✠ Psalmody: Ezekiel 36:23b, 24b, 25a, 26a; Psalm 34:1; Psalm 34:11, 5; 33:12, 6; Psalm 103:10; 79:8–9; Psalm 66:8–9, 20; John 9:11
✠ Lection: Ezekiel 36:23a, 23c-28; Isaiah 1:16-19 ; John 9:1-38
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It’s no light matter to be a prophet, or to at least speak as one. For what is a prophet? It is a man who speaks on behalf of God. This very fact alone makes such speech highly important, for who would dare speak on behalf of the all-mighty, all-powerful Creator of all things without being told, asked, or given the authority to do so? Wisely, no one would, yet we are warned by the Lord in Deuteronomy that charlatans come and go, often being used as instruments of the Lord your God to test whether His people love Him with all the heart and with all the soul. Even if self-described prophet is able to do signs and wonders yet says to you, “Let us go after other gods,” he shows that his heart has not a shred of light, goodness, or godliness within. No matter how great an act or speech that a man gives in the Name of the Lord, if his words do not point you to worship the One Who bears that holy Name and to serve Him only, then the man has taught spiritual rebellion. If we were in the days of Moses, such a false prophet would be put to death, because the worth of a prophet is only in whether he points you to the one true God. Such is the standard of all prophets and if we brought back executing the false ones, then there would be some reduction of people being led astray by temporal winds of change. Yet, God in His patient mercy has given us the final true Prophet, our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom we are to listen to and trust as He works and completes all things in accordance with His holy and just will.
By His grace and mercy, we receive the gift of reading and hearing the words of true prophets as have been handed down in the sacred texts of Holy Scripture. We heard tonight from Ezekiel and Isaiah; and from the one final Prophet to whom their lives and words pointed ahead to, our dear Lord Jesus. Being that Christ is the Word of God made flesh, we have no concern that what He says is God-given, God-ordained truth, for He Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Ezekiel and Isaiah rather were called by this same Lord to speak as He gave them utterance, both about what was happening in their days and about what was yet to come for them and, joyously now, for us. These readings tonight from their books are a one-two punch of comforting doctrine in the midst of our repentant journey toward the Paschal Feast.
Just how much has the Lord declared? How much has He said? How much has the mouth of the Lord spoken? An eternally significant amount for sure! Through the true prophet Ezekiel, we do not learn temporal wisdom so as to gain empty riches or prestige in this vain world, but divine wisdom about Yahweh and how He has acted on our behalf in the face of what we have done with His precious, holy Name. This is divine monergism being wrought, amazingly not against us, but for us. When the people chosen by God to bear His Holy Name do not live in accordance with His will, in public and in private, we profane His Name among the nations. This is what all ungodly living does. The sins seen among the people of God are not mere strikes against our reputations or pride, but are the very things that profane the Name of the Lord. His great Name is sanctified, showing Him to be the Lord, when He is hallowed before our eyes. Contrary living takes the Name that is holy, the Name by which He has promised life and salvation, justice and righteousness, vindication and resurrection, and makes it as if none of those everlasting qualities of the Most High are associated with Whom He calls Himself: the Great I AM.
Ezekiel proclaims to us that this Holy One uses even those who have sinned against Him to bring the glory due His Name. How else could He most glorify Himself if not by redeeming the condemned pinnacle of His Creation, man? It is clear that we cannot save ourselves and are born with no desire even to try. The Lord doesn’t tend to our lost condition through dreams or words of false prophets, for they point to false gods and empty hope. He doesn’t bring about salvation through the efforts of man, for what power to save eternally do we possess within us? We can’t even stop physical death. Thirteen times in these six verses from Ezekiel does the Lord say, “I will…”: sanctify, take, gather, bring, sprinkle, cleanse, give, put, take, give, put, cause, and finally, I will be your God. That’s divine monergism, meaning one (mono-) action or deed (-ergon), showing that the power, the effort, the success of bringing about what needs to be done to cleanse you, to bless you, to redeem you, to enable you to walk in righteousness, to restore the glory due His Name, comes from and is initiated by only One Source. Only the Lord can cleanse you from death, give you a new spirit, and place in you a true heart of flesh that pulses with everlasting life. This Good News is what true prophets proclaim for there is no greater thing for you to possess than salvation from, and done solely by, God Himself.
He has cleansed you in the waters of Holy Baptism, put His holy Name upon you, put a new Spirit within you, and given you a heart of flesh so that now His desires become yours. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. The price to redeem you is dark crimson, blood red, and it is that which Jesus poured out for you in His suffering and death. The only participation that man had in that dark, yet glorious, Friday was as executioner. Christ’s willing obedience to the Father’s will is the one, single-sided deed that bore your trespasses and cleansed you from all your iniquities. The blood of the Lamb of God now shed, your sins have become as white as snow and like wool. You are washed. He has purified you with His own cleansing blood. Such words spoken by true prophets to sinners is not only commanded and authorized by the Father in heaven, but also brings Him great pleasure as His Name is vindicated and glorified in the victory won by His only-begotten Son, your Savior, and in the sanctifying effect it has on your life. Cling to the Lord’s words as often as He blesses you to hear them proclaimed to the glory of His great Name!
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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