Second Sunday in Advent

Second Sunday in Advent (A)

December 4, 2016

Text: Matt. 3:1-12

            A voice cries out in the wilderness, the thunder of God peals in the desert, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight” (Matt. 3:3; ESV).  God sends His man, His preacher to preach, and as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, so is God’s Word as the preacher preaches.  It does not return to God empty, but accomplishes that which He purposes and succeeds in the thing for which He sent it (Is. 55:10-11).  For the waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert (Is. 35:6).  The Spirit gushes forth in preaching, flooding hearts with faith in the Son of God who saves us from our sins.  In this wilderness of sin and death, to this fallen creation and rebellious flesh, in the shattered bliss of Eden, the Spirit rushes, washing and renewing and regenerating.  The life of the Crucified and Risen One raises the dead, raises you to new life.  Beloved, Jesus comes.  He came in the flesh as your Savior, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead and buried.  And He is risen from the dead, and lives, and reigns.  And He comes to you now, here, in this place, on the wings of His Word and in the Sacrament of His body and blood.  He will come again to clear His threshing floor, to gather the wheat into His barn and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:12).  He will come again to judge.  So the Lord sends His preacher, St. John the Baptist, into the wilderness, and he cries out: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight” (v. 3).  “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” (v. 2). 

            Repent.  That is how you prepare the way of the Lord.  To repent means to turn, or return.  It means to turn from sin and unbelief to the God of your salvation for forgiveness and life.  Repentance has two parts: First, the preaching of God’s holy Law terrifies our conscience by bringing us to a knowledge of our sin.  In theology, we call this contrition, the deep sorrow of having offended our God and separated ourselves from Him.  Second, the preaching of the Holy Gospel forgives our sin and gives us new life in Christ, our Savior.  Notice that repentance is accomplished from start to finish by the preaching.  The Spirit does His work through the Word.  He kills you and makes you alive by His preacher crying.  Law and Gospel.  Death and resurrection.  Crucifixion and new life.  This is God’s work.  The Spirit repents you.  He turns you from your sin, from your being curved in on yourself, to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is your life and salvation, who restores you to the Father.  And then what happens?  The desert rejoices and blossoms like the crocus (Is. 35:1).  New life begins to bud even here and now, in this life, as you bear fruit in keeping with repentance, the fruit of faith, which is to say, love for your neighbor. 

            This is why God sends pastors.  Because Jesus is coming and He sends His heralds to prepare the way.  By preaching.  Have you ever thought about what a strange exercise this is, what we’re doing here today?  Here we give up a significant portion of one or our precious weekend days, and for what?  To sit, stand, sit, stand, over and over, with a bunch of sinners, singing really old songs that are sometimes hard to sing, hearing from an ancient book and a grouchy old preacher, culminating in a meal of tasteless little wafer and sip of syrupy-sweet wine.  That’s what the world thinks is going on here, and they’re baffled.  Why would you do this?  What a waste of time!  And quite frankly, that’s how your fallen flesh thinks of this business of going to Church.  How much more pleasant to sleep in, then sit in your Barcalounger the rest of the morning with your coffee and the paper and rest up for the coming week!  But the Holy Spirit has opened your eyes, beloved, or more accurately, He has opened your ears by His Word to know that there is more going on here than meets the eye.  Here in the sitting and standing and singing and listening, here in the preaching and the eating and the drinking, the wilderness floods with the water of life and breaks forth and buds in nothing less than the New Creation.  The Word is repenting you.  The Spirit is turning you from sin and eternal condemnation to Jesus Christ and eternal life.  He is killing you and making you alive in the death and resurrection of Christ. 

            Amazing things happen when the Word is proclaimed in the wilderness.  Sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes, soldiers and common laborers, all Jerusalem and Judea are gathered by the Spirit to hear the preaching.  And they are baptized in the Jordan, confessing their sins.  Their sins are washed away and forgiven.  And so it happens here, now, for you.  There is one thing you must know, though.  This Baptism and Absolution, this preaching in the wilderness is only for sinners who know their sin.  The righteous need not apply.  John denies this Baptism to the Pharisees and Sadducees, those who believe they are righteous in and of themselves, because they are sons of Abraham and meticulously keep the letter of the Law.  He would just as readily say to you, “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Luther as our father, and we know our Catechism by heart.’”  Those are fine things, but they are not your righteousness before God.  Perhaps you think God favors you because you are a decent human being, a good citizen, a faithful spouse, a pious Christian, you know… basically a good person.  Certainly not as bad as some.  Old Adam, the Pharisee in you, must be killed.  That is what the preaching of God’s Law accomplishes.  Pride is a deadly sin.  Maybe you haven’t cheated on your spouse, but you’ve lusted in your heart.  Maybe you haven’t stolen so much as a cookie from the jar (which is doubtful), but you have coveted.  Perhaps you’ve never murdered someone, but you have despised your neighbor.  And you’ve gossiped.  You’ve assumed the worst about others.  You’ve taken things the wrong way.  You’ve refused to forgive.  You’ve refused to ask forgiveness.  Outright adulterers and thieves, tax collectors and prostitutes go into the Kingdom of heaven before you, for they know they have no righteousness of their own.  Yes, beloved, push Old Adam’s head under that baptismal water until he’s good and dead.  Let the Law have its way with you.  Be killed.  Repent. 

            And know this: If God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones, He can raise you from the dead.  And He does.  In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  God sends His man to do this very thing.  God sends a preacher to the wilderness, that dry bones may live.  Jesus Christ is your righteousness, and Jesus Christ alone.  The Spirit blows through in the preaching of the Gospel, rattling the bones and clothing them with flesh, watering the desert that it burst forth with new life. 

            This business of the axe laid at the root of the trees and every tree not bearing fruit being cut down and cast into the fire… This is Judgment Day talk, to be sure, but it isn’t just that.  It is first of all cross talk.  There is a tree cut down, and a man is nailed to it.  This man is God.  It is the Lord Jesus.  And He’s standing in for us.  This dead tree with the strange fruit of flesh is cut down, cast out of the city, lifted up and planted on Golgotha, the Place of a Skull.  And there it burns with the fire of God’s wrath, the fire of hell.  It is what we deserve.  It is the punishment for our sins.  It is hard to look upon, but do not look away.  For this death is your life.  All your fruitlessness, all your self-righteousness, your pride, your adultery, your covetousness, your slander… All your sin is done to death in the flesh of Jesus Christ on the cross.  He is, as John preaches in another place, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).  That means your sin, too.  He is the Sacrifice.  He is the payment.  He takes your sin and gives you His righteousness in exchange.  He dies your death.  You live His life.  He pays your debt.  You inherit His Kingdom.  And the Father accepts the sacrifice.  He raises Jesus from the dead.  Do you understand what that means?  He has kicked death in the teeth.  He’s dealt death a mortal blow.  Death cannot have you.  Death cannot have any Christian.  Life wins.  Jesus, the Risen One, will raise you from the dead.  He will gather you into His barn with the rest of His wheat.  The Father loves you.  You are precious in His sight.  Because you are covered with Jesus.  You are baptized into Jesus.  You eat and drink Jesus and become one with Him.

            “Prepare the way of the Lord!”  What does this mean?  Come and hear the preaching.  God has sent His man.  Hear the Law and the Gospel.  Be killed and made alive.  Be covered with Jesus, and be filled with Him.  And  you know just what will happen when He comes again to judge.  He will welcome you to Himself with a warm embrace.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.