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+ + + 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.
For the last month or so, there have been quite a number of news reports about so‑called “fake news”, what perhaps could just as easily be called “false” or “inaccurate” news or outright “lies”. But, you and I do not have to have a Facebook news feed, visit alleged “fake news” websites, or even consume mainstream media to be victims of fake news. Classmates, friends, coworkers, or family‑members can tell us things they think to be true or maybe even know to be false, or we could leap to the wrong conclusions about things that we either have heard or think that we have heard. To be sure, there are times and places for being skeptical of and doubting reports that we hear, but not, as John the Baptizer appears to have done in today’s Gospel Reading, when it comes to hearing the truth about the Christ. With “hearing” both explicit and implicit a number of times in today’s Gospel Reading, this morning we consider the Gospel Reading under the theme, “Hearing about the Christ”.
Today’s Gospel Reading presents us with both John the Baptizer’s question about Jesus and Jesus’s witness about John the Baptizer. While the Reading may raise any number of questions in our minds and admittedly has some aspects that are difficult for us, we nevertheless can hear and understand at least some of the basics. John the Baptizer in prison heard something about the deeds of the Christ, and for some reason John sent word by apparently his own disciples asking Jesus if Jesus was the One who was to come, the Messiah, or whether they should look for another. Jesus answered by commanding them to tell John what they heard and saw, and then Jesus spoke to the crowds about John as a great prophet, the prophesied second Elijah, and finally called everyone who has ears to hear.
Ultimately I suppose one somewhat‑accurately could blame the Lutheran Reformation for our modern skepticism of otherwise authoritative voices in society, although, to be sure, for his part the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther did not apply such skepticism to the words of Holy Scripture as some do today. For whatever reason, you and I may doubt God’s law’s prohibiting certain things and enjoining others. You and I may doubt God’s Gospel forgiving our sins. You and I may doubt God’s ways of giving us forgiveness. Or, you and I may doubt God’s ever fully keeping His promises to us. Even if we do not sin in those ways, we sin in other ways, for we are sinful by nature. Apart from the Holy Spirit’s opening our ears to hear God’s Word, we would be deaf to it, fail to give it the proper attention and do what it says, and so die in our sins here in time and be tormented for them eternally in hell.
But, God does not want us so to die and be tormented, and so He calls us to repent. God’s call for us to repent opens our ears and enables us to repent. Those who have ears and who truly hear respond with repentance. So, we turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin. God forgives our sins of doubting His Word or whatever our sin might be. God forgives all our sin; God forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake. As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, the poor—that is, the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3), those who humbly repent—have the good news—that is the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’s sake—preached to them.
Jesus gently and respectfully answers John’s question by affirming Jesus’s own identity for John, and then Jesus further affirms His own identity by affirming John’s identity for the crowds. Among those born of women in the normal way, there had arisen no one greater than John, yet the One Who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus Himself—equal to the Father with respect to His divinity but less than the Father with respect to His humanity (Athanasian Creed, 31)—is greater than John. As today’s Introit (Psalm 71:14-18; antiphon Philippians 4:4) and Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 35:1-10) help indicate, all the deeds of the Christ that John in prison heard about and the things his disciples heard and saw were long‑promised signs of the Messiah, the Christ: the blind’s receiving their sight, the lame’s walking, the lepers’ being cleansed, the deaf’s hearing, the dead’s being raised, and the poor’s having the Good News preached to them. Some who copied St. Matthew’s Gospel account changed the order of those, perhaps thinking that the dead’s being raised was the most important of those, but the preaching of the Good News is the most important! For us and for our salvation, Jesus came down from heaven, died on the cross, and rose from the grave. All who are not offended by, but put their faith in, Him are truly blessed with the forgiveness of sins and all that that forgiveness brings.
As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, God spoke through the prophet Malachi about John the Baptizer and Jesus, and we know God spoke through John the Baptizer about Jesus. Jesus spoke about Himself, and His disciples and their successors, pastors today, preach that same Good News. The Gospel is not only read and preached, but the Gospel is also applied with water in Holy Baptism, spoken and seen in individual Holy Absolution, and consumed with bread that is Jesus’s Body and wine that is His Blood in Holy Communion. In prison, John the Baptizer had to depend on what he heard from others, but you and I experience Jesus for ourselves in His Word and Sacraments, thereby receiving forgiveness, life, and salvation.
We who are made able and remain willing to accept the true teaching, not only about John the Baptizer and Jesus but also about the whole Gospel in all its articles, in turn tell others whom God places in our lives about what we have heard and seen, gently and respectfully answering their questions. We may experience firsthand the at times violent persecution that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers, but we rejoice in the Lord always—always, even when we have our doubts and anxieties. Such joy that comes from the forgiveness of sins is evident on this Third Sunday of Advent in the explicit mentions of “joy” in the Introit, Old Testament Reading, and Gradual (Zechariah 9:9; Psalm 118:26) and in the lighter-tone of the Collect of the Day and the pink or rose-colored third candle on the Advent wreath. We rejoice in the Lord always—not only on this Third Sunday or during Advent but however long we have to wait patiently for our deaths or the Lord’s Final Coming, whichever happens first. And as we wait, as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (James 5:7-11), we are like a patient farmer and like the suffering and still patient prophets who remained steadfast.
We may have to be increasingly skeptical about “news” that may be fake, false, inaccurate, or outright lies, but when we are “Hearing about the Christ” from Holy Scripture we do not doubt. We who have ears hear, and so God’s law shows us our sin and His Gospel forgives our sin, working through His means of grace to assure us that He will fully keep His promises to us now and for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +