Matthew 11:2-11; 1
Corinthians 4:1-5; Isaiah 40:1-11
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping
with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as
our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children
for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree
therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
That’s but a
snippet of a sermon by John the Baptist. It’s fair to say that John was a
preacher of the Law – all fire and brimstone and the like. He puts Jonathan
Edwards to shame. He would have him hanging like a spider from a thread over a burning
flame. But, it was John’s prophetic calling to prepare the way for the coming
of Jesus by preaching the Law of God to hardened hearts in this way that they
might be turned in repentance. However, to those hearts that were crushed by
the Law and were terrified of their sins, that is, to the repentant, John immediately
and graciously pointed them to the Good News, to the Gospel. John pointed the broken
and the repentant to Jesus saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world.”
That’s what
the preaching of the Law does – it breaks up the hardened soil of our hearts so
that we might receive the life-giving Gospel. John’s preaching prepared the way
for the coming of the Gospel, the coming of Jesus Christ, by making the crooked
ways of our sinful hearts straight, by leveling the mountains of our prideful
self-righteousness and by filling in the valleys of our despair and hopelessness,
that Jesus might have a clear and level path to enter therein.
Now, the
preaching of the Law is not always received well. The Law is a bright shining
light and mirror upon our sinfulness, and those who are secure and comfortable
in their sin typically don’t appreciate being exposed. When the light of God’s
holy and righteous Law shines upon them and exposes their sin, they flee for
darkness like cockroaches, or they turn and fight like a cornered beast. The
latter is precisely what happened to John the Baptist. In his zeal for
preaching the Law of the LORD he exposed the unrepented sins of one particular
beast, King Herod. John had exposed King Herod’s adulterous relationship with
his sister-in-law Herodias, wife of his half brother Philip. For that, Herod
had John arrested and thrown in prison, an imprisonment that would ultimately
end with John’s execution and his head upon a platter.
And so, there
is John, sitting in prison, most certainly aware that he would never get out
and would most likely die. John was a prophet, and that is the way it is with
the prophets of the LORD. Prophets were charged with being a mouthpiece for the
LORD to bring His word of Law and Gospel to His people in season and out of
season, whether they wanted to hear it or not. Nearly all the LORD’s prophets
met with a time when the Word they were sent to proclaim was not received well,
and they were executed in various and horrible ways. The same is true today for
the LORD’s prophets and pastors, and for you His people. As your Lord Jesus
teaches, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter
all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account,” and “the hour is coming
when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”
Now, to
address the question that inevitably arises when today’s Gospel is heard in
contemporary times: Did John doubt? In the last two hundred years or so, this
question has been hotly debated amongst Bible scholars and theologians. I
confess to having flip-flopped on the matter a couple times. However, through
the Reformation this was not so. It was the nearly unanimous consensus of the
Church Fathers, and even Luther, that John did not doubt that Jesus was the
Messiah, the Son of God, but that he sent his disciples to question Jesus so
that they might hear with their own ears the fulfillment of the Old Testament
prophecies about the Messiah and believe. This was because John knew his role
and vocation. John was the last of the prophets, the promised “Elijah” who was
to come “before the great and awesome day of the LORD.” He was the forerunner
of the Messiah, whose job it was to prepare the way for His coming. That work
was complete and the Messiah, Jesus, had come. Now, it was John’s role to
decrease that Jesus might increase. He was going to die, and so John sent his
disciples to Jesus that they might become His disciples. John had been a good
and faithful servant, he had preached the Law of the LORD to His people and
prepared their hearts for the coming of Jesus. Now, John preached the Gospel by
pointing and by directing those broken and crushed by the Law to Jesus, the
Lamb of God’s offering who takes away the sins of the world.
No, John did
not doubt. I am now fully convinced of that. Why? Well, what does Jesus say
about John? “Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than
John the Baptist.” Further, John heard the Father’s voice at Jesus’ baptism saying,
“This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased,” and he saw the Holy
Spirit descend upon Jesus and remain with Him. John repeatedly pointed to Jesus
and proclaimed unequivocally who He was and what He came to do: “Behold the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And then, there is the great
cloud of witnesses, the Fathers and pastors of the Church throughout the ages
who attest to John’s faith and selfless vocation as the forerunner of Jesus.
Indeed, it is only since the rise of rationalism in the seventeenth century
that the faith of the “greatest among those born of women” is routinely called
into question. Let us abstain from such foolishness, which is more likely the
deceit of the Enemy than the fruit of true wisdom.
What then did John
do by sending his disciples to Jesus? He did what all faithful prophets and
pastors do, he followed the preaching of the Law by the proclamation of the
Gospel. In this case, John sent his disciples to the Gospel incarnate, to Jesus
Himself. Jesus had been bringing the kingdom of God into this world by His
preaching and teaching and by His miracles of healing and restoration and
release accompanying the forgiveness of sins. He had been fulfilling the
Messianic prophecies, particularly of Isaiah, by making the blind to see and
the lame to walk, by cleansing lepers and opening the ears of the deaf, by
raising the dead and by comforting the poor and the distressed. And, when they
got to Jesus and asked their question, “Are you the one who is to come, or
shall we look for another?” Jesus answered them by quoting the Prophet Isaiah,
just as He had done in His first sermon in Nazareth, and with the same
implication: “This saying is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Then Jesus
added the words, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” For, Jesus did
not appear to the eyes, or sound to the ears, the way they had come to expect that
the Messiah would appear or sound. Jesus did not come with the power and
majesty of worldly kings and lords. He did not have the traditional authority
of the priests, Pharisees, and scribes. But, He was a humble man of the people,
a carpenter’s son from backwater Nazareth. Nevertheless, His authority was in
His Words for those who had ears to hear. They received also eyes to see that
Jesus was the Son of God and the Lamb of God’s self-offering for the sins of
the world. Truly there is blessedness in receiving Him as the gift that He is,
God’s gift of mercy and love, no strings attached.
For, Jesus is the Gospel, the free gift of God’s
grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness that is given to all hearts broken by the
Law in repentance who will receive Him. Jesus is the comfort God showers upon His people, and He is the tender Word spoken to Jerusalem
that her warfare with God is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, and that the
LORD intends to give her double in blessing for all her sins.
The mystery of
the Gospel is that things are not as they appear. Though he lived in the desert
wearing camel’s hair and eating locusts, though he was imprisoned by Herod and
was beheaded, John was “the Prophet of the Most High” sent to “go before the
Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the
forgiveness of their sins.” Likewise, Jesus was humble and mild, having “no
form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire
Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we
esteemed Him not.” Yet, He was, and He is the Lord, the very Son of God,
Emmanuel, God with us, the Lamb of God offered up for the sins of the world.
Still, John
goes before Him to prepare His way by preaching the Law unto repentance for the
forgiveness of sins. And, to the brokenhearted, to the weary and those burdened
by their sins, to those who plead for mercy and forgiveness, He directs you to
the Gospel, to Jesus, that you may have peace with God. What did you come to
church to see? A charismatic preacher with eloquent and inspiring words, a magnificent
building overflowing with people, and money, with a café and family recreational
center? What did you come to church to see? A life coach full of practical
advice for how to live the best life now? What did you come to church to see or
hear or do? I tell you, you did not come for any of these things. But, you have
come to receive. For, the one who makes the blind to see and the deaf to hear,
the lame to walk and lepers to be cleansed, that one, Jesus the Lord and
Christ, is here to comfort you and to heal you in the forgiveness of your sins.
Do not judge by what your fleshly ears hear and by what your fleshly eyes see,
for the day is coming when the Lord will bring to light the things now hidden
in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then, you who appear
foolish, will receive your commendation from God. Yet, even now, He is your
light in darkness, your peace in trial and tribulation, and your life in death.
Come, receive the free gifts of the Lord and live, now and forever
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment