+ + + 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 hotel with the five‑star restaurant where I worked while in graduate school in Austin near the end of my time there had as the mantra for its employees, “Anticipating needs and exceeding expectations”. We employees were supposed to know the customers’ needs before the customers did and, whenever possible, go beyond what the customer might expect. And, we frequently did anticipate needs and exceed expectations, but we might say that in today’s Gospel Reading our Lord Jesus Christ failed to do so when it came to John the Baptizer. Jesus arguably failed to meet John the Baptizer’s felt needs and to exceed his wrong expectations because, as the Greek word used can be taken to suggest, John the Baptizer may have been looking for another kind of “Christ” (compare Luke 7:19). This morning we consider today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Looking for another Christ”.
When John the Baptizer heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ and by John’s disciples asked Jesus if He was the One to come or if they should look for a different kind of Christ, Jesus answered by telling John’s disciples to tell John what they heard and saw, specifically the kind of miraculous signs prophesied in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 35:1-10), today’s Psalm (Psalm 146; antiphon: v.5), and other such passages. Other such lists of the signs of the Messianic age include proclaiming liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound (Isaiah 61:1), bringing out the prisoners from the dungeons and from the prison those who sit in darkness (Isaiah 42:7). John’s wrong expectations perhaps were not without some foundation!
What are our expectations, right or wrong? How are we looking for another Christ? Do we wonder about how and when we are delivered from problems in our society, church, family, and personal lives? For example, do we think that God should spare us from the bitter divide between the political parties of our national government? When we see people seemingly “taking” the Kingdom of Heaven in other places, do we wish that our congregation also would go anyway the wind blows? Do we want earthly peace in our families so badly that it comes at the cost of any spiritual discussion of a Christ Who does not tolerate sin and Who does not save people apart from His Church? Do we want to be delivered from our sicknesses and afflictions immediately and in a miraculous fashion, rather than waiting for the Last Day with its miraculous resurrection and glorification of the body? Do we find the Lord Jesus Christ and when and how He works to be a stumbling block for our faith (confer NEB)?
As Jesus says in the Gospel Reading, with an apparent reference to a passage from the Old Testament prophet Malachi (Malachi 4:5), John the Baptizer was the Elijah who was to come—to come, as that passage makes clear in the context of judgment that leads to either destruction or rejoicing—to come in order for God to lead His people to repentance (confer Sirach 48:10). John one time denied being Elijah (John 1:21), who of course he was not (not in the sense of being Elijah brought back to life), but that denial may have been from John’s desire for anonymity (Jeremias, TDNT 2:937), rightly leaving the emphasis not on John, the second Elijah, but on God’s call through him for all people to repent. Apart from repentance, our sinful nature and all of our sin would leave us facing present and eternal punishment, death here in time and torment in hell for eternity, but, when we repent, then God has mercy on us for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ. As we heard in the Epistle Reading (James 5:7-11), the Lord is compassionate and merciful! God forgives us, renews, us and leads us. We receive the word proclaimed by John rejoicing and voicing our true repentance (Lutheran Service Book 346:4), including trust in Jesus as the right kind of Christ, Who came to meet our real need for a Savior.
The rabbis of Jesus’s day reportedly saw two possible ways that the Christ might come, either in glory or in humility (Schneider, TDNT 2:670 n.21). Clearly the true Christ’s coming in humility left some like John the Baptizer looking for another Christ then, as the true Christ’s coming in humility leaves some people looking for another Christ still today. The true Christ humbled Himself to be born of a Virgin, and He worked the miracles that proved Him to be the Christ humbly through His human nature. So humbly “concealed” in His human nature the Christ can be said to be both least in the Kingdom of Heaven and greater than John. As John’s being imprisoned for his faithfulness can be said to be an example of the Kingdom of Heaven suffering violence, so Jesus’s being crucified can be said to be an example of the Kingdom of Heaven suffering violence (confer Matthew 17:10-13). But, more importantly, Jesus’s humbling Himself to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8), accomplishes our salvation. As prophesied in the Old Testament Reading, the Lord comes and saves us! Jesus died on the cross in our place, the death that you and I deserve. We can either be offended by Him and His death on the cross (confer 1 Corinthians 1:22), or we can receive Him and His cross’s blessings in faith. When we humbly repent and believe in Him, then God forgives us. There is no need for us to feel any guilt over any sin, for He has taken our guilt away. We lay in fetters groaning; He came to set us free (LSB 334:3). He came to release the prisoners held in Satan’s bondage (LSB 349:2). And, release Satan’s prisoners He does!
As God through His messenger John the Baptizer’s preaching and baptizing both called sinners to repentance and forgave their sins, so does God through His messengers of John’s successors’ preaching and administering the Sacraments continue to call sinners to repentance and forgive their sins. God’s Word has power and brings into effect what is said. Attached to things that we can not only hear but also see, the Word provides the miracles of our day: with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar, forgiving our sins and so giving us life and salvation. As with Jesus’s miraculous signs, so also these miraculous signs restore us to and preserve us in the worshipping community!
As we see and hear and so experience God’s forgiveness of sins in all of these ways, we are no longer looking for another Christ, but we tell others about the deeds of the only true Christ. At the beginning of today’s Gospel Reading, John the Baptizer had already heard about the deeds of the Christ, and his disciples are told to tell him more, what they have heard and seen. To our family, friends, classmates and coworkers, we speak of Jesus, what we have heard and seen: what He has done, is doing, and will do for us. Let the ones who have ears hear! As they hear, they share with us the joy that is reflected in this Third Sunday of Advent’s Propers and its pink (or “rose-colored”) candle. For example, as we heard in the Old Testament Reading, everlasting joy is upon our heads, for we shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away—all in God’s time and way, of course.
This morning we have considered today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Looking for another Christ”. The Reading was not so much about John as about the only true Christ! We have realized that Jesus is the only true Christ Who meets our real need and exceeds our right expectations. So, we set aside our misperceived needs and wrong expectations. Through His messengers, our Lord has prepared His own way in us, as we, with daily repentance and faith, live in His forgiveness of sins and look for the same Christ to come a final time not humbly then but in glory to judge the living and the dead. Now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and we in it do likewise. God’s foes unfurl their banners, and the world wages its seemingly endless war. But, even now, we have the Lord’s peace in our hearts, in our Church, in the world, and, ultimately we have the Lord’s peace for eternity in His heaven (LSB 659).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +