1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our
Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. A
very Merry Christmas to all of you! The
message from God’s Word this Christmas Eve is taken from Isaiah 22:22 and is
entitled, “O Come, Key of David,” dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Have you ever had
a transition in your family like this? Say,
for example, that your mother moved out of her house and into the home of your
brother. Such things like this can happen all the time. Your mother’s house is
no longer inhabited, but it’s full of stuff, the accumulation of decades. It
all has to be sorted through, cleaned up, distributed, and some of it thrown
away. You volunteer to help sort through
all of your mother’s belongings. But, there’s just one problem, you don’t have
a key to your mom’s house. So you’re always trying to track one down. Finally,
you get one. You are now one of the few people in the world with a key to your
mother’s house. What a feeling!
3.
Tonight we pray and celebrate the coming of the Key of
David. That’s what stanza 5 of our Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is about.
There we pray: “O come, Thou Key of David, come, And open wide our heav’nly home; Make
safe the way that leads on high, And close the path to misery. Rejoice!
Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel!” (LSB 357:5)
4.
The Key of David
is spoken of only twice in the Bible, once here in Isaiah and once in the Book
of Revelation. Isaiah 22:22 says: “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” (v 22). So the Key
of David. But who is the “he” that holds it? What does it unlock? And where do
we find it now? Since there are children here eager to get home and open
Christmas presents, we better get started.
5.
Just who holds
this Key of David? To answer this
question, we need to go back to Isaiah. Out of context, we lose something. We
just assume the Key of David is held by Jesus, no one else, and that’s all
there is to it. But there’s more. In the context, the key of David is actually
held by Eliakim, the new chief of staff for King Hezekiah. These were troubled times for the king. The
Northern Kingdom of Israel had been wiped out by the bad guys of the day,
Assyria. Hezekiah was paying large sums of money to keep Assyria out of
Jerusalem. His advisers were terrified. One of them, Shebna, the former chief
of staff, wasn’t doing the job. He’s demoted to secretary and replaced by
Eliakim son of Hilkiah, a priestly name. So maybe Eliakim is a priest as well
as chief of staff. What great symbolism for Jesus, our High Priest who’s in
charge of the whole universe!
6.
Chief of staff
for Hezekiah was a powerful office. Eliakim held the key to the city. A real chunk of iron or bronze that opened a
big lock on a massive gate. The king governed through Eliakim. As keeper of the
key, Eliakim could cut deals with Assyria, make war, pay tribute, open the city
gates or lock them to Assyria or anyone he pleased. Talk about power! What he
opens, “none shall shut”; what he
shuts, “none shall open.”
7.
But Eliakim dies.
The Key of David is passed on to others. The key is misused, misplaced, and
finally lost when the kingdom of Judah is taken down by the Babylonians and
David’s kingdom is cut off at the roots. But, there would always be a Key—a Key
in a spiritual sense—that would open the gates to a restored kingdom of God.
8.
There’s an old
saying, “If you want the job done right,
do it yourself.” Someone needed to get the key back, rebuild the kingdom,
and open the gates to the faithful. Who would that person be? The divine child
born to Mary, Jesus Christ, the heir of David, the son of Jesse. He’s that
person! Israel and all mankind, all the kings, priests, and chiefs of staff in
the world, have blown it with sin and incompetence, so God comes in the person
of Jesus and reclaims the key. Tonight we celebrate the fact that the Key is no
longer missing. Jesus holds the Key. Jesus is the Key!
9.
So we know the
Key is Jesus, but what does it unlock? Matthew’s Gospel for this Christmas Eve
tells us how Joseph learns that Mary will bear a child. He’s to call this child
Jesus, “for he will save his people from
their sins” (Mt 1:21).
That’s Christmas. But later, the Gospel
speaks of the key Emmanuel brings and what it unlocks. That’s what Matthew 16 is
about. In Mt 16, Jesus has a conversation with his disciples. He asks them the
most important question anyone can be asked, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God.” Responding to that answer, Jesus says, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:13–19).
10.
With these words,
the keys held by Jesus are entrusted to the Church founded on Peter’s
confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Now what do we do with the
keys Jesus has entrusted to the Church? If you have a key and you don’t know
what it unlocks, it’s not much good. But, the Church founded on Peter’s
confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, doesn’t have that problem
with its keys. We know exactly what the keys go to. They are the keys to the
kingdom of heaven. They are the keys that lock or unlock the gates to let you
and me in, or keep us out. They are what Jesus speaks of when he tells his
disciples after his resurrection, “If you
forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness
from any, it is withheld” (Jn 20:23).
11.
The power and
responsibility to forgive or retain sins are the keys Jesus gives his Church. But
it’s not an arbitrary power and responsibility. It doesn’t depend on the whim
of the congregation or its pastor. It depends on the confession of the sinner.
Every sinner who confesses his sins, every sinner who repents and trusts Jesus
alone to save him from those sins, is to be forgiven. To such a person the
Church through its called pastors says on behalf of Jesus, the King of heaven,
“I forgive you all your sins.” When
you hear these words and believe it is Jesus speaking them to you through your
pastor, the gates of heaven are unlocked for you.
12.
Now we know what
the key unlocks. But where do we find it? We find it in the Church Jesus
builds on the confession that he’s the Christ. People have all sorts of reasons
for being in church on Christmas Eve. For many, it’s an opportunity for family
to be together at a very special time of year. It wouldn’t be Christmas without
going to church with family on Christmas Eve. For others, it’s a way to
remember how things used to be. Our world has changed, our culture is
different, but at least once a year things are the way they used to be. The
songs, the lessons, the creed are just as we learned them as children. That’s
reassuring.
13.
But there’s
another reason for being here. “Here”
is the Church where you find the Key of David, the keys to the kingdom of
heaven. Those keys are here in the form of two gifts from God: the Word and the
Sacraments. Through the Word of the Gospel that you hear and believe, Jesus
forgives your sins and opens the gates of heaven for you. Through the
Sacraments, those visible signs—bread and wine in Holy Communion, water in Holy
Baptism—through these Jesus himself is present and opens the gates of heaven
for you. This is where you find the Key
of David, the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
14.
During the
holidays, some of us will go to parties at restaurants. A few will max out
their credit cards at the mall. Many will gather with family for a wonderful
meal and presents. All these things are part of the excitement. But, you find
the keys to heaven when you gather in the name of the triune God as the Church
of Jesus Christ to receive his gifts of forgiveness in Word and Sacrament.
15.
We often say, “Christmas is about giving.” It is. But,
it’s not really about our giving gifts to loved ones. And it’s
not really about our giving God gifts to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
None of this is bad. It’s good. But the giving of Christmas is really about God
giving us his gifts—the gift of the Key of David, his Son, to be our
crucified and risen Savior. And then, it’s about God giving us, through
Word and Sacrament, the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Through these means of
grace Jesus comes to us, we’re forgiven, we possess eternal life, and we look
forward to resurrection.
16.
How do you see
yourself tonight? Are you self-satisfied, thinking of yourself as a good
person, worthy of heaven? If that’s you, then what I’ve said probably doesn’t “ring a bell.” You aren’t at the point in
your life where the Key of David means much yet. But keep coming. Through the
Word you hear, the Holy Spirit can still speak to you and help you see your
need of Christ’s gifts. But as you find yourself praying the words to the song
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” God has much
to give you tonight. Let me read you the literal translation of the Latin: “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.”
17.
Tonight, if you
recognize yourself a prisoner of sin, if you live in the darkness of guilt and
the fear of death, Jesus is here with his gift of the keys to set you free. Receive
them by faith, and heaven’s door is flung wide open for you! We pray: Jesus,
Key of David, come near to us we pray, in Word and Sacrament. Forgive our sins,
and open to us the gates of heaven. In your holy name we pray. Amen.
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