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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.)
With two apparent assassination‑attempts on Former-President Trump this past summer, you and I may have learned more than we knew before about the work of the U-S Secret Service, and we may have learned even more than we cared to know about the work of the U-S Secret Service, though there continue to be developments. This past week, for example, the bipartisan congressional taskforce investigating the assassination attempts wrapped up its work, with a report identifying failures of and recommending changes for the Secret Service, in part focusing on the advance team’s identifying risks and then mitigating those risks. (Roll Call.) Somewhat similarly, we might say that, in today’s Gospel Reading, John the son of Zechariah serves as an “advance team” of a sort for the Lord’s coming or “advent”, for his hearers both “identifying” the risk of God’s righteous wrath over their sin and “mitigating” that risk with the salvation of God in that coming Lord, Jesus Christ. This morning we consider today’s Gospel Reading, directing our thoughts to the theme “Preparing the way of the Lord”.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke essentially “dates” the beginning of John the son of Zechariah’s work, by locating it during a reign of a Roman emperor and identifying both the secular regional rulers over all the Jewish lands and the Jewish religious leaders. The Gospel Reading further makes clear that John’s work fulfills well‑known prophecy through Isaiah the prophet (Isaiah 40:3-5), even as it also fulfills somewhat‑private prophecy both that the angel Gabriel spoke to Zechariah and that Zechariah spoke to John—all about John’s “Preparing the way of the Lord” (Luke 1:17, 76). All flesh is at risk of wrath and so is in need of salvation.
A related prophecy is the prophecy that we heard as today’s Old Testament Reading (Malachi 3:1-7b; confer Malachi 4:5), in which prophecy the Lord through Malachi both speaks of sending his messenger to prepare the Lord’s way and asks who can endure the day of the Lord’s coming or stand when He appears. For, the Lord through Malachi promises judgment on those who sin against His Commandments, listing just a few of those: the sorcerers; the adulterers; those who swear falsely; those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless; those who thrust aside the sojourner; and those who do not fear the Lord. But, the Lord through Malachi also called His people to turn from those sins and turn to Him, promising He would turn to them.
So, John went into all the region around the Jordan, warning people to flee from the coming wrath to the salvation of God, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Somewhat shockingly, the first words that St. Luke records John’s saying to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him are “You brood of vipers!” Those words are perhaps best understood as directed to those in the crowds who came out to see what John was doing but who counted on their descent from Abraham in order to save them and were not baptized by John and so rejected God’s purpose for them (Luke 7:28-29), those whom Jesus likewise later essentially called “children of the devil” (John 8:44).
By nature, they were no worse than we are, conceived and born sinful (Psalm 51:5). Because of our sinful nature, sinful thoughts, sinful words, and sinful deeds, we deserve God’s righteous eternal wrath, whether that wrath is imposed at the moment of our deaths in this world or at His coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. All fallen human flesh is on its own unable rightly to know God. With our hearts of stone (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26), God has to raise us up as spiritual children for Abraham—in the words of the Collect, stirring up our hearts to make ready the way of His Son—enabling us to turn in sorrow from our sin and to trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake. When we so repent, then God does forgive us. God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin, whatever our sin might be.
John’s preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins—his work trying to make all flesh see the salvation of God, that is, the forgiveness of sins—certainly centered on Jesus Christ, the Son of God in human flesh. For example, St. Paul later said that John told people “to believe in the One Who was to come after him, that is, Jesus” (Acts 19:4). For John, Jesus was coming, but for us, Jesus has come. Jesus came and lived the perfect life that we fail to live, and Jesus died for our failure to live that perfect life. Out of God’s great love for even fallen humanity, Jesus suffered and took to the cross the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins, and there Jesus died for us, in our place, as our substitute, and then He rose from the dead. As Zechariah prophesied to John that John would do, John gave knowledge of salvation to God’s people in the forgiveness of their sins (Luke 1:77), and now those who stand in John’s line likewise give knowledge of salvation to us in the forgiveness of our sins, as God works through their ministry of His Word and Sacraments.
In today’s Gospel Reading, there does seem to be some irony that, while Annas was regarded by the Jews as high priest and his son‑in‑law Caiaphas was appointed by the Romans as high priest in Jerusalem, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. God called John to prophesy, and God gave John the prophecy about Jesus. A descendant of Levi, John was, in the words of today’s Old Testament Reading, purified to, as it were, bring an offering in righteousness to the Lord. John’s preaching of God’s law and Gospel led the people then to baptism, and the preaching of John’s successors likewise leads us today to Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Supper (confer Luke 24:47). Especially in Holy Baptism, God removes our hearts of stone and gives us a heart of flesh and puts in us a new spirit. When we know and feel sins in our heart, we confess them to our pastor for the sake of Holy Absolution, forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself. And then, we are admitted to the Holy Supper, receiving bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us and so receiving also forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all of these ways, as our Midweek Advent Sermon Series theme is emphasizing, God makes us ready, a people prepared for the way of the Lord.
That we are made-ready and prepared by God is evident in us by at least our desire to do good works. In today’s Gospel Reading, St. Luke uniquely reports both the presumably repentant and baptized people in the crowds’ three times asking John what they should do as fruits in keeping with repentance and John’s three times answering: those with extra clothes should give the extra to those with no clothes, and likewise those with extra food should give to those with no food; tax collectors should collect no more than they are authorized to collect; and soldiers should not extort money by threats or false accusation but be content with their wages. John calls not for communism but for love of neighbor by all people: simple acts of social kindness especially relevant in the wilderness around the Jordan, and vocational ethics, all of which we can extrapolate to ourselves today. Likewise applicable to us is what St. Paul writes to the Philippians in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 1:2-11), that we should be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. And, even when we fail perfectly to bear such fruit, God is still glorified and praised as we, with daily contrition and faith, live in His forgiveness of sins.
In the case of the U-S Secret Service’s trying to defend its protectees from an attacker, Acting‑Director Rowe told the taskforce that the attacker only has to “be lucky once”, while the Secret Service has to “be perfect every time”. Different is the case of God’s through His Word and Sacraments in us “Preparing the way of the Lord”. With St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading, we can be sure “that he 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 + + +