Third Sunday in Advent

Third Sunday in Advent (C)

December 12, 2021

Text: Luke 7:18-35

            Gaudete!  Rejoice!  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say”…  Rejoice? (Phil. 4:4; ESV).  What is there to rejoice about?  John is captive in Herod’s dungeon, a prisoner for preaching biblical marriage.  He had the audacity to say, publicly no less, that it is not lawful for Herod to have his brother’s wife.  Now, more than cancelled, here he is in chains, and soon enough his head will be served up on a platter. 

            Some of John’s disciples report to him on the latest developments in Jesus’ ministry.  There was the healing of the centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1-10).  Just a Word from Jesus.  As the centurion confessed, that’s all it would take.  Our Lord didn’t even enter the centurion’s house.  Then, the raising of the widow’s son in Nain (vv. 11-17).  Jesus actually stopped the funeral procession and touched the bier.  Not a care, apparently, about ceremonial uncleanness.  And then He commanded the young man to rise from the dead!  And that’s just what the young man did!  Can you imagine it?  Wonderful things being reported.  Miraculous things.  The healing of brokenness.  Stopping death dead in its tracks. 

            But it’s hard to be happy for the good fortune of others when your own fortune is to languish in prison for the crime of faithfulness.  So John sends two of his disciples to Jesus.  It is a prayer, really.  It is a lament.  It is a question shaded by doubt, to be sure.  And who could blame John?  He’d spent his whole life preparing the way for this One, and now it’s all coming to an ignominious end.  But it’s also a question of faith directed to the only One who can answer: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (v. 19).  Are You the promised Messiah, the Savior?  Or should we look for someone, or something else to get us out of this fallen, sinful mess of death and damnation?  Has all this been worth it, my hard life of austerity in the wilderness, loneliness, rough clothing, spare diet?  Preaching a message that isn’t popular with the government or the religious establishment?  Faithfulness no matter the cost?  Rejection, imprisonment, and soon, it appears, death?  It’s great You’re doing all these wonderful things for centurions and widows.  But Jesus… what about me?  If You are the One, I’ll go to the chopping block for You.  But if You are not, well… 

            How does Jesus answer John’s disciples?  He could have simply said, “Yes, I’m the One,” but that is not what He does.  Instead, He goes on with the business of healing diseases and plagues, casting out evil spirits, and bestowing sight.  Then He tells John’s disciples to go and tell John what they have seen and heard.  Think about this, John.  You know the Scriptures.  What did Isaiah say the Messiah would do?  “The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Is. 61:1).  Those last words are particularly relevant for John, don’t you think?  “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).  Tell John what you see: The blind receiving sight.  The lame walking.  Lepers cleansed.  The deaf hearing.  For crying out loud, the resurrection of dead people.  Creation healed of its brokenness.  And tell John what you hear: The poor have the good news, that is, the Gospel, preached to them.  Release from all that holds them captive: sin, death, the very devil.  Righteousness and life, the free gift of a God who loves them.  Look at the Scriptures, John, and you tell me.  Am I the One?  I think you know.  Look for no other Savior!  Trust in me.  Hope in me.  Even as you suffer there in chains for my Name’s sake.  Your deliverance is coming.  You must go before me one more time, into death, to prepare my way.  But then you will have your reward.  Be steadfast.  Be faithful still.  For “blessed is the one who is not offended,” scandalized, “by me” (v. 23).

            And notice that in answering in this way, Jesus has done for John’s disciples, and for John himself, what He’d been doing for all the others, all those wonderful, miraculous things.  He was opening their eyes… to the truth!  He was opening their ears… to His Word.  He was giving them courage to get up and walk His way, cleansing them from all sin and doubt, and raising them from spiritual death by giving them the gift of faith.  Good news for the poor.  Even for poor John.  You will be released from your chains.  Soon.  Not in the conventional way, to be sure.  But in a better way.  God’s way.  Into true freedom, life, and light. 

            The world doesn’t understand this, and we have our troubles with it, too.  That is why Jesus turns to the crowd and asks them what they went out into the wilderness to see.  What did you expect?  The world has its expectations of preachers.  Reeds shaken by the wind; that is, bending before the ever-shifting breeze of popular opinion.  Men dressed in soft clothing, prosperity preachers who will let you in on the secret of gaining power, riches, and success.  But that is not how things work in the Kingdom of God.  If you went out to see a prophet, real and true, you got one in John.  Camel hair and leather.  Locusts and wild honey.  Preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Calling a spade, a spade, and the crowds, a brood of vipers.  No deference to Pharisees or Chief Priests.  Blunt and unsparing even of Herod.  Insisting on God’s true doctrine, even if it means the death of him.  And it does.  Suffering.  Martyrdom.  And yet, “among those born of women none is greater than John” (v. 28).  Except the Least, who is lesser yet.  And that, of course, is the Lord Jesus Himself, who will also be arrested for preaching the truth, an innocent and righteous man who will likewise suffer an ignominious death, the death of the cross for the sins of the world.  In this way, Jesus is the Greatest of those born of women.  That’s how it works in the Kingdom of God.  In fact, this is precisely how Jesus wins His Kingdom. 

            The world is tone-deaf to this Gospel.  When the world plays the flute, they can’t understand why the Christians don’t dance.  When the world mourns, they can’t understand why the Christians don’t weep.  It’s because we’re a part of this upside down and backwards Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  When the world calls the tune, it calls evil good, and good evil.  The Christian calls a thing what it actually is.  John calls upstanding Pharisees to repentance, baptizes tax collectors and sinners for forgiveness, and tells Herod he can’t have sex with someone just because he thinks he’s in love.  It is always tempting for us to dance to the world’s tune, to think as the world thinks, to compromise wherever the world demands.  Because it’s easier.  Because it’s comfortable.  But don’t do it.  Repent where you have.  Faithfulness to our Lord and His Word will always mean suffering at the hands of the unbelieving world, and even dissonance within ourselves between the Old Adam and the New Creation in Christ.  But John is our example in this.  As he suffers in the midst of temptation and doubt, he asks Jesus.  He sends to Jesus.  He laments to Jesus.  He prays to Jesus.  “Are You the One?  Because things are really hard, here.  And I’m hurting.  And I’m scared.”  And then he listens to Jesus, and to His Word.  “What do you see and hear in me?” Jesus replies.  “How does that compare with what the Scriptures say, what God has always said?”  And that is John’s answer.  And it is yours.  Jesus is the One.  Look for no other. 

            When you look at all that Jesus did, and all that He is doing, here and now, in His Church, and for you… When you listen to His voice in the Gospel and throughout the Scriptures… When you come here before Him in your suffering and poverty, lamenting, asking, praying… what does He do, but open your eyes to see Him and His perfect salvation and healing: open your ears to hear His voice as He preaches the Good News, the Gospel, of release from bondage; cleanse you of all your sins; set you on your feet to follow in His train; in fact, command you, who were dead in your trespasses and sins, to arise and live in Him, now by faith, soon bodily in the New Creation, even as He is risen from the dead, lives, and reigns to all eternity?  See, He does for you what He did for St. John, and for John’s disciples, and the people in the crowd that day.  Sometimes He grants physical healing now, for a time.  But always in the preaching of the Gospel He grants eternal healing and release from all that afflicts and binds you, spiritually now, bodily on that Day when He comes again in glory. 

            So, what is a little suffering for faithfulness now in comparison with that?  Languishing in a dungeon isn’t pleasant.  And beheading hurts, though only for a moment.  It isn’t fun when the world is frustrated with you, cancels you for what you believe and confess, and even leads some of your friends and family to reject you.  But I am convinced, as St. Paul says, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).  Just keep your eyes and ears on Jesus, on the things He does and says.  He will bring you all the way through.  Remember how things work in the Kingdom of God.  In suffering and death there is victory… In Jesus’ suffering and death for you, and, if need be, your suffering and death for Him.

            Therefore, Gaudete!  Rejoice in the Lord always!  Paul writes these words from a prison cell.  And he, like St. John, would lose his head as the price of faithful preaching.  Still, he says it again, rejoice!  Why?  How, in light of present suffering?  Because Jesus advents.  He has come to redeem and to save.  To bind up the broken and release what is bound.  And He is coming again.  To set right all wrong.  To bring before your eyes what you now see only by faith, to raise you from death, and to set you free.  Gaudete, indeed.  Rejoice in the Lord.  For Jesus is coming to make all things new.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.