Malachi 4:1-6
Fire. Heat. Sunshine. Light.
These are familiar images. Especially at this time of year, these images resonate with us in positive ways: as we wish that we could replace the cold temperatures we endure during a Minnesota winter with more heat, and replace the darkness of our short days with more sunshine.
But sometimes these kinds of images do not have a positive association. A warm campfire around which we sit with friends is great. But the hot flames of a fire that burns down a barn or a house – perhaps killing livestock or people in the process – are not great at all.
In the first part of today’s reading from the Prophet Malachi, these kinds of images do not have a positive association. There, God uses this kind of imagery to illustrate his judgment against unbelief and evil:
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” says the Lord of hosts, “that will leave them neither root nor branch.”
What is pictured here is an intense fire. It does not simply singe the plants with which it comes into contact. And it is not limited just to the destruction of the part of the plant that is exposed above the ground. It is, instead, a thorough, raging inferno, which burns like an oven, with its intensified heat.
Such a fire reaches down into the root of the plant, and thoroughly destroys it. When a conflagration like this consumes the land and everything in it, nothing will survive. This is the way God wants us to understand the nature of the judgment that he will bring on the wickedness of sinful humanity.
In one sense, this prophecy points forward to the final judgment day, at the end of the world. All humanity is warned here of the fate that awaits the proud and all who do wickedly – those who rebel against God, who ignore him, and who defy him.
In the chapter of the book of Malachi that immediately precedes the chapter from which today’s appointed lesson comes, we can see some descriptions of exactly what God is talking about. The doers of wickedness of whom the Lord speaks are such as these:
“I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, [and who oppress] the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.”
There is quite an assortment of offenses here, involving various forms of betraying others, deceiving others, mistreating others, and taking advantage of others. God judges these things very severely.
The Lord also accuses those who have “robbed” him, through their stinginess and greed. Again, we read:
“Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.”
I suppose this will give all of us something to think about the next time we write out our Sunday offering checks.
When you contribute toward the Lord’s work, and toward the support of the Lord’s house, don’t think that you are giving God something that he doesn’t already own. You are, instead, exercising the privilege that your Lord has given you, to participate in the important work that he is accomplishing through his church – in our community, in our nation, and in the world.
But those who close their purses to these needs, show that they have also closed their hearts and minds to the Lord’s voice. Therefore these words of warning are delivered from on high against them.
God also tells us what he means in his declaration of judgment against those who are “proud”:
“Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge, or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? … Evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test, and they escape.’”
In other words, the proud – in their pride and arrogance – observe that those who defy God, and disobey him, seem to get away with it. Nothing bad happens to them. So, of what use is it to be reverent and submissive before the Lord, or to govern our lives according to his law?
But on the day when Jesus returns visibly to judge the living and the dead, all will have to give an account of their actions. St. Paul writes in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians that
“We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
But in another sense, according to a more immediate application of the section of Malachi that was read today, the burning that it describes can be seen as a reference to the judgment that God’s law brings even now: when it encounters and suppresses the sinful nature that resides in each one of us.
Insofar as you are still proud before God in your attitudes, and insofar as you yourself still think, speak, and do wickedly, you too are the object of this purging fire.
The Lord says through Malachi: “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant.” When you repent of your sins, and ask the Lord to cleanse you of those impulses that lead you to sin, you are asking him to burn away the arrogance and evil that still reside in you.
You are asking God to destroy the power of sin within you, so that you will become, instead, a person who remembers both the Ten Commandments and the Messianic promises and foreshadowings that are everywhere embedded in the Mosaic Law.
This purging process doesn’t always go smoothly. In fact, it never does. The old nature resists it every step of the way.
The roots of our sin bury themselves ever deeper into the soil of our pride and self-justification, to try to avoid the destructive heat of the flame. The old Adam within each of us has a very strong survival instinct.
But within the Lord’s redeemed and regenerated children, the old Adam will not ultimately survive. God is faithful. He will give us the mind of Christ. He will conform us to the image of his Son.
Fire. Heat. Sunshine. Light.
Today’s lesson from Malachi also uses these kinds of images in a very positive way. It goes on from its warning about the hot fire of God’s judgment to a different kind of message: a message of hope and joy for those who do in fact repent of their sins, and humble themselves before the Lord.
“But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.”
Martin Luther’s comments on this passage are so helpful that I doubt that I could improve on them. So, I will just let him speak to us:
“Indeed, a new Sun will shine… It is the Sun of Righteousness, who justifies, who sends out the sort of rays that make men righteous and free from their sins, who drives out every harmful attitude of fleshly lust. Those rays are the Word of the gospel, which penetrates hearts, and [which] is seen…only by the eyes of the heart, that is, by faith.”
“[The Sun of Righteousness] shines by the Holy Spirit. It shines day and night. Clouds do not hinder it. It is always rising. ‘It will rise for those of you who fear’…the name of God…; that is, the humble, those who are not presumptuous, those who do not trust in their own works but recognize that they are sinners.”
“There will be salvation and protection under the shadow of Christ. Such, then, is the reign of Christ, that he himself is the Mediator and Protector, the way a hen protects her chicks from the hawk. Therefore, let everyone who wants to be safe from the wrath and judgment of God seek refuge under the wings of Christ. … Under the Law there is weakness and condemnation; under the wings of Christ, under the gospel, there is strength and salvation.”
“The Sun [of Righteousness] rises when the gospel is preached. One hides under the wings when he believes. Therefore, although you may be a sinner, yet you will be safe when you flee for refuge under his wings. You will not fear death. The lust of the flesh will not overpower you.”
So far Luther.
Jesus, the divine Son of the Father from heaven, who shines upon us on earth, is indeed this Sun of Righteousness. He is, of course, righteous in himself – perfect in every way. But he does not hoard his righteousness for himself, just as the literal sun – around which the earth orbits – does not hoard to itself all of its hydrogen.
The literal sun, with its continuous hydrogen explosions, keeps the earth illuminated and warm. Likewise, Christ’s righteousness continuously bursts forth upon us, and shines down into our hearts and minds. His righteousness covers us and our unrighteousness completely, as we trust in his mercy. And we bask in its brilliance, in the presence of Almighty God.
The beams of righteousness that shine upon us through the gospel are also able to heal us of our spiritual infirmities. Mental health professionals tell us that literal sunshine is actually one of the best treatments for clinical depression.
Those who suffer from depression are usually told to spend more time outside during the day since the sunlight will benefit them both physiologically and psychologically. Jesus, the heavenly Sun of Righteousness, brings healing to our souls, as his light descends to us in his Word and Sacrament.
He lifts us from sadness into the joy of eternal life. He soothes our troubled consciences with the peace of his forgiveness.
In a few minutes, we will have yet another opportunity to step outside the earthly house of shadows in which we now live and to go, as it were, into the brightness of the Sun. As we partake in the faith of the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, it will be a time of sacramental “high noon” – when the Sun of Righteousness shines on us more brilliantly and more intensely than at any other time.
And in this most intimate encounter with our Savior, we will nestle once again under the protection of his wings, to be comforted and healed.
Fire. Heat. Sunshine. Light.
Every day, God burns away the sin and death that lingers within us, refining us with the fire of his love. Every day, God shines the light of Christ upon us, and into us, to illuminate the darkness in our minds, and to bring warmth to the coldness in our hearts.
We close with these words from the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, where St. Paul writes:
“What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Amen.