We come this Sunday to the end of the church year and to the end of our series of sermons from the prophet Micah. It’s “Christ the King” on the church calendar and the closing verses of Micah, 7:11-20, fittingly display the shepherd-like rule of the King caring for His people, restoring their nation and forgiving their sins.
On a side note, these verses are more evidence against any sort of dispensationalist replacement eschatology which has God completely annihilating the present world at the end of time. Instead, what Micah pictures in the short run for the people’s return to Jerusalem is also the long-term Christian hope, that both ourselves and the world we live in will be restored, renewed, cleansed and perfected in the kingdom of God.
So as we speak of a restored vehicle or home as “just like new,” God will restore the lives of His people and the land and city in which they live, making all “just like new.”
In the Gospel for today, John 18:33-37, Jesus says that His kingdom is “not of this world.” A better translation is “not from here.” The point is not that the kingdom of our Lord is and belongs somewhere else, but that its source, its authority, its peace and beauty come from beyond this world. Jesus says that’s why He came into our world, to testify to the truth of that kingdom, the reign of God over the world and everyone in it.
As Micah displays so wonderfully in our text, God’s intent is to draw us and our world into the beautiful peace which God enjoys within Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That peace includes things as mundane as the rebuilding of walls, as harsh as the shaming of enemies, and as comforting as the forgiveness of all our sins. By the same eternal love which unites the Trinity, God will eliminate our divisions, heal our brokenness, and unite us in Himself.
The last verse of the text, verse 20, is taken up and paraphrased in the last verse of the Magnificat, Mary’s song, in Luke 1:55. It tells us we can count on this promise of restoration, that it’s an ancient promise which God made good first to Abraham and his descendants, continued to make good through the Son of Mary, and will make good to all the spiritual children of Abraham. We confidently hope for that day when everything will be made just like new.