Advent 2 Malachi 3:1-7 Launder’s Soap
Malachi 3:1-7 Philippians 1:2-11 Luke 3:1-14 (15-20)
According to Malachi, sin had corrupted all Israel including the Levites, God’s chosen priests, who were to be his full-time servants. The Levites descended from Aaron served as priests, and all the other Levites helped transport the tabernacle and later conducted worship at the Jerusalem temple.
As the prophet Malachi looked over God’s people in his time, he was greatly saddened. Their sins had become commonplace, but were not something that they seriously considered to be offensive to God. Sin had become something that was simply accepted as part of life.
Whenever they sinned, they just made an offering according to the Levitical Law and considered the matter settled. Their offerings had simply become payments for their sins but were done without sorrow. There was no regret or repentance of their sins, just a sorrow over what they had to pay. The priests had developed a sacrificial system that no longer correlated to God but had become a law unto itself. The people were in a state of unrepentant sin, unrighteousness and their offerings were not God pleasing.
Righteous, God-pleasing offerings were meant to point to and remind them of the perfect Savior; the Lamb without blemish that was coming to be sacrificed for all. But they had stopped looking for the arrival of the Savior. To make matters worse, instead of sacrificing animals without blemish, they would use ones that were injured or sick; animals that probably would have died anyway. Just like Cain’s offerings of leftover fruit, (Genesis 4:3-7) their thoughtless offerings were neither pleasing nor acceptable to God. To the contrary, their lack of faith in the Savior, lack of sorrow over their sins and their sacrifices of imperfect animals were insults to God! No wonder Malachi had become frustrated with the people of Israel.
Saint Paul would later speak with the same frustration about the Israelites of his day. In Chapter 10 (2-4) of his letter to the Romans he says, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”
Today it is still true that many people who consider them selves to be religious and faithful have put their trust in their own works rather than in Christ. Even more people do not consider breaking the Commandments of God as an offense against Him and still more people do not give of their first fruits. Rather they give of their time and talents out of what is left and if they run out of time or money, they give nothing at all. They have this mistaken belief that since they are basically good people, they have a right to enter into Heaven.
Malachi has given a timeless warning to all people who do not take God seriously. He warns us all, “Who can stand when he appears? He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” What does Malachi mean?
There is a movie called A Christmas Story which I’m sure most of you have seen. The whole story is based around Ralphie, a boy who is trying to convince everyone that he should get a genuine Red Rider BB gun for Christmas. Part way through the story, the young boy curses and His parents are offended and upset.
Ralphie dreaded that ride home in the car because he knew the time was coming when he would be punished. The next scene shows his mother putting a big bar of Lifeboy soap in his mouth. If you have ever tasted Lifeboy soap, you know how bad it tastes. But if it did not taste bad, it wouldn’t be much of a punishment or much of a deterrent.
The soap of God’s law causes a bad taste in our mouths because we know we are sinners. But the knowledge of what Christ has done for us; His dying on the cross for all our sins causes us to repent and we are renewed spiritually by the power of God’s grace. It begins with “coming clean” by admitting our sins against God and confessing them before Him.
By ourselves, we cannot bring to pass any of those changes. In today’s lessons, Malachi, John the Baptist, and Paul each point to faith in Jesus as the one and only way to be righteous before God. Faith has always been the only way to be declared righteous. Faith in Christ is now and always will be the only way to be saved. Through Faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, we are cleansed; as we renounce our sin we are purified by His grace. Reflecting in the knowledge of His death causes us to think about the sins in our lives that Christ has paid for. God removes your sins by leading you to repentance and faith.
The removal of your sins is best shown at your baptism. The water combined with the word becomes a powerful cleanser that washes away your sins. Baptism acts like a concentrated cleanser, that works each and every time we remember that just as we were baptized into Christ’s Death, we are also baptized into His life though the washing of the Word.
We daily receive God’s forgiveness whenever we remember our Baptism! However, our baptism is not a magic formula by which we wash ourselves clean. Rather we are cleansed of our sins by God whenever we remember Christ’s death and resurrection in our hearts. Baptism does not give you a license to sin, however. Baptism is not a work that you do or a magic movement that you make whereby you wash away all of your sins. Rather when you remember your baptism you remind yourself of the terrible price Jesus paid on the cross so that your sins could be forgiven.
Whenever you ask in prayer or make confession for your sins, God washes you clean, year after year, week after week and day after day. Daily, Luther says, the old sinful Adam is drowned as we turn to God’s Word. To the sinful Adam in each of us the word of God tastes bad like a bar of soap.
But to those who believe, we confess our sins and trust Christ’s forgiveness, through His washing away of our sins.
It’s the Launderer’s soap of God’s word that gets rid of the grime of each day’s sins. Malachi compares it to a soap with powerful bleach that a professional cleaner would use. God’s soap not only cleanses; it brightens garments. Baptism clothes us in Christ’s whitest robes of righteousness so that we may be found righteous in God’s sight first from a cleansing within our hearts then in our outward cleaning. This outward cleansing appears in our carrying out of God commands in our everyday actions. Our works done in faith become outward signs of that inward faith.
Therefore living as Christians in this world becomes easier knowing the joy that comes from discovering God’s free grace. Having the knowledge of God’s love within our hearts allows us to look at others in a way that wants us to share our inner joy with them. That is the joy that Paul felt towards the Philippians as he shared the love of Christ with those around him.
That same joy is what calls you to be the voice of one calling in the wilderness. God calls you to share your joy by not only rejoicing in your salvation but also by proclaiming the Good News to others. St. Paul talks about that in our Epistle Lesson. The apostle says to the entire church at Philippi, “All of you share in God’s grace with me” (Phil 1:7). Not just pastors, but all Christians share a “partnership in the Gospel” (Phil 1:5).
So I say along with Saint Paul, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
In Jesus Name, Amen.