Third Sunday in Advent (A)
December 14, 2025
Text:
Matt. 11:2-15
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Gaudete! We have come to
the third week in Advent. The white joy
of Christmas is piercing through the penitential violet, thus the rose color of
the day. Anticipation. Expectation.
Hope. And an eager longing for
Christ to arrive and make all things right again. Each year, on this day, St. Paul sounds forth
the Gaudete call: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say,
rejoice” (Antiphon for Gaudete: Phil. 4:4; ESV).
But that is often easier said than
done. For we live on the waiting side
of Advent. Oh, we do have
something St. John the Baptist did not.
That is our Lord’s first coming in the flesh, and His
accomplished work of redemption on the cross, and in the empty tomb. But we are still waiting for Him to come
again in glory, and manifest His setting of all things right. Banish death, and sin, and grief, and
pain. And though He comes to us now, in
His holy Word, and in our Baptism into Him, and in the Supper of His body and
blood, still… we don’t always feel it. We often do not feel it. Or see it. Or otherwise perceive it with our five
senses. And sometimes… like St.
John, languishing in Herod’s dungeon, awaiting the executioner’s sword, the
wages of faithfulness to Christ in this cold, dark world… we doubt. “Jesus… are You the One? Or should we look for another?” It’s not that we don’t believe. It is that the waiting gets long, and the
darkness can be so thick, and sometimes the rose fades back into violet, and
even into black. The problem isn’t
Jesus. The problem is our own eyes, and
our own minds, our own lives, our own hearts.
Some of you know that acutely during the holiday season, and we all know
it in some way, and at some point. An
empty seat at the table. A broken body. An aching mind and heart. A broken relationship. The brokenness of your own sin. So… doubt. “Are You sure, Jesus? Are You sure You are the One, and that Your
coming is the antidote to the chains and the darkness and the gloom? Because, I’m looking around me, and it sure
doesn’t seem like this is how it’s supposed to be.”
How does Jesus answer John’s
question? And yours? “Go and tell John what you hear and see”
(Matt. 11:4). Okay, so ears and eyes
on Jesus. Emphasis on the ears. Hearing comes first, that the eyes of
faith may see. And what do John’s
disciples hear and see? “(T)he blind
receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear,
and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them”
(v. 5). Do you see what Jesus… the Son
of God come down from heaven into our flesh, and our sinful and broken and
dying mess of a life… is doing? He is unbreaking
the brokenness. Un-falling the
fall. Undoing death, and all that
comes with it. Releasing, restoring,
creating anew. Because He is taking
away our sin. And freeing us from
bondage to Satan and the condemnation our sins deserve. Don’t misunderstand the healing
miracles. They are wonderful for those
who receive them, but they are only temporal.
These people still have to die.
Instead, these miracles point to something else, something more. This that Jesus is doing here… this is the
very thing He came to do, on a cosmically grander scale, for every single one
of us. Spiritually, first, as He
takes possession of us by His Holy Spirit.
Now, the spiritual things, we can only see by faith. That is the rub, isn’t it? Our bodily eyes have not yet been healed, so
we can’t see this healing yet, physically. But that doesn’t make it any less real. But then, these are the things He will do for
us, completely and eternally, manifested in our bodies, when He raises us from
the dead on the Last Day. That is why we
wait so eagerly for that Day to come.
“Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.”
Waiting. That is the hard part. Waiting for our fallen perception, and
creation itself, and our very bodies, to catch up to this reality. Ears and eyes on Jesus. That is the only way. When our ears and our eyes are on Jesus, we
can wait with hope. And peace. And even, yes… Joy! Gaudete!
Rejoice!
“But how do I do that, Pastor? What are the practical things I can do?” Good question. God tells us in His Word.
First, repent. Hear and heed the preaching of St. John. Repent of your sins. Examine yourself according to the Ten
Commandments, and your vocation, your station in life. What are your sins? Where do you fall short? Where are you curved in on yourself? Where do you fail to love God above all
things, and your neighbor as yourself?
Confess those things. Face up to
those things. Be honest about them, with
yourself, and with God. And with your
neighbor where you’ve sinned against them.
Now, this is counterintuitive, because we mistakenly think repentance is
an exercise in feeling bad about ourselves. Far from it.
The point of this repentance is to turn… from sin, and to
Jesus. To return to God. To change your mind from what is evil
to the things that are from your gracious Father. It is to get you out of yourself… from
gazing at your own navel… so that you look up to God, and out toward
your neighbor. And, also, sweep,
scrub, and mop the detritus, the filmy residue of sin, out of your daily
life.
Which presupposes the second thing: Believe
the Good News John preaches, the Gospel!
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Follow John’s bony finger as he points and proclaims: “the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). That means your sin, and mine. Hear that.
Believe that. And you will run
into the waiting arms of your Father, who loves you so much, He gave His Son
into death to make you His own. Be
absolved. Your sins are forgiven. That ought to cause some rejoicing, I
think.
And third, hear the preaching of
your pastor. Be always in the Divine
Service, and in Bible study as often as possible. Be always at the Supper for the visible,
tangible Word. You know, in our Old
Testament reading, God bids… all Christians, in general, I suppose, but pastors
in particular… “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees”
(Is. 35:3). We often take that as some
kind of admonition to do this for ourselves… strengthen our own
hands, make firm our own knees.
No. That’s Old Adam again,
trying horn in on the work of salvation, as usual. No, God isn’t telling us what to do for
ourselves. He’s telling the preachers
what to do. How are the preachers to
strengthen and make firm what is weak and wobbly? By speaking the Word of the LORD: “Say
to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God. He will come
and save you.’” (v. 4; emphasis
added). The preachers are to preach that
strength and firmness into you.
Whereupon follows the prophecy of the very things our Lord points to in
our Gospel: Eyes of the blind opened.
Ears of the deaf unstopped. Lame
men leaping like deer! Mute men singing
for joy! Like you. Eyes of faith opened to behold
Jesus. Ears hanging on His every Word. An extra spring in your step because
your salvation has come. Singing praise,
full-throated, to Jesus, your King. Gaudete! Rejoice!
Fourth, patience. Now, that is a gift of God, and it is
a matter of perspective, now that you’ve turned to God in
repentance. James tells us, “Be
patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord” (James
5:7). That is not a moralistic
lecture. It is the bestowal of the
gift, as God’s Word does in you what it says. And then James gives you that divine
perspective. Think about rain. It is often discouraging to us (Thursday was
rough!). But not to the farmer,
patiently waiting for that rain to do what it is given to do, watering
the earth, so that the crops grow, and the earth bears fruit. And when you think about it that way, that
rain is the difference between life and death to you, between hunger and
full belly. So, wait it out. Whether the actual rain, or the things that
rain on our parade as we live and wait in a fallen world. Wait it out. And give thanks for it. Our Lord knows what we need, and He will give
it. It is His care for us. It will bear fruit, in His time, and
as He wills. Therefore, Gaudete! Rejoice.
No matter what. Commend
everything to God in prayer. Trust Him. God is in His heaven. Jesus reigns.
He will turn this all for good.
Fifth, look to your neighbor. Not to grumble about him. Stop that.
James calls us on that one, doesn’t he?
Back to repentance for that. But,
look to him to care for him. To love
him. What does he need? Forgiveness?
Give it to him. From God (tell
him the Gospel). From you (let go of
your grudges… you have no right to hang on to them, and they’re poisoning
you). What else? Generosity?
Let the giving flow. I’m a big
proponent of Giving Tuesday, not because I think our generosity should be
confined to one day a year, but because it helps us just do it. And what a joy! If you missed it this year, the good news is,
there is another Tuesday coming up this week, and every week
until the Lord comes back, and every other day of the week works just as
well. The point is, whether it’s
forgiveness, or money, or food, or clothing, or hospitality, or whatever…
rejoice and revel in God’s great generosity to you, and go pour it
out on others, knowing God will never forsake you. See, that’s Gaudete! That is concrete joy!
Finally, don’t forget hope. Hope in the Lord. That isn’t an uncertain hope. Christian hope is the knowledge and
certainty of what is to come. And
what is that? Complete healing. Complete release. The dead raised. John freed from prison, and with his head on
straight. You too. Consolation for every sorrow. Every tear brushed aside by the finger of
God. Every wrong made right. What is lost, restored. The broken made whole. The fallen strong to stand. Satan judged.
And perfect peace. Gaudete! Rejoice.
It is coming. It is as good as
done. For Christ is born of Mary. He died, but He is risen from the dead. He loves you.
And He is coming soon.
Look up. Lift your head in eager
anticipation. Jesus is the One. Do not look for any other. Keep your ears and your eyes on Him,
beloved. And you will hear. And you will see. Therefore, rejoice in the Lord always. Gaudete! Again I will say… Rejoice! In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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