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New York Daily News front page headline on Thursday, December 03, 2015.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The F‑B-I on Friday said it is investigating “as an act of terrorism” the deadly attack that took place Wednesday in San Bernardino, California. On Thursday, before the F-B-I’s official determination had been made, the New York Daily News mocked Republican politicians for saying they were praying for the victims of the attack while blocking gun-control legislation and not offering any other proposals (never mind that the guns were all purchased legally, apparently in the state that already is said to have the toughest gun-control laws in the country). A headline for a column inside Thursday’s New York Daily News read “Prayers don’t stop bullets”, and the Daily News’s arguably‑blasphemous front‑page headline said, “God isn’t fixing this”. The publishers seemed to have more faith in gun‑control laws than they do in the Almighty God! At a minimum, the publishers seemed to miss what God is all about: not stopping every individual act of evil in this world but ultimately delivering us from the evil of this world itself. Such is the salvation of God that St. Luke in today’s Gospel Reading, regarding the work of John the Baptizer, uniquely says all flesh shall see. So, we reflect on today’s Gospel Reading under the theme, “Seeing the Salvation of God”.
In saying that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God”, St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account uses a rich expression from the Old Testament, which usually put the expected experience of the age of salvation in terms of seeing (Michaelis, TDNT 5:347). The expression in fact comes from Isaiah’s prophecy about John the Baptizer, which St. Luke quotes at greater length than the other evangelists, as if to emphasize God’s salvation being available to everyone. And St. Luke uses an already then‑current interpretive change from what was likely Isaiah’s original wording, which change emphasizes God’s salvation as the central part of His glory (Lenski, ad loc Lk 3:6, 185.). Somewhat surprisingly, St. Luke’s account, alone among the Synoptic accounts, refers to Jesus as “Savior” and uses the noun and adjective forms of “salvation” (Just, 79), but St. Luke had used them in his account already before today’s Gospel Reading. And, John the Baptizer’s role in connection with the Savior and His salvation is not a surprise by this point, as St. Luke told how the angel Gabriel, in foretelling John’s birth, said John would “turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” (Luke 1:16). St. Luke told how when John was born, John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:67) and sang that John would be the prophet of the Most High, to go before the Lord to prepare His way, giving knowledge of salvation to His people, in the forgiveness of their sins (Luke 1:76-77). And, St. Luke told how 8‑day‑old John grew and became strong in spirit and was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel (Luke 1:80).
That appearance and “its place in history” (Bornkamm, TDNT 4:193) we heard about this morning. The Word of God—the source of John’s preaching about Jesus and his authority for baptizing people into Jesus—came to John, somewhat ironically, in the wilderness—a desolate, uninhabited area, although not necessarily what we would think of as a sandy, waterless “desert”, otherwise how would John have baptized anyone there? And such a wilderness, with baptismal overtones already even in the Old Testament, was the perfect place for a new “exodus” (Just, 148‑149), with people drawn away from their ordinary occupations and so better able to fix their minds on their spiritual condition (Lenski, ad loc Lk 3:3, 177).
In today’s Gospel Reading, St. Luke writes that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God”. By nature, we people of flesh cannot even know God (Schweizer, TDNT 7:124). You might say we are all like the editors of the New York Daily News who apparently do not see His salvation! Apart from God, we are part of the “brood of vipers”, as it were, children of that ancient serpent, the devil. On account of our original and actual sin, we deserve God’s holy and righteous wrath. As we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Malachi 3:1-7b), God draws near in judgment and is a swift witness against sorcerers; against adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress hired workers in their wages, or the widow and the fatherless; against those who thrust aside the sojourner; and against those who do not fear Him in any other way. As we so sin, we deserve to die now and to suffer the fires of hell for eternity.
As we heard, “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Such judgment was imminent for the people to whom John the Baptizer preached, and such judgment is imminent for us today. So, John called them then and, in effect, still calls us today to repent. When we repent, we know and confess from our hearts that we are conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:5) and so are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3), condemned to everlasting death and damnation, unable to do anything on our own to change that. And, when we repent, we know and trust in our hearts that the only mediator between us and God is Jesus Christ, Who sacrifices Himself for us, and so we have the forgiveness of sins through Him. (Confer Luther, AE 58:39.)
Our forgiveness of sins (our “salvation”) does not depend on John the Baptizer but on Jesus. Jesus is the Savior, God in the flesh, Who on the cross died the death we deserve. Jesus comes to us, doing all the things we cannot do: filling our moral and ethical valleys, lowering our mountains and hills, straightening our crookedness, and leveling our rough places. More than historical facts, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek—to the Gentile, to us (Romans 1:16).
John the Baptizer may have completed his work, but, in a sense, his ministry still continues (LCMS “Lectionary Summary”). The Word of God preached points to the ways we receive God’s forgiveness, which Jesus earned for us with His death on the cross. Through John’s preaching, the Holy Spirit brought people to be baptized, and so, through preaching today, the Holy Spirit still brings people to Holy Baptism. At the font we are connected with Jesus’s death and resurrection (Romans 6:1-5). Holy Baptism has both the purpose and the result of the forgiveness of sins (Just, 149). As we sang in today’s Psalm (Psalm 66:1-12; antiphon v.12b), the Lord has brought us through water to a place of abundance; He has kept our soul among the living. As the crowds, the tax collectors, the soldiers, and other sinners, who were baptized, later had table fellowship with Jesus, so do we (confer Just, 146). At this Rail, from this Altar, we both eat bread that is Jesus’s Body given for us and drink wine that is Jesus’s Blood shed for us—for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Afterwards, we sing the words St. Luke records Simeon singing when he took up Jesus: “My eyes have seen Your salvation” (Luke 2:30). In preaching, Baptism, individual Holy Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper, you and I see the salvation of God.
And, like the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers, we who are so baptized, absolved, and fed, want to live holy lives in the various callings God has given to us—not giving up our vocations for something else that we might think is holier, but living as He would have us live in the vocations He has given us. So, we prayed in the Collect that the Lord would stir-up our hearts to make ready the way of His Only‑begotten Son, that by His coming we may be enabled to serve Him with pure minds. As the Old Testament Reading described, we bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord, and they are pleasing to Him. With true, living faith (James 2:15-17), we do not redistribute wealth indiscriminately, as if to help those who are lazy and do not want to work, or to help those who spend too much and carelessly manage their resources, but we help those who have real needs (confer Luther, cited by Plass [#1298], 439-440).
President Obama is scheduled to speak tonight about what the U.S. government is doing to keep people safe after the attack this past week in San Bernardino, California. Contrary to what some might think, neither the president nor the government is a “savior”. But, the Almighty God, out of His great love, rules over all for the benefit of His Church and His plan of salvation. Although on our own because of our sin we people of flesh cannot see the salvation of God, God calls and enables us to repent and through His Word and Sacraments gives us faith that through those same Means of Grace sees and receives His salvation. As Jesus came once to die for us, and as He comes now to us in His Word and Sacraments, so He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. Every eye will see Him then (Revelation 1:7), and every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11). For those who have refused to see His salvation now, to repent and believe in Him, it will be too late then. But, for those of us who do see His salvation now, who repent and believe and in Him, with St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 1:2-11), we can be sure that God, Who began a good work in us, will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +