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.
A prophet does not speak for God on His behalf, but a prophet is literally a mouthpiece for
God who proclaims His Word to His people. John the Baptist was such a
prophet. In fact, Jesus says that “among those born of women there has arisen
no one greater than John the Baptist.” That’s pretty high praise coming from
the Son of God. It had been four hundred years since the last prophet of the
LORD proclaimed His Word to His people, and that prophet was Malachi who
proclaimed, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and
awesome day of the Lord comes.” Jesus proclaimed Malachi’s prophecy fulfilled
in John saying, “All the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you
are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear,
let him hear.”
“All the Prophets and the Law” is the Holy Scriptures,
The Old Testament, the Word of God, Law and Gospel. All the Prophets of the
LORD, men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Malachi, and others, preached
both the Law and the Gospel, but the Gospel they preached pointed to a
fulfillment yet to come, the promise of Messiah, the Anointed One of the LORD.
But, John was different, for John preached the Law just like those prophets
before Him – “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” but He also had
the unique honor, privilege, and blessing of pointing repentant sinners
directly to the Messiah Jesus Christ saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world!”
John the Baptist was the prophesied “Elijah, who is to
come,” for John prepared the way for the coming of Jesus the Messiah by turning
“the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their
fathers.” That is, by turning men’s hearts in repentance through the preaching
of Law and Gospel that they might be prepared to receive the LORD’s Messiah,
Jesus, in faith and put their trust in Him as Jesus proclaimed of John in St.
Luke’s Gospel, “And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of
Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the
disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for
the Lord.”
However, as a prophet of the LORD, John’s fate would
be no different than those prophets who preceded him. The Word of the LORD John
proclaimed would be rejected by the self-righteous and the self-secure, by those
who loved worldly power and wealth and possessions and prestige in the eyes of
men more than they loved the LORD and His Commandments. They would despise him
and ridicule him. They would think him crazy and out of step with the world.
They would consider him a blasphemer of the LORD because they had hardened
their hearts and stopped their ears to the Word of the LORD, exchanging the
truth of God for a lie. They would persecute, imprison, and murder him because
he exposed their hypocrisy and sin and threatened their self-righteousness and
self-security. They would join with Jerusalem in killing this prophet as they
killed all the prophets before John, stoning and murdering those sent to her.
And so it was that John was in prison for preaching
against King Herod Antipas’ adulterous marriage to his brother’s wife Herodias,
calling him to repentance. Herod hated John for this, but he also feared him,
just as Jesus’ opponents, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Herod both hated
and feared Him. Herod wanted John dead, but he was afraid to do it. It would
take a young girl, Herodias’ daughter, Herod’s step-daughter and grand-niece,
to bring about John’s murder by arousing and pleasing Herod with her sensuous
dancing. Regardless of any delay, John knew that he would not leave that prison
with his life, not without a miracle of the LORD.
And here we take up once again the annual debate: Did
John have doubts about Jesus, or did he send his disciples to Jesus in order
that they might follow him as his role as preparer of the way was nearing
completion? In all truth, I have gone both ways on this matter. However, today
I believe that it is both/and: John did
truly believe that Jesus was the Lamb of God, the Messiah, but he did not fully understand what that meant
or in what way precisely Jesus would save His people. It is completely
reasonable and normal for people of faith to waver and to have doubts, even
people of great faith like John the Baptist. All of Jesus’ disciples, including
Peter, Thomas, and Paul, had their moments of doubt and weakness. They repented,
and they were restored.
In prison, awaiting his inevitable execution, John
heard about the deeds of Jesus in fulfillment of prophecy, perhaps particularly
the prophecies of Isaiah which Jesus quotes in today’s Gospel reading: “The
blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf
hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to
them.” However, John may also have been recalling Isaiah’s prophecy that the
Messiah would “bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those
who sit in darkness.” It seems probable that John, in prison awaiting his
execution, would be wondering if Jesus were going to fulfill that particular
prophecy as well. In answer to John’s inquiry via his disciples, Jesus directed
John to what they had seen and heard in fulfillment of Messianic prophecy,
conveniently, intentionally (?), leaving the freeing of prisoners out.
Ultimately, when all material and fleshly things have passed away, when signs
and wonders are no more, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in
Jesus Christ alone. Perhaps even John the Baptist, the greatest of those born
of woman, needed to learn this as much as you and I.
Yet, when John’s disciples went away to return to John
and tell him the news, Jesus turned to the crowd that had gathered and
proclaimed about John saying, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?
A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in
soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What
then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a
prophet. This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before
your face, who will prepare your way before you’.” Now, “A reed shaken by the
wind” is an analogy for someone who changes position with every shift in public
opinion. John the Baptist was no “reed shaken by the wind,” for he fearlessly proclaimed
the Word of the LORD in the face of the Pharisees and the religious leadership
of Israel and even before King Herod as Psalm 119 says, “I will also speak of
your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame,” and as Jesus
taught His disciples saying, “You will be dragged before governors and kings
for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.” Beware those who
seek to appease men to win their favor and compromise the Word and Commandments
of the LORD. Jesus promises that, if you confess Him before men, He will confess
you before His Father in heaven, but if you deny Him before men, He will deny
you before His Father in heaven.
“A man dressed in soft clothing?” John wore camel’s
hair for clothing tied with a leather belt. He lived in the wilderness eating
locusts and honey. Like the prophecy of Jesus before whose coming John prepared
the way, John “had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty
that we should desire him.” John did not attract people by his position,
association, title, or location. His preaching drew people out to the
wilderness by the Word of the LORD. So too you must not judge a book by its
cover, or a preacher of the Word by his appearances, manner, or style, but by
his faithfulness to the Word of the LORD alone. You will know the LORD’s
servant, not by his appearance, eloquence, age, wisdom, or even his success,
but you will know him by his fruits, by his faithfulness in proclaiming the
Word of the LORD and His Commandments and in the administration of His
Sacraments. Those who are too lazy to read, study, hear, and inwardly digest
the Word of the LORD, perhaps, are best to keep their ears open and their
mouths shut.
“What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I
tell you, and more than a prophet!” John the Baptist was indeed a prophet of
the LORD, a mouthpiece proclaiming His Word to His people. John was no
shrinking violet, nor was he a lover of pleasure and comfort, but he was
dedicated to full proclamation of the Word of the Lord, of Law and Gospel, in
season and out of season, to people who closed their ears and clenched their
fists and gnashed their teeth in hatred of John and of the LORD whose Word he
proclaimed. For this John was despised and ridiculed, persecuted, imprisoned,
and murdered by men who feared, loved, and trusted in their own works and
righteousness and believed that they earned and merited the good things they
enjoyed in life. Truly, then, as now, the words of St. Paul to the young pastor
Timothy ring true: “Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season;
reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time
is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears
they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and
will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” Truly,
St. John the Baptist knew those times, as did the prophets before him, as did
Jesus and the Apostles, and faithful pastors and teachers still today.
John was in prison. I know from personal experience
ministering to a few folks who have spent time in prison that those walls and
those bars change your perspective on the world. For a Christian locked in
prison, it might seem as if Jesus isn’t doing anything, at least not to help
me. Did John feel that way? Perhaps. But, even more importantly, this text, and
this Advent season, is provided you that you may step outside of the prison you
have constructed for yourself, a prison of selfish, fleshly, and worldly
expectations for how God must act in order for you to trust in Him, and how
preaching must sound for it help you to believe, and for worship to feel in
order to believe that Jesus is present and active. Jesus directed John to the
Word of the LORD, and to that Word fulfilled for others, if not immediately for
himself. And, by hearing and seeing that God is working and active and present
in the lives of others, John was encouraged and caused to reflect upon the many
and various ways God was working and active and present with him in his prison
cell, forgiving his sins, preserving and strengthening his faith, even unto
death and eternal life with Him. Jesus directed John to hope outside of his
prison walls now. And, because of that hope, John was truly free even while in
prison. For the walls and bars we construct for ourselves to imprison us are
much worse than any worldly and material prison that may hold us. Worldly and
material prison walls and bars will fail and perish. Blessed is the one who
finds his freedom in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the world, now, and for eternity.
Judge not by what your eyes see and your ears hear.
Things are not what they appear, but they are as the Word of the LORD has
declared. John the Baptist is the greatest of the prophets of the LORD and the
greatest among those born of women, but Jesus, who made Himself to be the least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. John had the unique honor,
privilege, and blessing of pointing repentant sinners directly to the Messiah
Jesus Christ saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world!” Pastors today have this same unique honor, privilege, and blessing of
pointing you to Jesus. Your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the LORD’s Messiah,
is present and active to heal you and forgive you and to set you free from the
prison of sin and death you have constructed for yourself. How do you receive
him? Jesus invites you to believe on Him for your life and salvation that you
may live freely without fear. What did you come here today to see? Judge not by
what your eyes see and your ears hear, but see with the eyes of faith and hear
with the ears of faith that the Holy Spirit has created in you through the Word
of the LORD, and you will be free indeed.
In the + Name
of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment