Third Sunday in
Advent (C)
December 16, 2018
Text: Luke 7:18-35
John
asks the question on everybody’s mind. “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we
look for another?” (Luke 7:19; ESV).
Everything rides on the answer to this question. John asks from the dungeon where he sits in
chains. He will lose his head for
preaching Jesus. So he just wants a
little assurance that this isn’t all for nothing, that it’s worth it in the
end, that the Gospel is worth dying for.
And that Jesus is, in fact, the Savior who will deliver John and all who
believe the Gospel from death. Truth be
told, this is your question, too. Oh,
you don’t ask explicitly, out loud, like John does. You don’t have the guts for that. Then others may not think you’re a good
Christian. You don’t even admit the
question to yourself. Because then you’d
have to acknowledge you have your own doubts about whether you’re a good
Christian. But there it is, that nagging
question. Is Jesus the One? Should I really risk it all on Him? Is He worth dying for? Will He deliver me from death? Sin?
Hell? Because it would be a lot
easier to forget this whole Christianity thing and get as much as I can out of
this life now; eat, drink, and be
merry, for tomorrow we die. In many ways
it would be easier to believe there is nothing but what can be seen and
experienced here and now. Then there
would be no accountability. Then there
would be no limits, no commandments. No
God means I am the god of myself.
Repent. Snap out of it! If that fantasy is true, then everything is
meaningless. Which is exactly what Satan
wants you to believe. Still, the
question is important. It is the
question of Advent. Is Jesus the
One? Is He the Savior? Or should we look for another? Should we seek salvation somewhere else: Our
own works, our spouse, our family, our job, our president, education,
environmentalism, wealth, power, pleasure?
Should we rot in a dungeon and lose our head for Jesus?
Interestingly,
our Lord does not answer the question directly.
He tells John’s disciples to report back what they had seen and heard: “the blind receive their sight, the lame
walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor
have the good news preached to them” (v. 22). Then He adds a benediction: “blessed is the one who is not offended by
me” (v. 23). Blessed is the one who
is not ashamed to be shackled and feel the cold of flashing steel for my
sake. For yes, this is all worth it
John. Your life and your preaching, your
suffering and your death, are not in vain.
Jesus does not answer the question directly, but John would get the
message loud and clear. Jesus is doing
all the things Isaiah prophesied He would 750 years earlier: “The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor” (Is.
61:1). “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute
sing for joy” (35:5-6). Jesus does
what God promised Messiah would do. So
you tell me, John. Am I the One? What does the Word say? Jesus points John to the Word. And so He points us. The Word preaches Jesus into our ears and
hearts and souls. The Word answers the
question. If this is what Jesus does,
should we look for any other? Can our
family or our job do this? Can
politicians deliver this? Can all the
power or money in the world buy this?
No. So look no further.
And
notice that all the miracles Jesus does physically for the suffering during His
earthly ministry, He does for us spiritually now, and will do for us bodily in
the resurrection. Now, this is not to
deny that miraculous healings happen today.
In fact, every healing we experience is a miracle. It’s a gift from Jesus. We’re just too used to it to notice, “Oh, I
didn’t die from that cold I had last week.
Praise be to Christ!” We’re a lot
more like the nine lepers who went away than we are like the Samaritan who
returned to give Jesus thanks (Luke 17:11-19).
But don’t miss how Jesus is performing all the miracles He did in His
earthly ministry upon you as you hear His Word.
He heals you of the disease of sin, the plague of death, and He casts
the evil spirits out of you. You who are
born in spiritual blindness: He opens your eyes and gives you spiritual sight,
as we confess in the Small Catechism:
His Spirit calls you by the Gospel and enlightens
you with His gifts, so that you see Christ as your Savior even though He is
hidden from your eyes. The Word turns
the lights on for you. You who are lame:
He sets you on your feet and gives you to walk in the way of His Word. You whose sin eats you up like leprosy: He
cleanses you with His Blood. He bathes
you in His Baptism and administers the medicine of immortality in the Supper of
His Body and Blood. You who are deaf: He
opens your ears to hear His living voice in preaching and Scripture. He raises you who are spiritually stillborn,
born dead to Him… He raises you to new and everlasting life in a spiritual
rebirth by water and the Word. And you
poor (and you are poor! You have nothing
with which to buy God’s favor and get eternal life!)… you poor to this day have
the Good News preached to you, the Good News that Jesus is your Savior, that He
has come for you. And that is the greatest miracle. Jesus loves you, oh sinner. Jesus died for you. Jesus is risen for you. And by the preaching of that Good News, you
believe in Him, and so you have Him.
What
He does for you spiritually now, He will do for you bodily on the Last
Day. Your Body will be raised without
disease, without injury, without any affliction. Perfect sight. Lame men leaping like deer. Skin soft and clear. Perfect hearing. Eternal life.
Death will be no more. The
miracles are a picture of the resurrection.
Every miracle is a Promise that comes to pass in Jesus who was dead, but
now lives and reigns forevermore.
It is
a scandal, this Gospel. For John and
Jesus come in weakness. John is the
King’s herald. Yet he does not come in
splendid clothing and royal luxury. He
comes in camel’s hair and leather, eating locusts and wild honey. He does not preach in palaces, but in the
wilderness. He does not roll out the red
carpet and invite you to a royal ball.
Instead he invites you to a bath of repentance and the forgiveness of
your sins. And he points you to Jesus,
the Lamb of God who takes away your sin.
John at least looks like a prophet, but Jesus looks like a nobody. He has no form or majesty, no beauty that we
should desire Him (Is. 53:2). Among
those born of women there is none greater than John. Yet the One who is least in the Kingdom of
God is greater than he. And that can
only be Jesus, who becomes the least and the last, who suffers the rejection of
the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees, who is a friend of tax collectors
and sinners, who suffers the accursed death of crucifixion for them and for
you. He is forsaken of the Father there,
hanging naked on the cross. And you
can’t get any lower or lesser than that.
This He does for you. And for
this reason He is the greatest. He wins
the Kingdom of God by purchasing it with His own blood. He does it to make you His own. He dies so that you live. Does that answer the question? Should you look for any other Savior? He’s done it all. For you.
The answer Jesus gives, to John’s question and to yours, is His death on
the cross, and His resurrection from the dead.
This
generation does not like the answer.
“This generation” in the Scriptures is always those who belong to this
life and this world. In other words, it
is unbelievers. You see, this kind of
Gospel… crazy preachers in the wilderness, Saviors who suffer and die… this
isn’t something this generation can understand.
In this world, Ivy League professors hold forth wisdom, and Superman
saves. But that is not the way of
Jesus. This generation calls the tune
and we do not dance. We do not rejoice
in what this world rejoices in. We do
not mourn what this world mourns. “We played the flute for you, and you did
not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep” (Luke 7:32). Why are Christians persecuted in the
world? Why does our own media mock
us? Why do our own elites laugh at us? Because they can’t understand us. They can’t understand the Gospel. They can’t understand Jesus. They can’t understand the cross. We will never win in the court of political
correctness. No matter which political
party is in power or who sits on the Supreme Court, the Church must suffer, as
did her Lord. That’s life under the
cross.
But “wisdom is justified by all her children”
(v. 35). What on earth does that
mean? Wisdom is God’s plan of salvation
in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Really, wisdom is Jesus Himself.
And wisdom’s children are those who believe in Jesus. You, and all sinners who believe in Christ,
are born of wisdom. You declare wisdom
to be right… you justify her. You declare her to be true. Now, this is the complete opposite of this
generation’s rejection of Christ and the Gospel. For the time being, it appears as though this
generation has won the argument. After
all, they are in power, or so it seems.
But what happens in the End is that everything is turned on its
head. As it turns out, the elite of this
generation ruled at God’s bidding, the very God they have rejected. And wisdom’s children who suffered in this
life? They rule. You rule, with Christ. The suffering was from Christ, for your good. And it cannot be compared to the glory you
will have then. It is hidden now, as
wisdom so often is. But not then. Then every eye will see. And so will you. It’s hard to remember that now. Even John had his doubts, his “what ifs.” Such is the weakness of the flesh. But hear the Word of the Lord: “the blind receive their sight, the lame
walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor
have the good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (vv. 22-23).
In hearing the Word, you know.
Jesus is the One. There is no
other Savior. He lived for you. He died for you. He is risen and lives forever for you. He still eats and drinks with sinners. He eats and drinks with you. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Advent Midweek III:
“What Child Is This? The Child Who Is
John’s Joy”[1]
December 19, 2018
Text: 2 Samuel 6:12-23; Phil. 4:4-7; Luke 1:39-45
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will
say, rejoice” (Phil. 4:4; ESV).
Why? St. Paul tells us: “The Lord is at hand” (v. 5). He is not far removed. We do not have to clamber or climb our way
into heaven to find Him. He comes. He is here.
He is flesh and blood, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin
Mary. The admonition to rejoice is not a
command to slap some silly, fake smile on your face and pretend you have no
problems, like so much of pop-Christianity says we should do. After all, St. Paul writes these words from
prison. He is no stranger to problems
and bad things happening. No, this Word
is a gift given by the Gospel. Dear
Christian, you can rejoice, no matter your circumstances, even in the midst of
great sadness or trial, because the Lord is at hand. He has come to you. Here is joy, deep and abiding and real. The Lord is with you in a very real way. With skin in the game. So look up.
Be encouraged. Gaudete. Rejoice.
David
leaps with all his might when the Ark of the Covenant comes into
Jerusalem. He rejoices in the Lord. For the Ark, with its Mercy Seat, is the
place of God’s presence with His people Israel, and where the LORD is with His
people, He is there to bless, to save.
Unborn baby John leaps in his mother’s womb at the greeting of St.
Mary. For His unborn cousin, the little
Lord Jesus, is borne on her words, which are God’s Words. Mary is the fulfillment of the Ark. She is the vessel of God’s presence with and
for His people. John leaps when Jesus
arrives. We could say much here about
the sanctity of life, the full humanity of these two unborn babies. Let it not be lost on us, too, that little
St. John’s leap is an expression of faith.
This unborn baby believes in Jesus, which teaches us how important it is
for pregnant mothers and infant children to be in Church, to hear the Word, and
to be baptized into Christ. He cannot
yet speak, nor can he comprehend with his reason, but St. John believes in
Jesus. For his Lord has come, and when
the Lord comes, He brings joy.
Because
your hearts are heavy with sinful thoughts and fleshly desires. Because you are not content with the life God
has given you, the people with which He has surrounded you, your wealth and
possessions. Because your fallen nature,
your Old Adam, is turned away from the Lord, curved in on the self, always
seeking its own. Because your heart
rejoices in other things… you fear, love, and trust in other things above the
Lord your God, before His incarnate presence in Mary’s Child. Because we are always simul iustus et peccator, at the same time saint and sinner, the
Lord must always restore to us the joy of our salvation and uphold us with His
Spirit. We always think we have
something better to do than to be in His Word or in His Church. But it is precisely there that He comes to us
in mercy, to give us life. The more we
are away from His Word, the farther we wander.
His Word calls us back to Him. It
turns us, repents us (gives us the gift of repentance), gives us the gift of
faith in Jesus, and, in fact, gives us the Lord Jesus Himself. The Word always conveys Jesus Christ. The Word is the Ark, the virgin womb, the manger
that holds the Son of God in the flesh for our salvation.
You
know, the joy is instinctual. The world
knows it should be joyful this time of year.
Of course, they celebrate other things than Jesus, or a watered down
Jesus, or they create other holidays like Kwanzaa (which, by the way, is not an
African holiday, just so you’re aware… you’ve been lied to on that one). Or they co-opt the holy days of other
religions and pull all the religious significance out of them, like Hanukah, in
a bid to make all religions equal. You
can’t give too much credence to Christianity in our politically correct
culture. The joyless “joy” sells, but
we’re all a little tired of it by the middle of December. Like useless tinsel and glitter, both of
which I’m against.
Jesus
redeems us from joyless “joy.” He gives
us the real thing. David and John can
leap, Paul can tell us to rejoice in the Lord always from his prison cell, and
you can sing songs of praise in the midst of grief and sadness, because Jesus
was born in a stable and laid in a manger, because there was no room for Him in
the inn… because He was poor and despised… because He was rejected by the chief
priests, the scribes, and the teachers of the Law… because He was falsely
accused, unjustly convicted, mocked, beaten, ripped to shreds, and crowned with
thorns… because He did not leap, but staggered to His death on Calvary…
because, as we sang, “Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be borne
for me, for you” (LSB 370:2). The world
will discard it all, the tree and all the trappings on December 26th. You’ll just be getting started with your
Christmas celebration. Because, “for the joy that was set before him,”
the joy of redeeming you, our Lord Jesus “endured
the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2). And He is risen. He leaps forth from the grave. He has ascended into heaven and sits at the
right hand of the Father. From thence He
will come to judge the living and the dead.
And still He comes to us now, on the wings of the Word, in the holy
Sacraments, bringing joy and life.
Rejoice,
dear Christian, always. I will say it
again, rejoice. The Lord is at
hand. He comes. He advents.
He is here, as surely as you are here, in the flesh, with all His gifts. He is Emmanuel, God with us. There is no hole so deep that Jesus does not
climb down to rescue you. There is no
sewer so filthy that Jesus is afraid to get dirty pulling you out. He is with you in life. He is with you in death. He is not a God far away. He is a God at hand. He is with you in every mess and scrape, with
you in the sadness and the pain, with you to the bitter end. He is with you wherever His Word is
spoken. That is why you are here
tonight. That He be with you. That you be in Him. He is with you to turn you from sin to
Himself, with you to forgive you all your trespasses and sins, with you to give
you life. He is with you for joy. Rejoice.
You are never alone. God comes to
you. He is the Babe, the Son of
Mary. In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
[1] The theme and many of the
thoughts in this sermon are from Ralph Tausz, What Child Is This? (St. Louis: Concordia, 2018).
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