Advent 3
Mt
11:2-10
12/17/17
I have a question for the adults who
are here this morning, and it is this: Is you life today what you expected it
to be? Can you say today that things
have turned out as you had planned?
Most likely, for almost all of us,
the answer is no. We make plans, and
then sometimes we change our mind. New
experience and information may cause us to adjust our plans. Sometimes we find
we it is we who have changed, and what once sounded so good now does not
interest us all. And then sometimes God
allows circumstances to enter our life and alter it in unexpected ways. We learn that God’s plans and our plans are
different – and that we are going to be doing it God’s way.
As Christians, we are called to accept
this in faith. We believe and trust in
God even when things aren’t going as planned.
Because we have seen what God has done in his Son Jesus Christ, we know
that we can trust in the Lord and his good intentions for us.
In the Gospel lesson this morning,
we find John the Baptist in prison.
Things have not gone as he had expected.
Yet while we recognize that this is part of life as God’s people, John
the Baptist did not expect it. He didn’t because John was very different
from you and me. He was God’s
prophet. And he wasn’t even “just a
prophet.” He was the “prophesied
prophet.” He was the prophet whom
earlier prophets had foretold. John’s
prophetic ministry was itself a fulfillment of prophecy.
We hear one of these prophecies in
the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah chapter 40 which speaks about a voice in
the wilderness. Matthew tells us in his
Gospel: “In those days
John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is he who was spoken of through
the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way
for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
We hear
another prophecy at the end of the Gospel lesson where Jesus asks, “What then
did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your
face, who will prepare your way before you.’”
Christ tells us that John the Baptist is the end time prophet foretold
by Malachi.
John knew
what he was. He showed up in the
wilderness dressed like the prophet Elijah as he wore a garment
of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. And John knew what he was there to do. He had come to call Israel to repentance in
preparation for the coming one who would bring God’s end time judgment. He
said, “I baptize you
with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I,
whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his
threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn
with unquenchable fire.”
John had
met the coming one. And then, things had
started to go sideways. Matthew tells us:
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do
you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented.”
John called
people to receive his baptism as demonstration of their repentance before
God. But now Jesus – the coming one – submitted
himself to this baptism. Then he went off and began a ministry. He announced the same thing John the Baptist
had said: “Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven has come near.” He started to
preach and do miracles – he healed people and cast out demons, and even raised
the dead.
But nothing else changed. The Last Day didn’t arrive. And in fact, while Jesus was helping many
people, he wasn’t bringing judgment. No
chaff was being burned up. Instead, the
powerful continued to do what they wanted. King Herod Antipas had sinned by taking his
brother’s wife for himself. John the Baptist called him out for this. And Herod showed John who was in charge. He had John thrown in prison.
This is not what John had
expected. Things had not turned out as
John had planned. And this was utterly confusing because as the prophet sent by
God, John knew that what he had said was
the truth. He was right. So how could things have turned out so wrong? John didn’t understand. Doubt had begun to pierce his prophetic
certainty.
And so we hear in our text: “When John, who was in prison, heard
about the deeds of the Christ, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the
one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” John asked whether Jesus was indeed the
coming one. He asked whether he had
gotten it wrong.
Jesus
answered, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive
sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Jesus
pointed John to what he was doing. And he did so using language from the
prophet Isaiah that described God’s end time salvation. Jesus’ answer was that yes, he was the Coming One. But then he added, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Our Lord acknowledged that this arrival of
God’s kingdom – his reign – did not look exactly like John expected. But he warned against being offended by this.
Jesus was the Coming One. And John was right – he will be the One who
will clear his
threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but burn the chaff with
unquenchable fire. Yet Jesus had not
been born in Bethlehem in order to do that now.
Instead he had come to be the suffering Servant who gave his life as a
ransom for many. He had come to fulfill
the Father’s saving will and sacrifice himself for you. Before Holy Week he predicted his death for a
third time as he said, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will
be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will
condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and
flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”
Jesus’ ministry was going to the
cross. He would win the forgiveness of sins by dying for them – by receiving
God’s judgment against them in our place.
He would not sit on a throne in judgment, but he would be enthroned on a
cross in pain, suffering and weakness. And during his ministry after the first
prediction of his passion he said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will
lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Our Lord
wasn’t kidding. The way of the Church;
the way of following Jesus has continued to be a way of the cross. It does not look impressive. It is one of suffering and sacrifice. For a
long time Christians in the United States have been able to pretend like this was
not the case. Our culture had been
influenced by the Church just enough to make things comfortable. We were lulled into thinking that there could
be a life in the faith with no cross.
But this
was an illusion. The cultural
Christianity may have been comfortable, but it was more about the culture than
Christ. It did not take sin seriously. It did not take the devil seriously. And therefore it did not take Jesus Christ
seriously as the only Savior from sin, death and the devil. The Gospel causes people to stumble because
of what it says about who we really are. The Gospel offends because it says that Jesus
is the only answer.
Now, the
culture no longer makes things comfortable.
Instead increasingly it makes things uncomfortable. If you are going to believe and confess the
Christ and faith of the ecumenical creeds; if you are going to believe and
practice the basic Scriptural truths about marriage and sexuality, you will
face the world’s anger. You will face
the world’s pressure to give in, and go along to get along. Are there areas of
your life where you are already doing this?
Things had
not gone as John the Baptist expected.
As he sat in prison, he asked the question: “Are
you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus’ answer said that yes he was. John wasn’t wrong. Jesus Christ went to the cross to be the sacrifice
for your sin. But then on the third day he rose from the dead. Forty days later he was exalted in his
ascension into heaven.
Jesus has promised that he will come
again. Yet his second coming will not be
as a helpless baby in a manger. Instead,
he will return as the almighty Lord who sits in judgment. He will be what John the Baptist announced. Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes in his
glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the
nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from
another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Indeed, to use John the Baptist’s metaphor,
he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the
chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
In John the
Baptist’s question this morning we see the situation that faces us. Jesus Christ and his Means of Grace may seem
like they are not getting the job done. Our
Lord’s response to John says that, yes,
they are. For Jesus is the One who brought the reign of God through his
death and resurrection, and now he
continues to work through these Gospel gifts.
He brings that reign in a way that people are able to reject; in a way that
people are able to oppose.
Yet in this
way he gives us forgiveness, salvation and eternal life. He gives us strength to take up our cross and
follow him. And we do so in the knowledge that it will not always be this
way. Instead, this is the way that leads
to the joyous welcoming of the almighty Lord on the Last Day. And so blessed is
the one is who not offended by Jesus.
Blessed is the one who is not offended by his Means of Grace. Blessed is the one who walks in faith and
confidently prays, “Come Lord Jesus!”
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