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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.
Imagine John the Baptizer preaching in the wilderness of Judea, wearing a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and eating locusts and wild honey. Surely at least some of the people even of his day, who were closer in time to the Old Testament prophets such as Elijah whom John was “imitating” (2 Kings 1:8; Zechariah 13:4), must have thought John was a little odd in dress and diet. St. Matthew does not say so in today’s Gospel Reading, but we know from elsewhere in his and St. Luke’s Gospel accounts, that there were aspects of John’s behavior—for example, what he did not eat and what he did not drink—that got in the way of both some people’s recognizing John for who he was and so likely also their rightly hearing and heeding his message (Matthew 11:16‑19; confer Luke 7:31-35). As today’s Gospel Reading makes clear, John the Baptizer was “The Voice of One Crying”, fulfilling God’s prophecy through Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3), and what John both said and did served his message, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
No doubt that as there were with John the Baptizer, so there are also with those who stand in his line as preachers of repentance, aspects of their behavior that get in the way of both people’s recognizing the preachers for who they are and so likely also people’s rightly hearing and heeding the preachers’ message. John the Baptizer was not Jesus; John was not the sinless Son of God, and, as we will hear next Sunday, when imprisoned by Herod, John apparently doubted enough to send word by his disciples, asking Jesus if He really was the Savior or if they should look for another (Matthew 11:2-15). Likewise, every pastor since John, including me today, is not sinless and at times has doubts and himself wrongly questions the way that God is working on earth. If not wrongly questioning the way that God is working on earth, perhaps we at times wrongly question the way pastors work. Even John the Baptizer’s response to the Pharisees and Sadducees’ coming to his baptism might be perceived as “wrong”, though seemingly John the Baptizer knew something that St. Matthew was not inspired to record for us. And, frequently pastors and other church leaders know things that, often for reasons of confidentiality, not everyone else can know.
Whether or not we sin by letting aspects of pastors’ behaviors get in the way of both our recognizing them for who they are as God’s called and ordained servants and so likely also our rightly hearing and heeding their message, and whether or not we sin by at times wrongly questioning the way pastors work, we certainly sin in countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature. That sinful nature leads us both to think, say, and do things that we should not and not to think, say, and do things that we should. For such sins against God and our neighbors we deserve the fiery judgment to which John the Baptizer repeatedly refers in today’s Gospel Reading, the righteous wrath of our Holy God, not anger against us but condemnation of our sin (confer Romans 1:18; Ephesians 5:6; and Colossians 3:6).
John the Baptizer’s “fire and brimstone” preaching, as all proper “fire and brimstone” preaching, served God’s enabling call through him, as it serves God’s enabling call through all faithful pastors, for all people to repent of their sin. If not already, we are to be converted from unbelief to belief, and a radical change is to be made in how we live our lives. God prepares His own way and makes straight His own paths in us, so that we turn from our sin, trust Him to forgive our sin, and at least want to do better than to keep sinning.
Only by trusting in God to forgive our sin for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ can we escape the wrath that otherwise would come upon us. Some Jews apparently thought that Abraham was sitting outside the gate of hell and would deliver from its terrors any Israelite who was consigned there (Edersheim, cited by Rienecker and Rogers, 7), but, in the Gospel Reading, John the Baptizer makes clear to the Pharisees and Sadducees that physical descent from Abraham was not enough. Nor are our works or anything else enough to save us, only trust in the merits of the God-man Jesus Christ, Who, out of God’s great love for us, died on the cross for us, in our place, the death that we otherwise would have deserved. Some might question how God works, but the crucified and resurrected Jesus alone delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Jesus not only delivers us, but He also potentially delivers all people, as both today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 11:1-10) and today’s Epistle Reading that in part cites the Old Testament Reading (Romans 15:4-13) make clear. And, Jesus offers that deliverance to all people through sinful men such as John and others’ using humble means such as baptism.
In relationship to Jesus, John the Baptizer did not consider himself worthy of being even the lowliest of slaves. Yet, John the Baptizer’s greatness is precisely in His faithful service to Christ (Rengstorf, TDNT 3:294). If we reject the faithful man whom God calls through us and the means of grace that he administers, we might wonder whether we would accept any man and any means (how God chooses to work), and so we might wonder whether we are, in fact, rejecting the one Who sends such men and instituted such means (Luke 10:16; confer Matthew 10:40). Naaman in the Old Testament is an example of someone who at least initially rejected the messenger and the means but nevertheless later came to be cleansed (2 Kings 5:1-14). So we, too, as we hear and heed God’s empowering call through His messengers to repentance and faith, confess our sins and our faith and are baptized by His messengers for the forgiveness of sins. At the Font, with water and the Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God makes us, even infants, His children, and thereby He saves us from the fire of judgment. And, we who are so baptized confess the sins that trouble us most for the sake of individual Holy Absolution, and afterwards we also come to the Sacrament of the Altar for bread that is Christ’s Body given for us and wine that is Christ’s Blood shed for us, through which we also receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
Through God’s messengers’ purely preaching His Gospel and rightly administering these humble means, God changes us, from bad trees to good trees, as it were, so that we bear good fruit and are not now cut down and thrown into the fire, or on the Last Day burned for eternity as worthless chaff. We love God, and we love our neighbors. We do not let aspects of pastors’ behaviors get in the way either of our recognizing them for who they are or of our rightly hearing and heeding their message. We only rightly question the way pastors work. And, when we still might sin in these or in other ways, with daily repentance and faith we live in the forgiveness of sins from God, and we extend our forgiveness to one another. Repentance is not just a one-time thing, or just an Advent thing, but it is a whole, earthly‑life thing!
Despite what otherwise might appear to be an odd dress and diet, John the Baptizer was “The Voice of One Crying”, and his message “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” and his means such as Baptism are effectively repeated by those in his line still today, despite their oddities. They, too, are the voice of one crying! As we sang in today’s Psalm (Psalm 72:1-7; antiphon: v.8), Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who alone does wondrous things. And, we pray that in His days the righteous may flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +