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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.
In some ways, children today certainly face their own unique challenges, such as an appropriate use of social media, but, in other ways, the more things change, the more they stay the same. After all, “cyber-bullying” is just a contemporary form of bullying, the likes of which many of us no doubt have witnessed, if we have not ourselves perpetrated or experienced. Play may have moved to cyber-space, but children are still children, and the behavior of the playground—or, in the case of the Gospel Reading, the marketplace—is likely basically the same now, as it was then. In the Gospel Reading, Jesus uses the behavior of children sitting in the marketplace calling to one another over their games to illustrate how some people wrongly regarded John the Baptizer, as well as Jesus Himself. Of course, what is at stake with our regard for John the Baptizer and Jesus is far more than a game.
As you heard in the Gospel Reading, John the Baptizer’s disciples reported to John all the things Jesus had been doing, such as Jesus’s most-recent raising from the dead the son of a widow in a town called Nain, and, no doubt, they also told John the Baptizer about the crowd’s thinking that Jesus was a prophet or even God Himself (Luke 7:11-17). Imprisoned in Herod’s palace, as we heard last week (Luke 3:19-20), John sent two disciples to ask Jesus whether He was the One to come or whether they should look for another, and Jesus sent them back to John to report all that they had seen and heard, pointing to prophecy about the coming Messiah that Jesus Himself fulfilled. Then, Jesus spoke to the crowds concerning John, and Jesus contrasted the people’s regard for John the Baptizer and Jesus to the Jewish leaders’ regard for them. And, in making that contrast, Jesus compared the adults who rejected John the Baptizer and Jesus to children in the marketplace who rebuked their playmates for not joining in their games, perhaps pretend weddings and pretend funerals. Although, again, as I mentioned, what is at stake with one’s regard for John the Baptizer and Jesus is far more than a game.
As John the Baptizer himself might be perceived as having tried to have done with Jesus, the Jewish leaders arguably tried to change John and Jesus. The Jewish leaders liked neither the selfdenial of John the Baptizer nor the festive joy of Jesus. Jesus essentially says that it was both as if the Jewish leaders played the flute for John, but he would not dance, and as if the Jewish leaders sang a dirge for Jesus, but He would not weep. The Jewish leaders regarded John the Baptizer as having a demon, and they regarded Jesus as being a glutton and a drunkard. John the Baptizer and Jesus differed in some unessential matters of how they lived their lives, but their essential message condemning sin and forgiving the repentant was the same. The people recognized and received God’s righteousness, while the Jewish leaders rejected God’s purpose for themselves.
What about us? How do we regard John the Baptizer and Jesus? How do we regard God’s messengers today? Do we try to change them to suit our desires? Do we regard them or the congregations they serve wrongly on the basis of unessential matters, or do we regard them rightly on the basis of their essential message? Have we even learned enough of Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions in order to judge what is unessential and essential? Do we recognize and receive God’s righteousness, or do we reject God’s purposes for ourselves? According to our sinful nature, we all need the admonition and warning illustrated by the “game” the Jewish leaders were playing (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration XI:51; confer Pieper, III:494). Through today’s Gospel Reading, God calls and enables us to repent of our sinful nature and of all of our sin, not only today, or during this penitential season of Advent, but every day of our lives. First recognizing our own unrighteousness, we then recognize and receive God’s righteousness, that of His Son, Jesus, the Christ.
As the Sunday School Children’s Christmas Program this morning reminded us, God’s Son took on human flesh as the baby Jesus, miraculously conceived in and born of the Virgin Mary. As much as today’s Gospel Reading might appear to be about John the Baptizer, it is really about Jesus, His identity as the Messiah, God Himself in human flesh, based on what He does in keeping with Holy Scripture, and how people regard Him and the righteousness He brings. John the Baptizer may have been the greatest prophet, but Jesus is the stillgreater Lord Himself, Whose way John the Baptizer prepared. As prophesied, Jesus showed Who He was by miraculously undoing the effects of sin in the world: giving sight to the blind, making the lame to walk, cleansing the lepers, making the deaf to hear, raising the dead, and preaching the good news to the poor, especially the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3; confer Luke 6:20). More importantly, as also was prophesied, on the cross Jesus was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5; confer Zechariah 12:10); He is the fountain that cleanses us from all sin (Zechariah 13:1; confer Beckwith, CLD III:172-173). So, we could chant in today’s Psalm (Psalm 85; antiphon: v.2) that the Lord forgave the iniquity of His people and covered all of their sin, that His salvation is near to those who fear Him—that is, those who believe and trust in Him. As prophesied in the Old Testament Reading (Zephaniah 3:14-20), the Lord is in our midst, He has taken away the judgments against us, we can rejoice and exult with all our hearts!
The Lord is most-tangibly in our midst in the Sacrament of the Altar, where bread is the Body of Christ given for you and me, and wine is the Blood of Christ shed for you and me. Here Jesus is a friend of sinners—notorious sinners, like the tax collectors then, and like you and me today. Here Jesus has table fellowship with us and gives us great joy. Here Jesus shows His love for us and brings forth our love of Him in return. Here—as in the reading and preaching of His Word, as in Holy Baptism, and as in individual Holy Absolution—we do not wrongly regard and reject but recognize and receive God’s righteousness: the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
The joy that God’s forgiveness here gives us is an important theme on this Third Sunday of Advent, with its pink or rose-colored candle. Like John the Baptizer in prison, we are reminded, in the words of today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 4:4-7), that, in prison or whatever our affliction, we can and should rejoice in the Lord always, for the Lord is at hand; we do not need to be anxious about anything, but, in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we let our requests be made known to God, and then we have the peace of God. That peace and joy are among the good works that God brings about in us His children according to our callings in life, which good works give witness to God’s righteousness in us. And ultimately, we, who daily repent and believe, will experience the greatest miraculous “healing”: the resurrection, if necessary, and the glorification of our bodies to live eternally in God’s glorious presence.
Whether in the marketplace, on the playground, or in cyberspace, children who cannot get their way in various games may take their things and go, but what is at stake with our regard for John the Baptizer and Jesus is far more than a game. So we have realized this morning by considering the latter portion of today’s Gospel Reading that we have not really considered here before. Some may wrongly regard John the Baptizer and Jesus, His ministers and the ways they work, and so reject the purpose of God for themselves, along with how God works, and take their things and leave. But, we recognize and receive God’s righteousness, turning to the ways that God works in our midst. And, as Jesus said, blessed are the ones who are not offended by but instead who believe in Him.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +