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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. (Amen.)
The antiphon of today’s Introit (Psalm 71:14-18; antiphon: Philippians 4:4) gives the day’s theme in its first word, “Rejoice!” The mood of the penitential season of Advent lightens for its third Sunday, as the mood of the penitential season of Lent lightens for its fourth Sunday, the Introit for which Sunday traditionally also begins with the word “Rejoice!” Today’s lighter mood is reflected in both the pink (or, “rose”) colored candle on the Advent Wreath and the similarly‑colored bulletin covers, and it would also be reflected in similarly‑colored paraments, if Pilgrim had them. What we do have today is also an Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 35:1-10) that tells both of a desert rejoicing with joy and singing and of everlasting joy being upon the heads of the ransomed of the Lord and of their obtaining gladness and joy. And, the Gradual for Advent (Zechariah 9:9; Psalm 118:26, altered) likewise also calls God’s people to “Rejoice greatly”.
All the more striking by its contrast, then, is today’s Gospel Reading, in which John the Baptizer seems not to be rejoicing but to be wondering whether Jesus really is the One Who is to Come or whether they should look for another, apparently another of a different kind. Of course, a lot had happened since John the Baptizer first came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and baptizing in the Jordan River, as we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 3:1-12). Perhaps one year before the events of today’s Gospel Reading (TLSB, ad loc Matthew 11:2, p.1602), Herod the tetrarch had seized John and bound him and put him in prison, apparently at Herod’s “wife’s” request, because John had condemned her and Herod’s divorces and adulterous “remarriage” (Matthew 14:1-12). Still, John the Baptizer previously had been told by God the Father to watch for the Holy Spirit to descend and remain on the one Who is the Son of God, and then John the Baptizer saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and remain on Jesus (John 1:29-34). Those seem like things that would be memorable and leave a lasting impact. Yet, for all the miraculous things that Jesus was doing to fulfill prophecy, like that prophecy that we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading, perhaps John the Baptizer in prison was fixated on something mentioned by such prophecy that Jesus did not appear to be doing, namely, bringing out from the prison those who sit in darkness (Isaiah 42:7), proclaiming both liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound (Isaiah 61:1).
How often are you and I like John the Baptizer in being offended by Jesus, finding in Jesus an occasion to sin or even an occasion to fall from faith? What do we think when faith in Jesus does not produce the results that we might wrongly expect? How do we react when Jesus does not do what we want Him to do in the time and way that we want Him to do it? How do we fail to confess the truth of Who Jesus is, what He has done, and how He gives us the benefits of what He has done? What different kind of One Who is to Come do we want? A Coming One Who would not judge and damn to a deserved eternal torment in hell those who reject Him and His blessing of free salvation? Do we rejoice greatly in the Lord not only on this “Rejoice” Sunday, not only in the Advent or Christmas seasons, but always, in all circumstances? If we do not fall from faith, we at least sin in these ways or in countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature. And, we would suffer not only temporal death but also that eternal death, if God did not call and thereby enable us to repent.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the Divinely-inspired St. Matthew uniquely records Jesus’s saying that John the Baptizer was, as it were, the second Elijah, who was expected to call people to repent (Malachi 4:5-6). As prophesied, John the Baptizer was the messenger sent before the Lord to prepare His way, what the Old Testament Reading called the Way of Holiness. John the Baptizer was sent to prepare that Way by preaching repentance: one’s turning from one’s sin, trusting God to forgive one’s sin, and wanting to stop sinning. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus Himself preached repentance to John the Baptizer and to us, stating plainly that the ones who do not take offense at Jesus are blessed. When we so repent, then God forgives us all our sin. God forgives our lack of rejoicing, our taking offense at Jesus, or whatever our sin might be. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
Jesus truly is the One Who was to Come, the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior. His healing of the blind, lame, lepers, and deaf; the raising of the dead; and the evangelizing of the poor prove it, as He exercised His Divine power through His human nature! Jesus was not born of a woman in the ordinary way like John the Baptizer, but Jesus was born in an extraordinary way of the Virgin Mary. The Son of God made Himself, as it were, least in the Kingdom of Heaven but was still greater than John the Baptizer. And, in making clear who John the Baptizer was as the forerunner of the Savior, Jesus made clear that He Himself was the Savior. As John the Baptizer suffered at the rulers’ hands, eventually being beheaded, so also Jesus suffered at the rulers’ hands, eventually being crucified (Matthew 17:11-12; Mark 9:12‑13). Yet, out of His great love, Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. Jesus died for us, in our place, the death that we deserved. And, He rose from the grave. He is reason to rejoice! Although the cross is an occasion of offense for some, Christ crucified is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Galatians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 1:23-24; Romans 1:16). The Kingdom of Heaven does not need to be taken, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given, received by repentant believers through God’s Word in all of its forms.
As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, John the Baptizer had already heard about the deeds of the Christ before sending his disciples to ask Jesus his question. Yet, Jesus’s answer was to send those disciples back to John to tell him again what the disciples were hearing and seeing. We likewise repeatedly hear about the deeds of the Christ for us, and we see Him work through His Word with the water of Holy Baptism, the rite of Holy Absolution, and the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that are the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us. Through the read and preached Word and all three Sacraments, God forgives our sin, though we might think especially of Holy Baptism, because of John the Baptizer’s work and title, as we might also think especially of the Sacrament of the Altar, because of Jesus’s warning His followers who were taking offense at His teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood (John 6:61). We are baptized once, but we regularly hear God’s Word read and preached and receive absolution and the Sacrament of the Altar.
God’s Word and Sacraments effect forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation—objective realities that can and should bring about our subjective feelings of peace and joy. To be sure, in this fallen world, we all face difficult circumstances of life, with each of us knowing our own struggles better than others know them, and God’s knowing our own struggles best of all (Nafzger, CPR 33:1, p.24). As the Divinely-inspired James describes in today’s Epistle Reading (James 5:7-11), we patiently wait for the final coming of the Lord, steadfastly enduring whatever suffering our compassionate and merciful Lord in His wisdom permits us to face in the meantime. The suffering will not last forever. Christ will surely come a final time. There is reason to rejoice! While we wait, as we are told about the deeds of the Christ, we also tell others about His deeds of salvation. And, together, as we sang in the antiphon of today’s Introit, we rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, “Rejoice!”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +