[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT 13 December 2009 "Rejoice in What You See and Hear!" Luke 7:18-35 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

The contrast between last Sunday's Holy Gospel and today's could not be more different. Recall that bulletin graphic with a very angry John the Baptizer condemning the people for their sins and calling them to repentance because the Christ was about to appear. Today John's appearance in our graphic is far different. He looks like a man who isn't sure what is going on. He's sitting in prison, put there by Herod for condemning Herod's adultery. But it isn't that fact which accounts for the change. After John announced Jesus as the Christ, even calling him "the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world," things weren't happening as John thought.

John's disciples brought reports to him in prison that people were calling Jesus a great prophet. Jesus was healing many of their diseases and maladies, including lepers, paralytics, a man with a withered hand, and raising the widow's son at Nain. John sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask him,

"Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (Luke 7:19, ESV)

Scholars have been puzzled ever since. Did John ask because he doubted or because only his disciples doubted? To say that John was filled with doubts seems unworthy of this man whom Jesus called the greatest among those born of women [v. 28], yet we must ask if John were immune to doubts, especially when sitting in Herod's prison.

Evidently Jesus' actions were not what John expected. Think back to his words from last week's Holy Gospel: the coming wrath, the all-consuming fire, the ax laid at the root of the tree. Where was the fire of his coming? John seemed to expect a Christ who would enforce the Law of God, that is, punish sinners who didn't repent. John had preached that brilliantly. Jesus called him the greatest of all men born to women. Yet, if you replayed all of the sermons of Moses, considered by most to be the greatest Old Testament preacher, you would find a familiar theme: You must keep the Law perfectly or be damned.

That kind of preaching is what most people hear even today. In truth, being "moral" is what most people think Christianity is about. It is true that every other religion is about the keeping of morals as a way of gaining God's approval and/or heaven. Some are very severe in parts, such as Islam which cuts the hands off thieves, stones adulterers, and kills infidels, that is, those who aren't Muslims. Even within the pale of Christianity there are those denominations which define our faith only in terms of keeping the Law, out outward morality.

That kind of religion is joyless. How can one find joy in slavishly obeying what one cannot obey perfectly? If one realizes that he cannot do this, he then relaxes the demands of the Law himself so that his conscience can find rest, but man has no authority to change the immutable will of God. Luther recounts an example from a very popular book in Medieval times, the Vitis Patrum, "The Lives of the Saints." One of the fathers stood for three days in one spot, constantly lifting up his eyes to heaven sighing and mourning. When his disciples asked him why he was doing this, he answered, "I fear death." Then his disciples began to comfort him saying, "Why should you fear death since you have led an exemplary life and have been diligent in keeping God's commandments?" But the teacher replied, "I tell you I am much afraid; as you say, I have been diligent in keeping God's Commandments, but nevertheless I know that God's judgment is different from human judgment; consequently, I cannot rid myself of fear." Luther explains that this man had come to the realization that when all of his deeds were paraded before God's judgment, God's judgment is so acute, serious, and severe that one's righteousness and good works cannot hold up, or survive. [Luther's House Postils, vol. 1, p. 62]. Luther knew that from personal experience.

Jesus never came to usher in a kingdom based upon outward morality and to punish the sinners. Perhaps that is what troubles so many about Jesus and why they remake him into their own image. Just like Jesus' own disciples, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, John the Baptizer was probably waiting for sinners to be struck dead on the spot. Jesus even gave James and John the nickname "the sons of thunder" [Mark 3.17]. When a Samaritan village rejected Jesus, these two "sons of thunder" asked Jesus, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (Luke 9:54, ESV)

So John's disciples came to Jesus and asked,

"John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, 'Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?'" (Luke 7:20, ESV)

Jesus' answer is neither a yes or a no. Instead, Jesus said,

"Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them." (Luke 7:22, ESV)

Jesus pointed to his works of mercy, the very signs that the prophet Isaiah said would accompany the Christ's coming. Far from being a further message of the Law, Jesus proclaims a Gospel of mercy and forgiveness in what he says and does. Jesus' mission is not to dispense God's wrath to the world, but to absorb that wrath in himself. It is true that the judgment of God falls on sin, but even as John got right, Jesus is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" [John 1.29]. That wrath was meant to fall on this Christ. He came to have mercy on sinners, not grease their skids into hell.

Jesus is a Savior of grace and mercy! He is not a new Lawgiver, a stern judge, but a compassionate Savior. He does not wink at your sins but takes them into his own body and shoulders them all the way to the cross where he allows them to crush him in death. The miracles which Jesus did, these might acts of mercy, testify to his life and work. Luke often used the term "release" when describing a healing of an illness or from demon possession. Jesus "released" the afflicted person. That is another way of saying that he forgave someone. Because Jesus brings forgiveness in himself, sin, death, and hell are undone.

The Law brings nothing but a bad conscience and fear of death. Jesus' ministry shows him as the One who brings good news in his person and words. He announces that the Day of the Lord has arrived in him, this great day when sin is dealt with for good because he pays the price that you and I cannot pay. He absorbs your punishment and guilt.

To say that many are offended by this Christ is to understate it. The last words of Jesus to John's disciples were these:

"And blessed is the one who is not offended by me." (Luke 7:23, ESV)

A glorious earthly kingdom Jesus did not come to bring, just as he told Pilate at his trial,

"My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36a, ESV)

The Church does not exist to fix the world of its social ills. The Church exists to rescue men out of the world. John's disciples, and probably John himself, confused these things. The kingdom of Christ was not the same as the kingdoms of the world. So often politicians wrongly assume that the Church is a supportive agency of the government, another agent of public morality. From this, may God deliver us! If she is merely one of many agencies of society, then we have every reason to be filled with pessimism and be terminally depressed.

But the Third Sunday in Advent announces a different theme and a different color. The Church announces joy and calls upon Christ's people to "Rejoice" [Gaudete].

"Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil." (Zephaniah 3:14-15, ESV)

This Christ has brought release, forgiveness, salvation to you!

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice." (Philippians 4:4, ESV)

"What Do You See and Hear?" You see and hear this Christ who came humbly into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, not a war horse. You see this Christ who willingly associated with sinners, not to condemn them to hell, but to save them for heaven, a Christ who was willing to be called "a friend of tax collectors and sinners" [v. 34]. You hear this Christ who speaks words of mercy, release, forgiveness. You hear a Christ who speaks through his appointed ministers his words of Absolution. You see and hear this Christ who commands a dead man to rise. You see and hear this Christ who breathes new life into your sin-sick life in Holy Baptism. You see and hear this Christ who feeds you with holy food, his true body and blood so that you will be strengthened and preserved to eternal life. You see and hear a Christ who has come to be your Savior and Friend for all eternity, not One who has come to send you to hell.

The Gradual [Zech. 9.9; Ps. 118.26 alt.]

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of | Zion.*
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jer- | usalem.
Behold, your king is com- | ing to you;*
righteous and having sal- | vation.
Blessèd is he who comes in the name | of the Lord.*
From the house of the Lord we | bless You.

Can the Church of Christ fail to rejoice and be glad? Can she not shout aloud about his coming in grace and mercy? God grant that, dear Lord Jesus Christ!

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.