Photo by Annie Williams on Unsplash
Audio: iTunes | Spotify
᛭ INI ᛭
Words matter! The LORD says what He means and means what He says. If He wanted to mean something else, He would’ve said something else. If He’d said something else, He might then mean something else—or maybe the same thing with just different words… But that’s the Lord’s call. He’s the One speaking, we’re the one’s listening, and it’s our duty to take Him at His Word.
So it is with the two words of our Lord that we’re considering tonight. The first is the Word He spoke to the Prophet Micah. The second is the Word that He spoke on the night when He was betrayed: The Words of Institution.
Now, These two Words of Christ aren’t as far apart in what they have to tell you as you might think, even though they’re separated from each other by some 700 years. Taken together, the Word to Micah and the Words of Our Lord tells us who Christ is and what He came to do for His people.
(3. Christ is the Bethlehem King.)
First, Christ is “Ruler,” as Micah 5 has it. He’s King. As you heard this past Sunday, the LORD had promised His people a king for a long time. Some 1100 years before Micah, Jacob blessed Judah, saying, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.” (Gen 49) The Lord repeats this promise by bringing in David as King, that the LORD would grant a Son, a Successor to David, who would rule forever. (2-Sam 7)
After David, the Lord repeated this promise again and again, one example is Jeremiah 23 from this past Sunday, and just sang a bit of it in the Responsory: “Behold, the days are coming says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is the name by which He will be called: The LORD is our righteousness.” (Jer 23) Or you’ve got Micah’s prophecy tonight: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel.”
This is a prophecy of Christ, that He is that King to be born in Bethlehem, as the Magi found out when the mistakenly show up first in Jerusalem… Christ is the Son of David, “born of the house and lineage of David,” (Lk 2) born in “the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.” (Lk 2) CHRIST IS the true Davidic King, or in terms of Micah: CHRIST IS THE BETHLEHEM KING.
(2. Christ is Peace and Brings Peace—The Bread of Peace!)
So, CHRIST IS THE BETHLEHEM KING, but what does He come to do? Micah tells us two things: “He shall stand and feed His flock” and “this One shall be peace.” He comes to feed and He comes to be peace, that is, to establish and bring peace.
We all know that the Lord should be our peace. It should be that if we have the Lord, we need nothing much else. With the Lord, or rather, being the Lord’s we should be able to confidently say things like Paul does. “If we have food and clothing, with these we’ll be content” (2-Tim 4), that is, we’ll have peace. We know that we should be that way, but we find peace in other things.
“Many a person thinks that he has God and everything in abundance when he has money and possessions. He trusts in them and boasts about them with such firmness and assurance as to care for no one. [6] Such a person has a god by the name of “Mammon” (i.e., money and possessions; [Matthew 6:24]), on which he sets all his heart. [7] This is the most common idol on earth. He who has money and possessions feels secure [Luke 12:16–21] and is joyful and undismayed as though he were sitting in the midst of Paradise. [8] On the other hand, he who has no money doubts and is despondent, as though he knew of no God. [9] For very few people can be found who are of good cheer and who neither mourn nor complain if they lack Mammon. This care and desire for money sticks and clings to our nature, right up to the grave.
[10] So, too, whoever trusts and boasts that he has great skill, prudence, power, favor, friendship, and honor also has a god. But it is not the true and only God. This truth reappears when you notice how arrogant, secure, and proud people are because of such possessions, and how despondent they are when the possessions no longer exist or are withdrawn.” (LC I)
True peace, lasting peace must come from “the One who is peace,” as Micah says. It must from the BETHLEHEM KING, CHRIST. “He Himself is our peace,” (Eph 2) “making peace by the blood of His cross.” (Col 2) In Him there is “peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” (Lk 2) For “God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us,” (2-Cor) for Christ is the “propitiation for our sins, as well as the sins of the whole world.” (1-Jn 2)
He does this as THE BETHLEHEM KING, for it’s what it means to be “the Ruler in Israel,” to bear His people’s sins, “bear our sins in His own body on the Tree”
(1-Pet) Born in Bethlehem, David’s Son and heir, He goes the Calvary way, giving Himself unto death, shedding His blood for us, as “IHS of Nazareth the King of the Jews.” But not only “His people Israel,” but for all nations, as Micah says of the BETHLEHEM KING, “He shall be great To the ends of the earth.”
So He wins peace, and He delivers peace, but not an idea of peace. Real, tangible, peace. Listen to how the Ruler in Micah 5 does it: “He shall stand and feed His flock.” He shall rise up and feed. Real food, for real peace, “for My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink,” as Christ says. Christ shepherds His flock with the peace secured with His death for them, for you. The blessed bread is His body, the blessed wine His blood. Christ says “is.” That is as real and true just as much as Micah’s Words “this One shall be peace.”
Words mater. Bethlehem was small, Christ is and shall be peace. Not an idea of small, not an idea or metaphor for peace. Christ really is peace. He really is the Ruler come forth from Bethlehem, the BETHLEHEM KING. The Bread and wine are His body and blood. He really does stand a feed His flock.
(1. The Bethlehem King’s comings forth are from everlasting!)
CHRIST, THE BETHLEHEM KING, is able to do this. For Micah tells us that the BETHLEHEM KING’s “goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” He is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, … of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.” He rules all things, He ascended far above all power and might. By His almighty power He blesses bread to be His body, He blesses wine to be His blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. “We eat [the] bread and drink [the] cup, [His] precious Word believing That [His] true body and [His] blood Our lips our here receiving. [His] Word remains forever true, All things are possible with [Him], For [He] is Lord Almighty.” (LSB 622)
(Conclusion)
Words matter! The LORD says what He means and means what He says. If He wanted to mean something else, He would’ve said something else. If He’d said something else, He might then mean something else—or maybe the same thing with just different words… But that’s the Lord’s call. He’s the One speaking, we’re the one’s listening, and it’s our duty to take Him at His Word.
So it is with the two words of our Lord that we’re considering tonight. The first is the Word He spoke to the Prophet Micah. The second is the Word that He spoke on the night when He was betrayed: The Words of Institution. Taken together we believe that
CHRIST, THE BETHLEHEM KING, FEEDS HIS FLOCK WITH PEACE.
He IS Peace. He IS the King whose coming forth IS from of old, from everlasting. He feeds His flock. He gives them Peace. And we know of no other peace than the body into death and the blood He shed for our peace. For He “Give[s] [all] who share this wondrous food, [His] body broken and [His] blood, The grateful peace of sins forgiv’n The certain joys of heirs of heaven.” (LSB 623)
Of course that’s so, for
Gracious Mercy Blog 