Well, here we are, today is the 2nd Sunday in Advent. We’re one week closer to the big day! Christmas! You can tell its closer! Maybe you thought that this morning as you entered the church, and you noticed that the Christmas trees are now up here in the chance,, wreaths are hung outside the main doors, you saw the nativity scene set up outside! Indeed, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! We also lit another candle on the Advent wreath, so the countdown is on! Christmas has to be getting pretty close now! Things are starting to get pretty busy for a lot of us. Over the next couple of weeks or so, many of us have parties to attend, plans to make, goodies to bake, and it’s getting pretty close to the time of the year that college students have fall semester final exams to prepare for. In any case, each of these events involves some degree of preparation, and that’s the theme of the season of Advent. Preparing to celebrate Jesus’ coming into the world, both in his birth at Bethlehem those many years ago, and as we look ahead to His promised second coming.
Maybe by now, you’re starting to get a little bit anxious for Christmas to get here. Perhaps there is something you are looking forward to having under the tree this year. Or maybe it’s seeing someone you haven’t seen in a long time that you will be able to catch up with this Christmas. Maybe you’re looking forward to hearing that old familiar Christmas story that will be read once again during our Christmas Eve service. You just can’t wait for the baby Jesus to get here, and all the warm fuzzies that come along with it. That’s what Christmas is all about right? So what is the hold up you might ask? Maybe you expected to hear a part of that Christmas story here this morning, and instead, you hear about this odd fellow that came out of the wilderness named John the Baptist. That’s two weeks in a row now where we’ve seemed to have a Gospel reading that doesn’t quite seem to fit in with our expectations. Last Sunday, instead of a Christmas reading, you heard about Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and we learned through that reading that the manger and the cross are connected. Today, you hear about this strange man, dressed in strange clothing, proclaiming a strange message in a strange place. So by now, maybe you’re asking yourself “who is this guy anyway, and what does he have to do with preparing for Christmas?” Although it’s fun to look forward to future events with hope, we still need to remember, we’re still in the season of Advent, Christmas isn’t quite here yet, and we still need to prepare for Jesus’ coming. That’s why today, we’re here to a look at the story of John the Baptist, and find out where he and the message he has to proclaim fit into our preparation for the coming of Christ into the world.
This past Wednesday evening, when we gathered for our first midweek Advent service, we heard the first part of the story of John the Baptist from Luke 1. We hear of the news the angel Gabriel brings to the old priest, Zechariah. Zechariah’s wife, Elizabeth, is well advanced in years, and has been barren. Gabriel tells Zechariah that Elizabeth will bear him a son, and he is to be named John, and he will be great in the sight of the Lord. Zechariah doubts the words of Gabriel, so this doubting priest is sentenced to silence, and is unable to speak until the boy is born. Zechariah eventually does speak again, when he brings this miracle son to the temple to be circumcised on the 8th day of the child’s life, and he is named John. It’s here the old priest gives us an idea of what his miracle child was destined to do, as we read in Luke 1:68-79 in one of the great songs of the gospels:
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, He has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight, all the days of our life.”
“You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us to shine forth on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Order of Morning Prayer, Lutheran Worship, p. 239-241, Lutheran Book of Worship, p. 134-136, Lutheran Service Book p. 238-240)
This great song of Zechariah is still sung in the Church to this day, it’s called the Benedictus, and is usually sung at Matins or Morning Prayer. We sang it once each week in morning chapel at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota when I was a student there. It’s a song that tells us what John was born to do. John wasn’t here to be the savior, or just some great priest like his father.. John was born to prepare the way for the Lord.
John reappears in our Gospel lesson for today in Luke 3. Now a grown man, he comes out of the wilderness, where the Word of God had come to him. John, you may remember, ate locusts and wild honey in addition to living out in the wilderness. His attire consisted of clothing made of camel’s hair and a leather belt, not exactly the most fashionable clothes of the day. He’s certainly not the type of person you would expect to have some part of preparing for the coming of the Savior of the Nations, right? But it’s at this point; the prophecy in the first verse of our Old Testament reading from Malachi is fulfilled. “Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.” (Mal. 3:1) But the question is, just how does John do that, and why is this important? John didn’t stay in the desert; the text tells us he went into all the country around the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, just as his father had sung that he would in the temple those many years before. Ok, that’s important; we all know that, but why was it necessary and what does that have to do with us here in this Advent season in this day and age today? Well, it’s actually extremely important.
You see the Greek word for repent here means to have a complete change of heart, a 180 degree turn if you will, from one side to another. It’s not the same as when a child does something to their siblings and the parent says “now tell your sister you’re sorry” and the child only says it, but you can tell by the tone of “I’m sorry” that the only thing they’re sorry about is getting caught. This is the key part of our text for this morning. This is what John was sent to do. It’s a very important part of the Christmas story, of our Advent journey of preparing for Jesus’ coming.
John is not only speaking to the people around the Jordan those 2000 years ago, but he also speaks to us today. The preceding verse to where our Old Testament reading in Malachi begins reads as follows: “you have wearied the Lord with your words. ‘How have we wearied him?’ you ask. By saying ‘All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’” (Malachi 2:17) Some translations will translate wearied as irritate. You see, just like that child who mutters the insincere “I’m sorry” to his sister, we do the same with God when it comes to our sinfulness and God can see right through it. There are many ways this happens.
One way this happens is when we tend to look at someone else and as we confess our sin, or when we’re caught in sin, we get defensive and say “well, at least I’m not as bad as so and so. Now there is a real sinful person, I’m not that bad.” Often times, this mind set leads us to the point where we ignore our own sinfulness altogether. Sure, its very easy to point to the sins of other people, in fact, I think quite often, it’s a favorite pastime of our sinful nature. If anything, it reassures us we’re not that bad, actually, we’re doing pretty good on our own. I have news for you, that’s NOT repentance. God sees right through it, and its not amusing at all in His sight.
Or another example is refusal to acknowledge what God terms as sinful behavior as just acceptable or changing with the times. We’re under a lot of pressure these days to cave into what our world would want us to believe is not sinful behavior, and term it “acceptable” or as an “alternative lifestyle” or excuse one’s sinful behavior by saying something along the lines of “Well, that’s just the way God made me, so that’s what I do.” No matter what the sin is that we try to cover up as acceptable or go deeper into the pit of sin by twisting God’s Word into saying whatever it is you want it to in order to make you comfortable, to take the spotlight off of a particular sin that you’re guilty of, that does not change the fact that God’s Word says it’s still sin. Listen to John’s message in the Gospel reading. When certain groups asked him “What should we do”, you noticed John didn’t cut any corners. He told them to “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” He gave them specific examples too. “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him to has none, whoever has food is to do likewise.” To tax collectors, he told them if you are serious about repentance, be honest in your business deals. Don’t charge people more than you’re supposed to for your own selfish gain. To soldiers, he told them “do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be content with your wages.” John didn’t back down. He made it crystal clear that ignoring or excusing sin because it makes you or other people uncomfortable, or because it’s not the “politically correct” thing to do is NOT repentance at all, it’s the complete opposite, and it irritates God. As John warned those who chose not to repent or feel their sin was not that bad “Every tree that dos not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
No matter how we do it in the end, a failure to repent leads us down a road to belief that we’re not really sinful at all. And taken to its logical conclusion, if we’re not really that sinful, then we really don’t really need a savior to die for us, because we don’t have anything we need to be saved from. So then, why did we need Christmas? What does Christmas then become, just another holiday with a warm fuzzy story about a poor baby that was born in a manger, or about getting presents and being nice to people for a month? What is the point of Christmas if we don’t see our sin and by seeing our sin, we also see a need for a savior?
This is where John the Baptist comes into play. Yes, it’s true, being shown that we are sinful by God’s law is not exactly a fun thing to do, especially around Christmas when we want to be happy. No one ever said that cleansing of our sin was going to be an enjoyable, painless process. Like gold and silver, in order for it to be purified, it has to go through fire. In order for you and I to be purified, we have to go through the fire and pain of being shown our sins, and having that old sinful nature burned away so that we may be pure once again in God’s sight; be made into a new creation. We will be acceptable in God’s sight, just as it was before man’s fall into sin. This is what John’s message does for us today; he holds our feet to the fire so to speak, so that we may be shown our need for a savior. That baby Jesus, who will follow John, will suffer the cleansing for our sins. Jesus lived the perfect, sinless life you and I are unable to live. But, Jesus willingly became sin in our place. Jesus will have a crown of thorns placed on his head. Jesus will be beaten and mocked and spit upon. Jesus will have nails driven into his hands and his feet and he will be hung from a cross and suffer perhaps the most brutal form of execution that has ever been known, crucifixion. He will have a spear puncture his side. All of that pain, all of that suffering, all of that blood shed, will be done in order that you and I can be forgiven and cleansed of all our sinfulness. And without John the Baptist’s cries that the Lord is near, showing us our sinfulness and our need to truly repent, the story of Christmas isn’t complete. Our need for a savior becomes evident, and we are ready to hear more about Jesus, who took care of the punishment of our sins so we can be purified before God.
What may have seemed like an unusual reading for this Advent season, in reality, is exactly what we needed to hear during this season of preparation. Through the message of John the Baptist, we are able to be aware of our sinfulness and our need for a savior. We’re able to anticipate the arrival of that savior not with fear or indifference, but with great joy! It becomes something worth celebrating! We hear John the Baptist’s call for repentance every week when we gather here in the prepatory rite of confession and absolution in our worship. We hear God’s word proclaimed here, of our need for a savior, and who our savior is. And, we’re equipped to go out into that sinful world, and share that message with others. If you’re wondering what the purpose of the ministry of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church is supposed to be, it’s this: to share the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, preparing the way for the coming of Christ through His Word and Sacraments so that we may be forgiven of all of our sins, and receive the gifts of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation that only He can provide for us. During this Advent season, and always, may be always be prepared for our Lord’s coming as we hear the cries for repentance, and hear that our sins are all forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
