Redemption Song

Redemption Song Luke 1:67-79 12/6/2009 Zechariah’s was a song about two babies, the New Testament’s dynamic duo, Jesus and John the Baptist. If you’ve ever looked at your newborn child and wondered what the he or she will become, you have an idea what Zechariah was doing, except that his prophecy was filled with the Holy Spirit. Zechariah foretold that his baby boy would prepare the way for the Lord to again visit his people, give light to the prisoners who sat in darkness, and guide their feet in the path of peace. This morning, I want to ask the simple question, How do we walk in that path of peace as we get ready for Christmas? A little girl grows up in Taliban-occupied Afghanistan, denied schooling and dignity as a young woman. Across oceans back here in suburban America, a little boy grows up with an abusive and domineering father. In Tibet a young family yearns to live in a country they can call their own, free from the dominance of Beijing thousands of miles away. In Thailand a teenage girl longs to be free from the pimps who sell her to western tourists. And in India, a young man labors hard but falls deeper and deeper in debt to his masters. Does God care about the plight of the oppressed around the world? Or do they somehow escape his notice? Are salvation and redemption purely spiritual matters, transporting us eventually into a better world, or do salvation and redemption have something to do with liberation for the oppressed in this world? And is it possible to walk in the path of peace when vicious enemies plague our world? As a priest of Israel, Zechariah operated with a worldview that was deeply shaped by the Old Testament scriptures. He borrowed sounds and rhythms from the past and like a DJ mixed these samples into something new, a song that announced now was the time when God would show his faithfulness to his promises and finally liberate his chosen people from their enemies. It’s on the basis of this liberation that the Messiah then guides our feet into the path of peace. In other words, we can walk in the path of peace because Jesus has saved us from our enemies. This Christmas season, we should remember that God is faithful to his promises. The Old Testament, which Zechariah echoes so many times in his song, is just one big story about how God keeps his promises and rescues his people again and again from their enemies. In Genesis 22, God promises Abraham that his descendents will “possess the gate of their enemies,” in other words, that they will ultimately defeat them. He also told Abraham that his descendents would serve the Egyptians for 400 years before he would rescue them from slavery. The Exodus, when God brought Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, was the great event that Israel looked back on again and again when they found themselves oppressed by another enemy. The Psalm writer says this about the Exodus: “So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.” God is faithful to his promises.

In the book of Deuteronomy, God promises that if Israel is faithful to follow him and worship him only, he will always deliver them from their enemies, but if they turn away from God as a people, he will let their enemies rule over them. This dynamic works itself out over and over again in the book of Judges: Israel turns away from God, God allows a foreign enemy to conquer them, Israel calls out for mercy and repents of their sins, and God raises up a judge to redeem or liberate them. My favorite story from Judges involves the left-handed judge Ehud, who pretended to have a secret message for King Eglon of Moab, Israel’s oppressor. Instead, he pulled out a sword and thrust it so far into the king that handle sank inside his belly. Ehud then made his get-away while the king’s servants waited outside the chamber, thinking he was relieving himself. God is faithful to his promises. Later, instead of judges, God raised up kings to rule Israel, and the greatest of these kings was David. He fought off the last of Israel’s enemies so that when he was finished, Israel enjoyed a long period of peace. God came to David and promised him that he would forever have a son to rule Israel. But things got a little complicated. Many of David’s descendents were wicked, and eventually, God warned through his prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah that he would send them into exile, conquered by their enemies, because they turned their backs on their God. Among other sins, Isaiah names this one: “The path of peace they do not know.” So God sent them out of his good land, like Adam and Eve sent in exile from the garden of Eden. But God is faithful to his promises. He promised to bring them back from Exile, and he is a God who keeps his promises. The Psalm writer describes it this way: “Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons…He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart.” Israel came back from exile, but this time, God didn’t use violence to rescue his people. In fact, he told Israel not to fight the Babylonians but instead to “seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile.” Instead of violence, God brought his people back peacefully; however, they never felt like they had truly returned. They were still slaves in their own country, first to the Persians and later to the Greeks and the Romans. Plus, they did not have a king to sit on David’s throne. Had God truly forgiven their sins? If so, why were they not free from their enemies? Where was the God who is faithful to his promises? As an ad hoc prophet, Zechariah was using his song to announce what time it was: the clock had finally struck “sunrise” for those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Forgiveness of sins would soon be announced by John the Baptist. And this was more than individual forgiveness, as important as that is; John would announce the forgiveness of Israel’s sins, which meant complete return from exile and deliverance from their enemies. It meant liberation, redemption, salvation, deliverance. Plus, Zechariah knew that the coming birth of his cousin Jesus meant that a new King like David would come to defeat of Israel’s enemies. Luke, the Gospel writer, is wetting our appetite with the obvious question: How will this baby Jesus, for whom John will prepare the way, deliver Israel from its enemies? How would God be faithful to his promises?

As Zechariah foretold, the baby boys grew up, John prepared the way for Jesus, and Jesus announced the kingdom of God, the restoration of David’s dynasty in defiance of enemy rule. But Jesus also became something of an advocate for peace. The most pressing political question of Jesus’ day was whether or not Israel should go to war against the Romans, and the movement that Jesus launched was firmly on the side of peace. Jesus said “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you,” echoing Zechariah’s words: “that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.” Somehow, God was going to deliver his people from their enemies, but he wanted them to love their enemies in the meantime and not fight them. God is faithful to his promises. Later when it becomes clear that Israel is going to reject him as their king and choose war over his path of peace, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, crying, “Would that you, even you, had known the things that make for peace.” Israel would ultimately call for his crucifixion. Jesus suffered the ultimate penalty for Israel’s turning away from God, abandonment into the hands of his enemies. But Jesus rose from the dead, demonstrating that he was innocent and that God had forgiven Israel’s sins. God is faithful to his promises. Death is the greatest weapon any tyrannical government holds over its people, but death could not hold Jesus. He rose from the dead and appeared on multiple occasions to his disciples, to as many as 500 at one time. In Acts, Luke has Peter say that Jesus died an innocent man but was raised Lord and Christ, the one to whom God says, “Sit here at my right hand while I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” By defeating death, Jesus defeated the Roman Empire and the evil that stands behind every empire. It was ultimately in his resurrection from death that Jesus defeated his and our enemies. And right now, while he sits at God’s right hand, his enemies are gradually becoming a footstool for his feet. Someday, he will return, and completely finish off his and our enemies, establishing justice and peace on earth. God is faithful to his promises. God gave his world-saving message to an oppressed people. He has chosen to use his oppressed people to save the oppressors of our world. And by liberating his people from bondage to death and the fear of death, he gave them a mission to save their enemies and expand his kingdom without violence. Eventually they spread the message of the resurrection all the way to Rome. God is faithful to his promises. So let’s recap: we can walk in the path of peace because Jesus has rescued us from our enemies. How? First, he has defeated death, the power behind every evil empire. Second, he is seated at God’s right hand making his enemies a footstool for his feet. And Third, he will return, to finish off his enemies and usher in a reign of peace and justice on earth. In the meantime, we have a mission to accomplish, spreading the message about his resurrection all over the world, to friend and foe alike. Let’s say you’re an engineer who works for an unfair boss. He’s the owner of the company so there’s no one to go to when he treats you unfairly. In your field, women are highly outnumbered, and in your company, you notice that they get the short end of the stick over and over again. They get paid less for the same work as men, but pointing this

out to your boss almost got you fired. They are often made the butt of rude jokes, but in this environment they know that they are better off keeping their mouths shut. Then one day it happens. Before it had always been winks and innuendos; now you witness clear, brazen sexual harassment against one of your co-workers. You go to tell your boss, sure he will have to act this time, but to your amazement, he simply asks you to “be a team player.” Infuriated, you secretly beg your coworker to sue, but she knows she would be out of a job and in this economy unsure of when she would find her next one. When the powers that be are wicked and allow the strong to oppress the weak, what are we to do as Christians? Off course, we should stick up for the weak and fight for the oppressed, but it isn’t always simple to see what that might look like in every situation. How do we love our enemies while we wait for God to either set them straight or take them down? It’s hard, but that is the path of peace we have to walk this Christmas Season while we wait for the coming of our Lord.