Ebenezer

First Lesson: Malachi 3: 1-4
Responsive Reading: Luke 1: 68-79
Second Lesson: Philippians 1: 3-11
​Gospel Lesson: Luke 3: 1-6

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Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
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In one of the most well-known stories of Christmas author Charles Dickens tells the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge[1]. Ebenezer’s story seemingly starts on Christmas Eve.  Ebenezer was the owner of a loan house. Ebenezer hated Christmas!  Christmas brought out the worst of Ebenezer’s penny-pinching and miserable ways[2]. Ebenezer considered Christmas to be a “humbug[3]” which meant a bunch of nonsense or a total waste of time. 

Ebenezer employed one man Bob Cratchit. Cratchit was a good man, a family man with a sickly child named Tiny Tim. Ebenezer knew Cratchit needed the job and took advantage of Cratchit’s desperation in every way he could think of: low pay, long hours, and would complain whenever Cratchit dared thinking about putting his loved ones first such as taking Christmas day off.

 The defining scene of Ebenezer’s nature occurs when a man approaches Ebenezer as one of the wealthiest men around asking for a donation on behalf of the poor. Ebenezer sneers at the man that “the poor are better off dead.” Ebenezer seemed to be an old man set in his ways with no hope of any redemption.

Only on the night of Christmas Eve, an unexpected visitor comes into Ebenezer’s life in his former long-dead business partner Jacob Marley who lived his life with the same miserly ways as Ebenezer[4].  Marley had been consigned to chains upon his death as punishment for his rotten ways on Earth.  Marley warns Ebenezer that he one final chance at salvation from unexpected visitors hoping to save Ebenezer before it’s too late. What ends up happening with Ebenezer? We’ll get back to his story in just a little bit.

Today’s First Lesson comes to us from the Book of Malachi[5].  Malachi is most-known for two things:  one, Being the final book of the Old Testament,   two, Malachi was written a little more than 400 years before the births of John the Baptist and Jesus.

Last week, I talked about the Life of Prophet Jeremiah who was a first-hand witness to the Fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587 B.C.  The Jewish people would be exiled from their homeland for 50 long years. They were forced to live in Babylon where men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would resist Babylonian rulers who sought to get them to denounce their faith in Lion’s Dens and fiery furnaces. In 538 B.C, The Persians conquered the Babylonians allowing the people of Jerusalem to return home finally.  They began to rebuild from the previous destruction: both the walls of the city and eventually the Temple to serve as the center of their worship life. If Jeremiah’s life had been the low point in Israel’s history, one-hundred fifty-some years later Malachi’s life was things slowly getting better after Israel’s worst days, but still not all that good.  If Jeremiah described a nation under destruction, Malachi describes a nation under malaise[6]. 

What were the main issues in Malachi?  The first main issue has to do with clergy preaching what was popular rather than what people needed to here. The second issue had to do with the people of Israel doing their best Ebenezer Scrooge impersonations in trying to see above all else how cheap they could be[7]. 

You see the Old Testament demanded that people bring forth their finest animals as sacrifices for their sin.  What people would bring instead was three-legged lambs, blind calves, and cows that had all sorts of nasty/foot and mouth diseases.  Ebenezer would have been proud. 

What they were doing in Malachi would have been the equivalent of promising to deliver steak, but instead offering table scraps instead. 

So God sends Malachi as a messenger to the people no different than the message that Jacob Marley have Ebenezer.  God’s final chance at redemption for your people’s salvation is soon coming among us! As evidence of this, God will send a sign a new “Elijah” to ready the way.  This messenger will bring a purification of a “refiner’s fire[8].

Back to the story of Ebenezer.    Ebenezer’s unexpected visitors took the form of three ghosts.  The ghosts of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, and the ghost of Christmas future.  These ghosts like the new “Elijah” of whom Malachi spoke confronted Ebenezer with the realities of the depths of his sin. 

The ghost of Christmas past reminds Ebenezer of his lost chance for love as a young man[9].  Ebenezer blew his chance at love because just like Adam and Eve within the Garden of Eden, he could see the fruit of wealth, but could not understand this fruit’s potential consequences. Ebenezer’s world would never be the same again after being permanently banished from this woman’s life, no differently than Adam and Eve’s sin had banished them from paradise.

The second ghost then appears showing Ebenezer Christmas in the present.  Bob Cratchit is gathered around his family including Tiny Tim with his cane[10].  Ebenezer can’t believe that Tiny Tim could have nothing, yet he possessed a love towards no one others that knew no limits[11]. The ghost then reminded Ebenezer of his previous words how “poor” children like Tiny Tim are better off dead.  The scene reminds you of the crowd shouting at Jesus during Holy Week “Crucify Him, Crucify Him[12].” The love of Jesus towards these same people would soon know no limits even unto the grave itself.

The third ghost that appears before Ebenezer is the ghost of Christmas future.  The scene is one year in the future[13]. Tiny Tim has died because his father couldn’t afford his health care on the tiny salary paid to him by Ebenezer. The spirit then takes Ebenezer to watch a terrifying scene relating to the death of a “wretched “ man.  A man who with no intervention is destined for hell.  Ebenezer hears his business associates laughing about how no only liked this “man” and will only go to his funeral for a “free” lunch.  Upon the man’s death, all the earthly possessions that he spent his whole life accumulating are stolen.  The ghost then takes Ebenezer to the unidentified man’s tomb only to see it read: “Ebenezer Scrooge.”

Ebenezer’s life would change on that night’.  The messenger that Malachi promised the people of Israel would be slower in arriving.  A gap of about 400 years takes place between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament[14].  The gap points to the clear distinction between God’s old way of doing things within the nation of Israel has to do with obedience to the Ten Commandments and animal sacrifices versus God’s new way of doing things in Christ Jesus. 

We’re sixteen days from Christmas, this often can seem like not enough time, yet the people of Israel waited for four hundred years for the Advent of God’s chosen one upon the Earth.  Malachi preached a message of great urgency no different than the spirits preached to Ebenezer only to be met with silence. 

The second to the last verse of the Old Testament: Malachi 4:5 speaks of the “new” Elijah who was to come:
During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight[15]."

Four hundred years of waiting until John the Baptist would come to prepare the way for the Lord, the Messiah, the Christ, John the Baptist’s message would mirror Malachi’s in many ways.

 Let me read the final words of the Old Testament: “He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction[16]."

These words highlight the harshest of sin’s curses. These realities could not be escaped by either Ebenezer or ourselves. John the Baptist came to prepare a “new” way of the grace of God to bring us life in the Messiah that was to come[17]. 

On Christmas morning, Ebenezer would awaken.  Just like when Jesus awakened on Easter Sunday, everything would soon change.  Ebenezer rushed to his windows, shouted out “What day is this?” “Is it Christmas?[18]” Ebenezer’s humbugs had changed to shouts of “Hallejuah.” Ebenezer rushed to find the buy and bring the biggest turkey in town to the Cratchits and Tiny Tim[19]. 

Ebnezer’s story is a remarkable one! Here’s where Ebenezer’s story mirrors our own.  There is no Christmas without the silent night before.  There is no long-awaited Messiah without a nation trying to piece itself back together (both physically and spiritually) after generations in exile, there is no Easter without Good Friday[20]. 

To bring this message, God would send two messengers to prepare us.  The first messenger would be named Malachi. The second messenger would be named John the Baptist.  These messengers would prepare the way for the Savior that was to come.  Pretty soon, all sorts of people just like Ebenezer will be shouting for joy as they awaken on Christmas morning!
 
 

[1] “Ebenezer Scrooge.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 19.Nov.2018. Web. Nov.20.2018. 
[2] Markquardt, Ed. “Cleanse me from my sin, deep within... Refiner's Fire.” Sermons from Seattle. Web. Nov.20.2018. 
[3] “Humbug.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 23. Sept.2018. Web. Nov.20.2018. 
[4] Ebenezer Scrooge.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation.
[5] Malachi 3:1-4. 
[6] Hoezee, Scott. “Malachi 3:1-4.” Center for Excellence in Preaching. Calvin Seminary. Grand Rapids. 30.Nov.2015. Web. Nov.20.2018. 
[7] Hoezee, Scott. “Malachi 3:1-4.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[8] Malachi 3:3. 
[9] Markquardt, Ed. “Cleanse me from my sin, deep within... Refiner's Fire.” Sermons from Seattle.
[10] Markquardt, Ed. “Cleanse me from my sin, deep within... Refiner's Fire.” Sermons from Seattle.
[11] Ebenezer Scrooge.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation.
[12] Luke 23:21.
[13] Ebenezer Scrooge.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation.
[14] Meyer, Timm. “Our Lord Sends His Messenger.” Sermon Central. 16.Jan.2009. Web. Nov.20.2018. 
[15] Luke 3:2-4. 
[16] Malachi 4:6.
[17] Hoezee, Scott. “Malachi 3:1-4.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[18] Markquardt, Ed. “Cleanse me from my sin, deep within... Refiner's Fire.” Sermons from Seattle.
[19] Markquardt, Ed. “Cleanse me from my sin, deep within... Refiner's Fire.” Sermons from Seattle.
[20] Markquardt, Ed. “Cleanse me from my sin, deep within... Refiner's Fire.” Sermons from Seattle.