Author: Daron Lindemann
Last saved by: Barb Bartz

A Striking Symbol of the Savior: The Sun
Malachi 4:1-3

	If you were to make a list of the top five people you trust, I can guess one person who would be on that list. Your local, friendly meteorologist. As a matter of fact, you trust him so much that when you want to turn off the ten o’ clock news and just get your sleep, you talk yourself into staying up an extra fifteen minutes to hear him tell you how to dress the next day or whether you’ll need to scrape your car windows before going to work. Driving in the car you turn up the volume on the radio when you hear that catchy weather forecast jingle because he’ll help you plan your next few days. In today’s Bible section from the prophet Malachi there’s a forecast given to believers by God so that we can adjust our lives accordingly. The forecast includes A Striking Symbol of the Savior: The Sun, to brighten our days on this earth and enlighten our way to eternity.

Burning the arrogant

	These days we’re taught to be very careful about sunshine. As tempting as it is to bask in its warmth we’re told that we better do so with certain precautions. The risk of skin cancer is greater today than it was twenty years ago because we’re outside so much more and the protective ozone layers in the atmosphere are thinning, so much that one in seven people will develop skin cancer. The sun’s ultraviolet rays can be very harmful to our skin and eyes, and that they’re so powerful they can even deceptively pass through clouds and water. We’re told that we must limit our exposure to the sun between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.; we must wear sunglasses, hats, and sunscreen with an SPF of at least fifteen; we must keep babies out of the sun and avoid tanning beds. Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard the warnings but, hey, the sun feels good and when those first days of sunshine warm up the golf course or lakefront or backyard after a long winter the last thing we want to do is cover up or stay inside. And we get burned. 

	This Bible portion in Malachi tells us that’s exactly what happens to people who ignore God’s precautions about his Son, Jesus Christ. “’Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,’ says the Lord Almighty.”  

Quite a forecast. It predicted that there would be lots of sunshine in the day when Jesus, God’s one and only Son, would rise from the obscurity of a little known village and shine on the people in Galilee. Those who would arrogantly assume that they needed no preparation for his brightness, that they could be exposed to his rays of light without repenting of sin and changing their behavior, would be burned. Messianic meteorologist John the Baptist predicted, “After me will come one who is more powerful than I … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is already in his hand … gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire … every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10-12). The arrogant will be burned.

The Malachi forecast predicted that at the end of time when the day of eternity dawns and the Son of God bursts brightly upon our world there will be those who think they are safe from the Son’s rays of glory and holiness because they’re as good as anyone else in the world. But they’re arrogantly mistaken. Jesus warned, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven … Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers’” (Matthew 7:21-23). The arrogant will be burned.

The Malachi forecast predicted that those arrogantly undisturbed about warnings against sinful behavior and sinful pride, would be burned. Nothing of their own strength, their own wisdom, their own success would be left to show others because the intensity of the Son of God’s righteous judgment would burn it and them away forever. The sinful arrogance inside of you that insists it hasn’t done wrong, insists it knows better than others, and insists that you are a good person who doesn’t need to be criticized or corrected – does that sinful arrogance make you afraid? It should. Do the rays of the Son of God’s holiness and righteous judgment beaming to the bottom of your soul and searching for thoughts or actions inconsistent with God’s holy demands make you afraid? They better, or you’ll arrogantly find yourself burned by the Son, who says, “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown into the fire and burned” (John 15:6). The Malachi forecast reports “not a root or a branch will be left to them.” This forecast wasn’t, by the way, directed to the heathen pagan people in the nations around Judah. It was directed to God’s own people, in danger of getting sunburned because of their arrogance! “Surely, the day is coming!” God warns then and warns now. The Son has power to burn. Repent of your exposure to sin. Take the warnings seriously. Turn away from treating temptation lightly. Stop doing nothing about your behavior that your conscience tells you is wrong and you know it but you still do it. Never point the finger of blame for your sins at others again. Or you’ll get burned by the Son.

Healing the reverent

	In 1903 Danish physician Niels Finsen was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in recognition of his success in treating tuberculosis of the skin with ultraviolet radiation. And the best source to supply us with ultraviolet radiation is, of course, the sun. During the latter part of the 1800’s scientists discovered that a good suntan is caused not by the heat of the sun (its infrared waves) but by the light of the sun (its ultraviolet waves). These ultraviolet waves in sunlight can kill bacteria, and so medical professionals like Finsen began using sunlight therapy to treat skin diseases. Hospital wards were designed with special glass to allow the ultraviolet rays of sunlight to work their healing powers on patients with infections. Sunbathing was prescribed by doctors who noted the best time of the day and time of the year and temperature for exposure to the sun. Bottom line: in the right hands, sunlight is a medicine. It seems that the message we’re getting today about the dangers of sunshine is tipped too far on the scale of risk and needs to be balanced toward the other side of reward. The sun can hurt, but it also can heal. 

	Scientific evidence simple confirms what we already know about the healing sun. For instance, how did you feel this past fall when the month of October provided ten days of cloudy, gloomy, rainy weather in a row and then you woke up one morning greeted by the sunshine sparkling on a crisp fall day? Do you enjoy the beautiful colors of autumn leaves, or a lush and plush green lawn in your yard or a nearby park soaking up the spring sunshine and welcoming new life to the world? That’s when you go out and, as described in Malachi, “leap like calves released from the stall.” That feeling of freedom and freshness. All that excited expectation building up in the prison of gloomy days is suddenly released by the sun and your heart leaps for joy. The sunshine feels good. It’s warming and soothing. It’s energizing and inspiring. That’s Jesus, the Son of God, here in Malachi called the sun of righteousness who brings with him everything that is perfectly right so that he heals our infections of sin and diseases of dismal guilt. “For you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings,” promises our Lord. The reverent are healed.

	To be reverent means to respect someone or something with awe. It means you take seriously its potential and power, and treat it with care. Like respecting the power of electricity, or fire, or the sun. Show that kind of respect to Jesus by putting your faith in his promises. Take seriously his power to burn and to heal by repenting of sin and trusting in his forgiveness. Treat with care his tender mercy that shows compassion to the worst of sinners. Because Jesus’ sunshine is medicine. It heals. “The Lord has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,” he announces to those broken down by their sinful mistakes (Isaiah 61:1). “I live … with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite,” he promises to those bothered by their sins and humbly seeking forgiveness (Isaiah 57:15). 

The wings, or rays, of the sun of righteousness stretch over the world searching to touch the darkness of despair and bring the saving light of Christ’s love to people clouded with guilt. What sinful pattern of thinking or behaving needs to be burned away from your life? What heartache do you have that needs to be healed? Look to the light of your Savior’s promises and get some more sun. Amen.