Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

The flag proclaims whose dominion it is and if you recognize the flag, then you have an expectation of what life is like in that place. When you travel throughout Canada, you expect to see the Canadian flag, the Maple Leaf, which represents a certain way of life in this world. When you cross the bridge into the United States of America, you will very soon be aware that you are not in Canada anymore. The Stars and Stripes flies over there and there is a bit of a different culture as well, although perhaps slight in difference.

 

Whatever country you travel in you will see its flag. That flag proclaims the rule, authority, and dominion. And within those countries, there may have be granted a space of dominion to another country where it has been allowed to establish an embassy, a defined and bounded place from where it can conduct its affairs on foreign soil but under its own laws. If you walk through our nation’s capital, the city of Ottawa, you will see not only our imposing Parliament Buildings flying the Maple Leaf from the Peace Tower, but also scattered properties and compounds throughout the city designated as foreign embassies, flying flags of their own (the USA, Saudi Arabia, India, Czech Republic, Honduras, etc.). And you need to be aware that if you cross the boundaries onto those properties under a different flag, you will be subject to their laws, founded upon their culture, and not to Canadian Law.

 

In addition to national flags there are also provincial, regional, and municipal flags that are flown. The areas where these flags are raised show that the area is governed by those whom the flag represents. But in recent history the number of different flags you might see just throughout one city has greatly increased, even where there are no embassies. There are now flags of various causes and ideologies that are raised at various occasions.

 

Last week, a member of the Provincial Parliament in British Columbia made headlines across the nation when she introduced a Public Flags Display Act to the BC legislature. She explained that the act would “prohibit the flying of flags on provincial property other than the Canadian national flag, BC’s provincial flag, and municipal flags.” She noted that recently the Palestinian Flag was raised at city hall in the cities of Calgary, Toronto, and elsewhere across Canada. And that at the BC legislature the provincial flag was taken down and replaced by a transgender flag for a month.

 

The parliamentarian noted that the Canadian Maple Leaf and provincial flags are already symbols of inclusion and equity that represent all citizens, which also recognizes the truth that raising other ideological flags is actually divisive and exclusionary. Not all Canadians support the Palestinian regime in the current conflict (we have both Palestinian and Israeli immigrants living in our country), and not all Canadians are supportive of transgender ideology either. The proposed legislation in British Columbia did not make it past the first of three readings.

 

In our Old Testament Lesson for today, the LORD revealed to the prophet Isaiah (and had him proclaim to us) that from the stump of a family dynasty as good as dead, a shoot would sprout forth to bear fruit, and that the root of this stump will stand tall like a flag to draw all people under its dominion, a dominion of righteousness, grace, and peace.

 

We are used to flags representing nations, dominions, or kingdoms. But necessarily those flags also represent those who rule the nations, dominions, and kingdoms. There is a royal flag, or ensign that is flown when the ruler is present. So the promise made about the root becoming a signal flag for God’s people was also a promise of the coming of God to be present with His people. And the design of that flag, its emblems, indicate the type of ruler that He would be among His people.

 

Since the emblem presented to Isaiah is all a part of Jesse’s family tree (root, stump, branch, and fruit), we are told that God entered the human race in His coming to be a resident ruler of His people. Jesse was King David’s father. But this is not simply the return of King David. Rather, it goes back before that first David to indicate that we did not get a simple repeat of the ancient King of Israel. As much good as King David did for the people entrusted to him, he also had some pretty wicked sins that can in no way be endorsed.

 

But the promise was made to David that his kingdom would be established forever and that there would come one from his own physical descent who would rule over the kingdom forever. There was great hope for David’s son, Solomon, who asked God to grant him wisdom and discernment to rule the people with justice and equity. But Solomon also fell to wickedness and even to idolatry, worshipping the gods of his many wives.

 

After Solomon’s death the kingdom was divided. The northern kingdom had rulers from many different families as one family exterminated another. The southern kingdom maintained rulers of David’s family line but, even so, it was decimated for the sins of the kings and the sins that the whole nation adopted from the example of their wicked kings. Both north and south kingdoms were conquered repeatedly and the once glorious tall cedar of a nation was left nothing more than a stump, completely cut off.

 

But God’s promise to Isaiah began to sprout after 700 years of apparent dead wood, and a shoot from the stump of Jesse’s family dynasty began to blossom. A virgin named Mary of the house of David conceived in her womb and bore a son and called His name Jesus (Luke 1). “Lo, how a rose e’er blooming From tender stem hath sprung! Of Jesse’s lineage coming As prophets long have sung” (LSB 359.1). God took on our human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin and became man in the Person of Jesus the Christ—fruit from the branch springing out of the stump of Jesse, a new king from David’s kingly line, yet one that also goes back farther than David himself.

 

“Christ” means “anointed,” and as a king is anointed with oil so Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit when, through the hand of John the Baptist pouring water, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and rested upon Him (Matthew 3). The Spirit of wisdom and understanding greater than that of Solomon, to rule God’s people with counsel and might and knowledge according to the will of the LORD, resides with Jesus the anointed.

 

This King Jesus came to give justice to the oppressed, setting them free from the oppression of sin, sickness, devil, and death. He came to punish the wicked with heavy blows from the rod of His mouth which condemns every sin by the Word of God. He came to bring salvation for all who would repent and turn from their wickedness at God’s Word of warning, so that they might find forgiveness and life, just as John the Baptist proclaimed to prepare the way for the coming King. The emblems of the root of Jesse, stump, branch, and fruit proclaim what kind of a King He is.

 

And His flag flies to establish the boundaries of His realm. As at His first coming Jesus told Pontius Pilate, His kingdom is not of this world (John 18). That is, it does not have geographic boundaries. Rather the kingdom of Jesus is bounded by His righteousness, grace, and peace. God’s kingdom is found where His righteousness rules. Everything is right and done rightly according to God’s will.

 

Therefore there is no violence or danger. The devil is banished from God’s kingdom. The curse of sin is undone, grace and forgiveness cleanse the wicked, and even the natural world poses no more danger to God’s children. As it was in the garden of Eden when the animals came to Adam to receive their names (Genesis 2), so there will be peace and harmony among all the creatures of God.

 

Likewise there will be peace and harmony among the people whose sins have been forgiven, who have seen the face of God’s love in Jesus Christ, and through whom that flows freely. Both literally and figuratively the wolf shall dwell with the lamb. Those persecutors who have been as wolves to the people of God’s flock, are forgiven and reconciled. Not even the serpents whom the devil embodied to deceive Eve in the original garden (Genesis 3), will be a threat to the smallest of the children of God’s kingdom.

 

As the emblems proclaim the character and identity of the King’s Person and His flag delineates the bounds of His kingdom in the righteousness, grace and peace of God, so it also functions as an ensign to indicate the presence of the monarch among His people. The Lord is where this signal is raised. He is personally present for the comfort of His subjects. He is there to bestow the bounds of His kingdom upon them, to cover them with His righteousness, to shower them with His grace and to surround them with His peace.

 

The ensign of His presence then also becomes a beacon to draw people to Him. They know where to rally, where to flee for safety, and where the joyous celebration of His presence can be found. The peoples flock to Him as refugees coming out of every nation, tribe, and language. Throughout the entire geography of the globe they all find their promised peace in Him.

 

For His resting place is glorious. He rested in death upon the cross, and He rested dead in a rich man’s tomb. But He rose from death on the third day so that you might live in His glorious rest. You can rest from guilt and shame, from anxiety and worry, from the exertion to set all things right in whatever realm you are trying to rule. For our rest is in this king, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself into death for our sins and rose again to give us life everlasting with Him, under His gracious rule.

 

How can you find His kingdom? Look for the ensign indicating His presence. Look for the flag that shows the bounds of His grace. Watch for the emblems that reveal the Person of your King and there He will be reigning over His kingdom. What does this root look like, upon which the lineage of Jesse is founded? How do we recognize the fruit of this branch that sprouted from a stump? What is the signal for the peoples that draws us to Him?

 

It is the dead wood of the cross upon which God in human flesh hangs limp in the wind. It is the crucified Son of David who is also David’s ever-living Lord. It is He who created man, became man, redeemed man, and would rule man in righteousness, grace, and peace. Rally to Christ crucified and there you will be in the presence of your king. Where the crucified is held up before your eyes you will be within the boundaries of His kingdom. Where the crucified is portrayed and proclaimed as the fruit that comes from a dead stump, there you will have life in Him and rest in the glory of God.