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The Third Sunday Of Easter
O God, whose blessed Son did manifest himself to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open, we pray thee, the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The Third Sunday Of Easter
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Scripture citation(s): Daniel 4:1-18; I John 2:7-17
A Sermon by
Fr. Daniels
on
Daniel 4:1-18; I John 2:7-17
✛
The Conversion of Nebuchadnezzar
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During this Easter season, a series of our daily office readings come from the Book of Daniel. The second half of Daniel is a full-fledged apocalyptic text, complete with visions and beasts and all things end-time related. If you are a fan of the book of Revelation in the New Testament (as I am), you can find much of that book foreshadowed in Daniel, in the Old Testament.
But it is not the apocalyptic part of Daniel that we hear in tonight’s first reading, which is taken from the fourth chapter of the book. Instead we hear of the seventh-century BC Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II, in his own voice.
Writing a letter, he tells an amazing tale. He had had a dream, in which he saw a tree, strong and tall, reaching into heaven, home to birds, producing fruit and verdant leaves. Then a visitor, whom he calls “a watcher and an holy one,” commands that the tree be cut down, its branches stripped, the birds sent away. But the stump was to stay in the earth.
Upon waking, he had asked the magicians and astrologers to interpret the dream for him, but none of them can do it. So this king calls on Daniel, a Hebrew, who had been taken into exile to Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem. They are a strange pair: Daniel, a Jew, a stranger in that strange land of Babylon; Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of Babylon at a time when it was one of the greatest cities of the world, one of the greatest that ever existed.
In the remainder of the fourth chapter, which goes unread tonight, Daniel does interpret the dream for him, and it is a warning to the king: the tree that is to be cut down is himself; the greatness that it seems that he has now will be utterly taken away from him. He will be removed from the world of royal luxury and refinement, authority and power, and be reduced to a state of nature. Driven out of the city and away from civilized life, he will dwell with the beasts of the field. On hands and knees, he will eat grass like oxen do. He will sleep in the fields uncovered, unprotected. It is a terrifying image of a great man reduced to barbarity.
But there is a way to avoid this, Daniel says, and it is straightforward: repent. Be righteous, not sinful. Put away iniquities and show mercy to the poor. Develop humility. Eradicate pride. Acknowledge that God is God and that he rules over all. If Nebuchadnezzar will do this one thing, the terrible fate of his nightmare can be avoided.
Nebuchadnezzar must have replied with something like, “I’ll think about it.” Because the next thing we hear is that twelve months later, there he was, walking on the roof of the palace and looking down at the city of Babylon, a great city, his city, the city that he had made, over which he ruled. It is said that ancient Babylon was the largest city of the world at the time, with two million inhabitants. It was ringed with double defensive walls to keep enemies out, topped with watchtowers, a veritable fortress. Even today, the ruins of the city are one of the most impressive archaeological sites in the world.
And the gardens. Legend has it that Nebuchadnezzar’s wife was from the area of Media, an environment of lush forests and vegetation. For her, Nebuchadnezzar constructed the Hanging Gardens, one of the ancient wonders of the world. The gardens, the city, the people, the transport, the commerce: as he surveyed his city from a height, Nebuchadnezzar beheld the greatness of Babylon, and he saw in it the greatness of himself.
In that moment of victory, of glory, of pride, the nightmare he had came true. The prophecy was fulfilled: he was driven out of his city, to the fields where he ate off the ground like an ox and lived unprotected under the skies. His hair grew wild, dirty and matted. His untrimmed nails became like “birds’ claws.” He was an animal, unrecognizable to human society.
It is tempting to say that he was “transformed” into this state, but that is not quite right. Perhaps it is better to say that in his debasement we see the true Nebuchadnezzar revealed. He had to that point been given a gift, which was rule over that great city of Babylon, control over the surrounding nations, including God’s own city of Jerusalem, and no doubt he lived in as much comfort as anyone of his era. The luxury and refinement of cosmopolitan Babylon had been placed into his hands and it was his to use and his to enjoy.
But God is God, and Nebuchadnezzar is not. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. The Nebuchadnezzar who lived as a wild animal was the same Nebuchadnezzar who walked atop the city walls, but now we see who he really is. Without a good heart and a mind for justice, all that he had would be taken away. In that moment when God brings him low, we are seeing the same inner man who has always been, but now reflected in the outer man, for all to see. And without the protective cover of luxury, what is seen is ugly, repulsive, inhuman. He could have repented, but he did not. And so, for seven years, the world sees Nebuchadnezzar for who he really is, on his hands and knees like an animal. Behold the ruler of Babylon, now the most wretched, most humiliated, of the earth, because, for all his refinement and elegance and authority, his heart was vile, prideful, and hideous. His power did not change that. It revealed it. It revealed who he really was.
But remember that it is Nebuchadnezzar himself telling us this story. And he is not telling it to complain; in fact, he tells it in exaltation, but a new kind of exaltation, an exaltation of God instead. In the depth of his degradation, he realized his place in the world. The king writes that then he “praised and honored him that liveth forever.” Not the king of Babylon, but the king “whose dominion is an everlasting dominion.” The king Nebuchadnezzar, in other words, is converted. His life is changed. Now, he “praise[s] and extol[s] and honor[s] the King of heaven,” “whose works are truth,” the God who is God, while he is not, the Lord who giveth, and the Lord who taketh away. To be in relationship with that God is the greatest gift of all, so that Nebuchadnezzar can look back on his dishonor without shame, because now he is free. To serve God is to be truly free. To be one with God is to be most fully oneself.
In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it can be hard to remember that all that we have is gift, gifts given from the hand of God, and that how we use these gifts reveal who we are, for better and for worse. In the epistle from tonight, Saint John reminds us that “The world passeth away,” and the desires of the world pass away, and the things of the world pass away, and all things that can be given can also be taken away.
But the God who is God abides forever, and he abides forever in loving communion with those who do the will of God. His judgment is true. His mercy is everlasting. And that mercy was for Nebuchadnezzar and for us.
Nebuchadnezzar was not a Jew. No everlasting covenant was ever made with Babylon. The destruction of the Temple and the exile from Jerusalem was one of the traumatic events of Israelite history. Nevertheless, in this strange fourth chapter of Daniel, we hear of the unexpected conversion of this pagan Babylonian to righteousness, to a recognition and appreciation and praise of the God of Israel.
It is a powerful lesson. In this Easter season of resurrection and redemption, let us mark well that if there is hope for Nebuchadnezzar, there may even be hope for us.
