Advent 4
Dear friends in Christ. One of the more popular Advent hymns is Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel. It has an interesting history. The inspiration of this hymn goes all the way back to a collection of refrains that were written sometime before the 9th Century and by the 9th Century were in use in Rome. These refrains were called the Great O Antiphons and were chanted in the Church before and after the Magnificat in the Vespers services from 17 to 23 December. Each of these refrains/ antiphons point to a particular prophecy of Jesus, the Coming Savior, the Emmanuel—that is, the “God-with-us.” The beauty of these antiphons is that they point us back and put us in the shoes of the OT saints as they waited for/ longed for Jesus’ first coming and remind us of our longing/ yearning for Jesus to return again in glory on the Last Day. Just as the OT saints lived in the longing for the long promised Messiah/Savior to come, so too do we live and direct our lives in the glorious and certain hope of Jesus’ return to bring all His dear Christians home, soul and body, to heaven.
It does us well to meditate on these Great O Antiphons in Advent. Today’s O Antiphon is: O Key of David and scepter of the house of Israel, You open and no one can close, You close and no one can open: Come and rescue the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death. What makes this O Antiphon so wonderful is that it is a very subtle prophecy of Jesus, the promised Savior. In reality, it is one that the Holy Spirit Himself revealed/ made known to us, otherwise we would certainly have missed it. The key verse is recorded by Isaiah in our text: And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
What is the context all about? This chapter from Isaiah is all about the sinful corruption of unrepentant Jerusalem and God’s pronouncement of judgment on it. Jerusalem’s sinful pride and corruption is seen in a man named Shebna, who was a steward/treasurer of the king, a position of high authority who became very proud and self-seeking. After announcing Jerusalem’s punishment, the Lord singles out this steward of the king, Shebna. The Lord would depose him and replace him with a more godly man, Eliakim: In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. And later in our text our Lord says of Shebna, who here he compares to a peg, and all his cronies, hangers on, all the corrupt: In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken. And then the Lord says of Eliakim: And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. So far nothing seemingly too extraordinary; hardly a great, obvious prophecy like the virgin birth. And we would probably have missed it; except for what the Holy Spirit has St. John record in Revelation [3.7]. There Jesus introduces Himself to the church in Philadelphia: The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. Here Jesus applies these words to Himself. Here we see that what Isaiah recorded in our text is a prophecy about Jesus, that Jesus is the key of the house of David.
Our text is a glorious prophecy of the work that Jesus would do: He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open—open and shut what? Like we sing in the hymn: Open wide our heav’nly home; Make safe the way that leads on high And close the path to misery. The godly man, Eliakim, who replaces the corrupt and prideful man Shebna as steward, as treasurer of the royal treasures, is a picture of Jesus. The corrupt Shebna used his position as treasurer/ steward of the king to glorify himself, to serve himself—not the king and the people. The Lord says of Eliakim, the one who pictures Jesus: And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Control over all the royal treasures would be given to Eliakim and as he faithfully carries out his duties he would give or withhold the treasures.
Since godly Eliakim serves as a prophecy/ picture of Jesus, we can see that what God the Father says to him, He is saying also of Jesus. In that day I will call my servant… I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Jesus is that perfect servant of God who carries out His will. Luther puts it this way in the hymn [TLH #387, 6]: The Son obeyed His Father’s will, was born of virgin mother, And God’s good pleasure to fulfill, He came to be my Brother. No garb of pomp or power He wore, A servant’s form, like mine, He bore, to lead the devil captive.
Here in this hymn stanza, Luther beautifully captures what Christmas is all about—God becoming man to serve us and be our Savior. Here just as God clothed Eliakim for his office, I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, so too He clothed Jesus, preparing Him for His office/ task as Savior of the world. Jesus, the true God, the Son, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity, took on human flesh and blood in the womb of the Virgin and became also true man, one of us, or as Luther puts it: He came to be my Brother.
To be our Savior, Jesus had to be both true God and true man. As true man, Jesus was our Substitute under the Law of God keeping it perfectly, holy for us in our place. As true man, Jesus could take all our sins on Himself, become before God the world’s sinner, and suffer His wrath and shed His blood and die as the one perfect Sacrifice for the sins of all. As true God, not only would Jesus be sinless, incapable of sin and so obey God’s law perfectly for us, but as true God Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself on the cross would be enough and more than enough to pay the penalty for our sin and reconcile us sinners to the holy God because His was not just the blood of a mere man but the blood of the very God Himself. That’s the “why” of Christmas: Christ was being “clothed” for His office as Savior. I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him.
What else does it say of the Lord’s servant Eliakim, who serves as a picture of Jesus? Eliakim would use his office to serve the Lord and to serve the people. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. How much more so is this the case with Jesus? His whole purpose in coming was to serve. His work, office as Savior was to care for people, never serving self. Eliakim was a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, but the superiority of Jesus? —He shows Himself as father even to all people of all times and all places! After Jesus carried out His work of saving us from our sins He didn’t just leave or abandon us to our own devices. Instead, He continues to show us His fatherly care and eternal love. Jesus’ coming and work was all for us and for our salvation.
And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. Notice something else—Eliakim was put in charge of the king’s treasures. They weren’t his; he was merely entrusted with them. But Jesus, He was put in charge over the heavenly treasures, treasures of the forgiveness of sin, eternal life, peace with God, heaven. Not only are these treasures of God His because He is the true God, but He Himself actually brought about these treasures by His coming into the flesh, by His holy life, by His innocent suffering and death. Because Jesus brought about these treasures for us they are rightly His to give out. That’s what His resurrection and ascension show us. He rose from the dead—sin, death, devil and hell are all defeated. Jesus obtained the victory and now He gives out the spoils of His victory. Jesus gives out to us of the heavenly treasuries the treasures He obtained: And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David.
O Key of David and scepter of the house of Israel, You open and no one can close, You close and no one can open: Come and rescue the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death. What a powerful Advent image before us: Jesus coming to rescue the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death. Here we come to Advent’s penitential side as the season of Advent is also a time to examine our hearts and lives in the light of God’s holy law. As we honestly do that, we will indeed see that even though we are Christians, we are still sinners who daily sin innumerable times; and that our sins earn us nothing but God’s wrath and condemnation. That makes us long all the more to hear the Christmas Gospel [Luke 2.11]: There is born for you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. That’s the purpose of Advent! That makes us all the more long for Jesus to come on the Last Day and bring us—soul and body—home to Him in heaven. We now also pray: O Key of David and scepter of the house of Israel, You open and no one can close, You close and no one can open: Come and rescue [us] the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death.
Because Jesus not only is the steward/ treasurer of the heavenly treasures so He can and does richly give them to us, but because they are also His and He won them for us, that means no one else can “overrule” Him or overturn His decision or interfere with it in the least. That’s why for the penitent Christian we have the great comfort that You open and no one can close. The way to heaven that Jesus opened for us by His holy life and innocent suffering and death, by His resurrection and ascension, stands open to us. No sin, no matter how great, can condemn our Lord’s dear sorrowing, penitent Christian. For us, dear Christian, is the good news of Christmas—that Jesus our Savior has come. He has come and rescue[d us] prisoners who [were] in darkness and the shadow of death. He did that as He entered the world that first Christmas to begin His saving work—a work that would lead Him to the cross but also to the empty to tomb and His glorious ascension. Jesus also came to each of us personally/ individually at the moment of our baptism; the moment that He brought us to faith. As by that Holy Spirit worked faith, we grab ahold and cling to Jesus and receive by faith His holiness and righteousness before God. Our text changes image here from the Messiah being that Key of David [who] opens and no one can close, [who] close[s] and no one can open to a peg: And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. The humble, lowly, penitent sinners receive, through faith, the holiness and glory of Christ; and He will sustain and faithfully lead them/ us on the heavenly way He has opened to us.
Jesus sustains and leads us now through His holy word and sacraments which He has entrusted to His Church. He has entrusted His Church to proclaim into all the world the message of His saving work. Again, these are not just words, but a word in which His Holy Spirit is busy at work creating and preserving faith. It is a life giving word because what Jesus promises to give in His word, He actually gives because He is the treasurer of the heavenly treasures. Never doubt the word you hear in the absolution—that Jesus is forgiving your sin. Never doubt that when in the Sacrament Jesus says He is giving you His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins He is giving you with His body and blood there the forgiveness of your sins. May your Advent joy, dear Christian, be that Jesus is the Key of David [who] opens the way to heaven for you by the forgiveness of sin and no one can close it. INJ Amen.