Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent

Lectionary: 194

As king he shall reign and govern wisely,
he shall do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
“The LORD our justice.”

The Christian tradition has always regarded this passage from Jeremiah as a very specific prophecy about Jesus Christ. In his first letter to the Corinthians Saint Paul does not hesitate to give to Jesus God’s ancient title, The Lord our Justice (in Hebrew Adonai Tsidkenu.)

For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the Righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5: 21

Jeremiah had prophesied that a man, the king of Jerusalem, would have that title, but no succeeding king had ever appeared to deserve it. The city fell to the Babylonian army as Jeremiah had foreseen. It was leveled by the conquering army, then rebuilt under Persian governors. Centuries passed. There was no king in Jerusalem.

There were only families who claimed descent from King David, as there are families in Hawaii today who claim royal lineage. Several Herods might claim the title but they were only puppets appointed and supported by Rome. The more feeble their claim, the more ruthless they became.

The apostles, recalling Jesus’ enthronement on a cross, wearing a crown of thorns and hailed as king by his tormentors, recognized that he is truly Adonai Tsidkenu.

Jeremiah's prophecy continues, 

Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD, when they shall no longer say, “As the LORD lives, who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt”; but rather, "As the LORD lives,who brought the descendants of the house of Israel up from the land of the north”– and from all the lands to which I banished them; they shall again live on their own land.

This passage has been interpreted as a foundation of Israeli irredentism, that the Jews should always return to Jerusalem and its environs as their native home on earth. You might recall The Exodus Song in the early 1960's:

This land is mine / God gave this land to me / This brave and ancient land to me
 / And when the morning sun / Reveals her hills and plains / Then I see a land / Where children can run free

Christians may attach this prophecy to any place they like from North America to the South Pole, but Jesus made no such claim.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”

Our home is the Kingdom of God; our freedom is obedience to God's will; we are but sojourners in this world. If we are irredentists, it's of the spiritual sort. The Earth is our home and we should live anywhere God sends us. (Perhaps you saw the story on 60 Minutes this past weekend, of the Copts who have lived in Egypt since long before their hostile Muslim neighbors.) 

Today's gospel story, the first part of Saint Matthew's account of Jesus birth, reminds us of Jesus' homelessness. Despite Joseph's claim to Bethlehem as his native city and the house he apparently owned there, he would have to flee with his wife and child into Egypt.

The Royal Son of King David found no welcome in his native land or among his native people: 

He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.  (John 1:10-11)

Friars at Assembly

This is a terrible, beautiful irony, (which is one of the most important tools to our reading of scripture). We recognize our God by the welcome he did not receive in this world. Religious, political, economic, military and intellectual authorities did not bow down before him despite his manifest authority.

Rather, he was honored by poor shepherds and meek magi; he was protected by a defenseless Virgin and a homeless carpenter. Behold your God.