Refiner’s Fire who burns away the evil which dwells in our own fallen nature, raising us up in His image to live more and more like Him every day.  This is the fulfilment of St. Paul’s prayer for the Christians at Philippi when he asks that their love may abound in knowledge and discernment, where the Holy Spirit works through the Word of Jesus Christ to bring forth in us what we could not bring forth ourselves:  the true love of God, working out in true works of love for God and our neighbors.

 

This Advent, the Word of the Lord calls to every soul, that if they will return to Him, He will return to us in grace, mercy, restoration, and reconciliation.  For the will of God is that no one should be lost in their rejection of His love and grace, but that all might come to a saving knowledge of Him through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are the ones to whom His refining fire comes to burn away our evil, that we may repent and believe unto eternal life, gifted with an alien righteousness and divine love that can be born in us by the Word of Jesus alone.  Hear the Word of the ancient Prophets and Apostles as they come to you this day, and know for certain that when you return to the Lord your God, He most certainly will return to you, bringing forth in you a true love which abounds in true knowledge and true discernment, alive in His fellowship unto ages of ages without end.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.