Advent Take Aways
Take away Injustice
Jeremiah 33:14-16

† In Jesus’ Name †

May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrate what righteousness and justice truly is, even as you share in Christ’s Justice and Righteousness!

• God Gives…God Takes Away

Looking at all the Advent readings for this year, a common thread started to appear. Or perhaps it would be good to say was that the common thread was that things disappeared.

You see, the coming of Christ, whether the first coming, or the second coming we wait for, means radical change to life – as things which haunt us disappear. In this sermon series, we will watch the distractions that corrupt us be taken away, then the fear and anxiety be taken away, we see our-self-centeredness taken away…and we will consider what their absence means…

It all starts with what is taken away in today’s reading, as the promise of God is heard,

And injustice is dealt with

And what is left, when Christ comes, is the complete absence of injustice and its corollary, unrighteousness, is truly amazing…

• The Take Away

If we are going to talk about injustice, we better define what is not just, what is not right, what is not fair. Just, right and fair are all the same word in both Greek and Hebrew.

The problem is that most of us, injustice is slanted heavily in our favor, as we cry out about a call in a sporting event. “those refs are blind”, like a child accusing another of an unfair advantage. We do the same thing when we hear of someone’s court case, or a business deal, or a war.

We assume, and often demand that others acknowledge that we have all the information, that we know all the rules, and that we have the responsibility and authority to judge the matter! Whether we are on the playground, or trying to force peace on the Holy Land.

This is where it gets a bit…challenging. Unless we not only know exactly what happened, and exactly what the minds were thinking and hearts were feeling, our judgment of what is injust or just is biased, and therefore sinful!

Yeah – we can be the ones who back injustice, even when we claim to be defending justice! God’s standard of justice versus injustice has no grey area, it is complete. Anything less than 100% perfect is unrighteous, anything biased where we claim it isn’t fair or righteous is simply sin—we’ve decided to make God in our image—we’ve credited ourselves with His purity, with His omniscience, with His righteousness and justice!

And let’s face it, that isn’t us!

For us to pray to end injustice affects our attitudes and behaviors as much as the world’s

• What that Leaves Us

So the promise from Jeremiah deals with the taking away of injustice. It is the focus of the entire passage. It starts with

¹⁴ “The day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them. ¹⁵ “In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land.  (Jeremiah 33:14-15)

Here is the promise of the first advent – the coming of Jesus—the descendant of King David. The difference between Jesus and every other descendant of David is simple—He is righteous—remember- that is the same word as just!

Here is the standard, here is the One whom everyone else is going to be measured by, and in him, there will be hope—a hope that was always promised, a hope to restore the people of God, and the glory of His people that was seen in the days of King David!

But the way Jesus deals with injustice is not through legislation, the establishment of His kingdom is not through political intrigue, or brute military strength. That is what the world still struggles to understand, as it sees injustice as something that has to be overwhelmed.

Instead, injustice is dealt with by Jesus by His taking it upon Himself at the cross. That is the real way to deal with it, to let it be laid on Jesus, as Isaiah prophesied,

⁴  Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! ⁵  But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. ⁶  All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.  Isaiah 53:4-6 (NLT2)

This is why Jeremiah says, ¹⁶ In that day Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this will be its name: ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’

You see, this is the key—Jesus doesn’t just provide us righteousness as someone would deposit or credit us money. Jesus is not just why we are righteous—He is out righteousness.

It is our union with Him in baptism, where we are united with His death, and He cleanses of us sin and all injustice and He becomes our righteousness. He is our Righteousness…

As he takes away the injustice -all of it, at the cross –leaving us freed from it.  This is the hope of the second advent, the day when Injustice, already defeated Is banished.

And until that day, The Lord Jesus will protect you, as you dwell in the Father’s peace which is beyond all understanding. AMEN!