December 10, Rev. Ethan Stoppenhagen

Ezekiel 37:24-28

My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

Gods and kings tend to be faraway people; their heavens and thrones stand beyond our everyday experience. But in Christ, all these things draw near. In the incarnation, God establishes his dwelling place among us. Christ our King establishes his throne in our midst.

Ezekiel prophesied to Israel that God would bring them out of Babylon to dwell in the Promised Land once again. But there’s something different with his prophecy. Their new King David would be their prince forever. This wouldn’t be a kingdom bound by time; this new king would reign eternally! Ezekiel was prophesying the reign of Christ.

But Christ’s kingdom doesn’t look like that of David or any of Israel’s past kings. He was of royal descent, but he was born in a barn, not a palace. His royal court is full of all the wrong people—sinners like you and me. And finally his crown is one of thorns; his mighty arm made perfect, nailed to the cross. But it’s through this weakness that Christ makes his covenant of peace with us. His blood has freed us from the chaotic kingdom of death and devil and placed us firmly in his kingdom of peace.

There our King dwells with us, blessing us with his presence in the humble forms of Word and water and bread and wine. No longer is he far away. God has come near and stays near until that day when he will come to bring us into his sanctuary forevermore.

Rev. Ethan Stoppenhagen

Messiah Lutheran Church – Germantown, MD

Christ Academy: High School Student, 2014 Christ Academy: High School Proctor, 2015-2016, 2018 Christ Academy: Student Director, 2019-2020, 2022