Rescue is coming

Rescue is coming

Andreas Latossek

Church at the train station, Frankenberg, December 26th, 2023

I still remember clearly one night one winter many years ago.

I was driving on the highway, it was already late. Or rather, very late, 3 a.m. I wanted to go back to Stuttgart, where I studied, because there was a men’s day the next morning that I didn’t want to miss. When I set off I was still wide awake, but unfortunately that changed over time. And so I had a microsleep at 130, went straight into the central barrier, then to the other side, the car turned several times until I finally came to a stop in the ditch. Just a little further there was a steep descent down the hill. Then I was wide awake. Nothing happened to me other than a few bruises, but the car was a total loss.

Now I was standing there alone on the highway, waiting for the tow truck. It was freezing cold and took almost two hours until rescue finally arrived.

Maybe you know similar situations, maybe even much more serious ones.

Sometimes in certain life circumstances we feel like we are looking for change, for rescue and that we have been waiting for a long time. And we also long for a savior in our world affairs.

As we celebrate our Savior’s birthday this year, I’m reminded of how Mary and Joseph must have felt at that time.

Imagine the stress they were under as the day of the birth approached. People at home had been whispering about them for months, and now came word that a new Roman law required them to make a 150-kilometer trek over mountains and difficult terrain from northern Israel to Bethlehem Foot.

This wasn’t a vacation trip; they were in constant danger from robbers, sudden floods and freak weather.

I still remember how nervous we were when our first child was about to be born. Every mother prepares carefully for the birth so that her child can be born as easily and problem-free as possible. What catastrophic news the Roman Emperor’s decree must have been for Mary.

I think she personally longed for salvation just as much as the entire people of Israel in the situation at that time, oppressed by the rule of the Romans. With the promise that salvation is near. And then we read:

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. 15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. Luke 2:8-18

This day a Savior has been born to you in the city of David; it is the Messiah, the Lord.

1. Rescue has come

Humanity had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

For since Adam and Eve, God had promised a Savior who would crush the serpent’s head. The people of Israel had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Over 700 years earlier, the prophets had proclaimed the promised Savior.

We now know that what seemed a catastrophe to Mary and Joseph was actually a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and the glory of God. He needed the circumstances and directed everything exactly that way.

In the prophet Micah we read:

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. ( chap. 5:2 ).

There are many prophecies like these that were exactly fulfilled with the birth of Jesus.

Some time ago, while reading a magazine, I came across a detail that I wasn’t aware of and that excited me. A few verses earlier it says in Micah 4:8 :

„And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.“

The future king, the Messiah, will not simply come from Bethlehem, but more precisely from Migdal-Eder, no, not Frankenberg Eder. Migdal-Eder means translated: Tower of the Herd.

The bishop and church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, who lived in the 4th century, stated that Migdal-Eder was one Roman mile, just under 1.5 kilometers, east of Bethlehem. But what was this tower used for? And why did the Messiah have to come from the fertile valley of Bethlehem?

Bethlehem was David’s hometown, but it meant even more to him: it was here that he was anointed king over Israel. And when he brought the tabernacle of the congregation to Jerusalem, and later planned the building of the temple, he chose Migdal-Eder as the pasture for the sacrificial lambs of the priests. In the Jewish Mishnah, Migdal-Eder is mentioned as the place from which the sacrificial animals for Passover come. David made the land of his fathers available for this very special flock of sheep; it was the most important and best guarded grazing ground in all of Israel.

In Migdal-Eder there are many watchtowers for the shepherds. Because no ordinary sheep were bred here. A lamb that had a broken bone or other defect was considered not kosher and could not be used as a sacrificial lamb. Sacrificial lambs therefore required very special care from the shepherd. The shepherds in the field who received the angel’s message were the same shepherds who tended the Passover lambs.

Jesus lay in a manger and was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and not just anywhere and not just to show the humility in which the Messiah came to earth, but for what he was sent to do.

According to rabbinic tradition, on each high holiday the priest came from Jerusalem to Migdal-Eder to inspect the sacrificial lamb before the great day. The lamb was placed in a manger and then wrapped in cloths (swaddling clothes) and brought to Jerusalem to be sacrificed. The lamb was deliberately not led by a rope or something similar, but was carried in the cloths to ensure that it was not harmed on the way to the temple.

So Jesus was born in this very place because he was to be the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. He was laid in a manger and wrapped in cloths like the Passover and Atonement lambs.

I’m sure Mary and Joseph were simply trying to make the best of their difficult situation.

But God used this situation to speak through the little details and that excited me. Jesus is the Savior who, as the Lamb of God, once and for all bore your and my guilt on the cross in order to enable forgiveness and thereby reconciliation with God and a renewed relationship with him.

The shepherds go to the one who will introduce himself as the good shepherd, to whom Psalm 23 already refers. The shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

The Shepherd who is the door to the Father.

Even if the Jews had a different idea of ​​the Savior, that was the salvation we need. Reconciliation with God so that we are not eternally separated from him through our guilt. This salvation has come.

Another

2. Rescue will come

And it is close, as we already saw on the 3rd Advent.

( 2 Peter 1:19 )    We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.

The rising morning star is the returning Jesus.

We have just seen how various prophecies are fulfilled down to the smallest detail. That’s why we can trust that salvation for our world, that Jesus will come, even if it may not seem like it at the moment, as was the case at the time of Jesus‘ birth.

Peter continues in his letter:

3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

In 2022, the village of Lützerath was in the media.

It should give way to opencast brown coal mining. There were large demonstrations against this. Since the end of the Second World War, around 300 villages have been swallowed up. Whenever it became clear that resistance was futile, the villagers stopped doing anything. There were no more renovations. If something broke, it wasn’t fixed. As time went on, the villages looked more and more neglected. A former resident of one of these villages summed up this neglect with the words:

“ Where there is no faith in the future, there is no strength for the present.”

If I don’t expect anything, then I feel like the residents of the village of Flagstaff.

Then I live my life without a big goal, without a big perspective, without hope. Then I get the best out of life for myself. Nobody cares how I live anyway. And I don’t have to justify it to anyone. I don’t care what God thinks about what’s important to him.

But we believe in a future: Jesus will come again

And because we know we are his children, we belong to him, we can look forward to this day. We can live for him. Even if everything isn’t as we would like it to be, he makes everything new. Then everything will be better. This is not a cheap consolation, but it gives us hope and strength. Where you are standing right now.

Jesus will come again!

The knowledge of Jesus‘ return and his presence in our everyday life gives a new direction and shapes our everyday life.

Peter writes: Since we belong to Jesus, we should live accordingly. The argument is not: Live like this and you will be, but rather: Because you are children of the light, live accordingly. Maintains friendship. Live as God pleases, which, by the way, is good for us. Let God put on your heart what is important to him. Let him guide you in your everyday life and pass on hope – practically and with words. Hope and strength that the people around us also urgently need, because salvation is coming. God will establish his kingdom of peace.

This life is just a way station. But only those who belong to him will belong. That is why what Jesus did for us is so important and an invitation to everyone who has not yet taken this step to accept the forgiveness of their sins and begin to live in relationship with Jesus.

And finally:

3. Salvation is also approaching in your life

Sometimes it’s as if someone wants to rob us of hope, like in the villages that were swallowed up by open-cast mining.

Maybe this is your own personal situation. Your feelings are trying to tell you that you can’t trust God. But the fact that God sent his Son and came into our world in this way is a message comparable to the message that the teacher conveyed by her mere presence in the hospital room of a dying student.

This message is: No matter what situation you find yourself in:

You are not destined for perdition, you are destined for life.

God loves you so much that he sent his only son.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  Romans 8:31-32

Does that mean everything is going smoothly? No

• Is God still there? Yes
• And is he on our side? Yes

In Galatians 4:4 we read: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,

But sometimes when the time was fulfilled it also means that we have to wait for God’s time until he fulfills his promises. When we look back at the Christmas story, we see how wonderfully God has fulfilled the promises He made centuries before. And so his word is full of promises for us that are old but still relevant.

This wasn’t always easy for Mary and Joseph.

They probably struggled with doubts and fears, but God used their lives and circumstances to achieve His good purpose for them and for world history.

We don’t always understand what is happening in our lives.

Some things we will probably only understand in eternity. The writer of Hebrews therefore invites us:

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Hebrews 10:35-36

And Paul writes to Philippians 1:6 :

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

This is the hope that Jesus wants to give you personally.

It is for you, it will reach your goal with you. Therefore hold fast to him and what he has promised you. Christmas and the birth of Jesus remind us:

Rescue has come.

Rescue will come.

And salvation is approaching in your life too.

Amen