I once heard someone say that Jesus is a backwards-moving God, because He’s always shifting everything into reverse. He takes things the way they are and makes them the way they should be by transforming them into what was. He is the second Adam, come to make you like the first Adam, only better. He creates the heavenly Jerusalem for you, a Jerusalem that is like the Garden of Eden – but better. He is the Sacrifice to end all sacrifices, just like the Passover lamb, but better.
Isaiah’s words of prophecy: “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it.” Isaiah looks up and sees a mountain so lofty that Pike’s Peak looks no higher than Tower Hill. Rivers of nations stream up to this heavenly peak, where swords forged to create death are hammered into plowshares that open the earth for seed, food, life. Warriors become farmers. Spears become pruning hooks. Everything is running in reverse and nothing stays the same, for the Creator has come in the flesh to make all things new – all things new for you.
So this is Advent. He comes. He “advents” to make all things that are dead alive again. And the world he comes to is in dire need of His arrival. Let’s face it: we are an ugly people and we live in an ugly world. Sure, we try to make it look good, but that’s just window dressing. The face of the world is pockmarked with graves that show the ugliness of sin in every sordid detail. When you were born, you took your first steps toward the edge of your grave. A number of years ago there was a song that began with these words: “Life is what you do while you’re waiting to die.” Depressing words – but a lot of truth in them.
Most of the time we live in our own little fantasy world and try to convince ourselves that we’re a whole lot better than we really are. We pretend to act from pure motives, but often our motives are just purely selfish and self-serving. We pretend to be honest – but truth be told, we twist our stories, exaggerate our innocence and create false motives for others. We repeat our lies so often that we eventually begin to believe them. Our lips say that it is a sin to gossip, but our ears perk up when those juicy tidbits are overheard. Our so-called pure hearts and thoughts have triple-X ratings. We actually make it easy for Satan and his devils, for not a single one of us has ever received anything less than an A+ in Satan’s class on temptation.
It does you no good to deny it. But to confess it, to say what is true about yourself – as scary as that thought is, that actually does good. It does the good of repentance. When we say that we are poor, miserable sinners who confess unto God all our sins and iniquities, we find forgiveness and everlasting life. And we find that life in another man’s death.
Because it is for us, the dead, that Jesus lived His life. Advent is His present to you, wrapped in the living colors of His skin, flesh, bones and blood. He comes running to those who cannot even begin to crawl to Him. He comes to you and puts everything bad about you into reverse: from guilt to forgiveness, from lies to truth, from death and shame to life in His name. He’s the backwards God, and He’s ready, willing and able to take you back to a place you’ve never been before – the place of holiness, perfection and innocence. In fact, He’s already accomplished it. It’s a done deal – a deal done for you.
Isaiah prophesied: “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains.” This is God’s turf, the place where He is found. It is the mountain called Zion, the city of the living God. It is the mountain named the Church. For when the Creator was lifted up to hang bleeding and dying on that cross, a new and better Zion was created from the raw materials of His flesh and blood. By His living, bleeding, rising and dying, He crafted the high hill where death and sin are no more.
As His beloved redeemed, you are a citizen of this new Zion. This mountain is your home. Adam and Eve were thrown out of Eden, but you are pulled back into this new Paradise by the new Adam, the Father’s perfect and sinless Son. He brings you to this new Eden, this Zion, this Paradise, because that is where He is. The Zion of old was the location of the old temple where God dwelt amongst His people, but on this new Zion there is no temple of wood and stone. Instead, we find a temple of skin, blood, bones, hands, feet. For the Word became flesh and has lived among us. Our temple is not a building, but the babe born to the Virgin Mary.
You have been brought to that temple, washed by the steam flowing with the waters of Holy Baptism. All the nations flow up to this mountain, Isaiah cries, for they are carried there on the river of salvation. Through those life-giving waters you are cleansed. The ugliness of sin is replaced by the beauty of righteousness. Gone are the lies, replaced by the Gospel truth of God’s love. You truly are, as the Psalmist declares, the apple of God’s eye.
Until the last trumpet sounds, men with blood on their hands and hate in their hearts will haunt this world. Bombs will explode, bullets will kill. The angels sang of peace at Jesus’ birth, but peace will remain the unattainable ideal. But there is a peace in this world that is not of this world – the peace of God. There is a reconciliation between God and man. There is the peace that passes all understanding because it is found only at the cross. With the death and resurrection of God’s Son, the conflict is ended. God’s fiery wrath is extinguished by holy blood. God is again one with man. Jew is one with Gentile. All are united in Christ.
Jesus truly is the backwards-moving God, because He shifts everything about our sinful world into reverse. Paradise lost is regained. We who have lived in the swampland of sin and the valley of the shadow of death now ascend the mountain to walk in the light of the Lord. Our sin is traded for righteousness. Our guilt is replaced with innocence. Our mortality is swallowed up by immortality. This is why Jesus came. He came because He wanted you. Now He has you. And He will never, ever let you go.
Note: This sermon is freely and largely adapted from an Advent sermon series that originally was published in Concordia Pulpit Resources.
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