The Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent
Matthew 11:2–15
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Hoopeston, IL
December 15, 2013; Rev. James T. Batchelor
Did you hear what the Divine Preacher had to say about John? Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. You heard today’s Gospel. That is what Jesus had to say about John. No one is greater. You heard it yourself, straight from the mouth of Jesus.
Well … If John is so great, shouldn’t he be living the victorious Christian life? If John is so great, shouldn’t he living the American dream? What is John doing in prison?
Today’s reading from the Gospel doesn’t include the reason John was in prison, but other parts of the Gospel fill in the details. We learn that John was in prison because he spoke the truth to power. In this case, the power was Herod Antipas the son of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas had stolen the wife of his brother, Philip. This was a clear case of adultery. John the Baptist fearlessly and faithfully condemned Herod for this adultery. So, Herod arrested John.
You really can’t blame John for having his doubts. He had done what he was supposed to do. He was already a prophet in his mother’s womb as he leapt for joy when Mary approached bearing Jesus in her womb. He had baptized thousands for repentance in anticipation of the coming Messiah. He had done everything he was supposed to do and yet, he ended up in jail. You can’t blame him for looking back over his ministry and wondering if it was all worth it.
There are many who struggle with the idea that John had doubts. John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. John preached with power. John baptized the Lord and heard the voice from heaven and saw the Spirit descend as a dove. Surely someone who had all these experiences wouldn’t crack under pressure. There has to be another answer. Wrong! For us Christians, there is never a time when faith is very far from the edge of unbelief. Satan never leaves us Christians alone, but each day he works harder to take us away from Christ. John was no exception. The sad reality is that preachers can lose the faith they preach to others. Both the preacher and the hearer are not immune to unbelief.
We Christians know that life can become so miserable that, like Job, we are forced to ask ourselves if God really cares for us. Perhaps we go to the extreme and question whether God exists. John’s question was a little different. He sent his disciples to ask whether Jesus was the Christ: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” John, who had pointed to Jesus as the Messiah, toyed with the idea that he may have made a misidentification. If Jesus was not the Christ predicted by the prophets, then John’s ministry was a total waste.
When John’s disciples came to Jesus, He answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” Go and tell John … Jesus understood John’s doubts. He understood that John needed assurance. Jesus appointed John’s disciples to be apostles … sent ones … ones who arespecifically sent to bring their witness to John. Jesus invited John’s disciples to witness His work and then take the proclamation of His work back to John.
Here is a very basic truth. When we have doubts, Jesus says, “Hear what I have done.” He sends people to proclaim the wonders He has done so that we can hear about them. By this proclamation of His deeds, He sends the Holy Spirit to bear us up and strengthen us as we travel through this sinful world … especially as we travel through those darker times of doubt.
Jesus told John’s disciples to take two kinds of proclamation to John. First there is the proclamation of the signs or credentials that Jesus is who He says He is. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up. These signs are the fulfillment of prophecy. In fact, we heard some of that prophecy in today’s Old Testament reading. These signs clearly identify Jesus as the promised Messiah.
These visible miracles are credentials that validate the authority to perform the most important miracle of all. As Jesus Himself once said when He healed a paralytic, [Matthew 9:6] “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. This miracle of forgiveness is more important than all the other miracles combined. This is the miracle that the disciples will proclaim when they tell John that the poor have good news preached to them. This is nothing other than Jesus telling the poor that He forgives their sins.
Here is the true antidote for doubt … the proclamation that Jesus forgives sins. We may think that we can take comfort and certainty in the many supernatural attributes of God … His power, His knowledge, His wisdom, His holiness, and so forth, but that is not the case. Without forgiveness, those other attributes only serve to terrify us. If there is no forgiveness, then God’s holiness only sets Him apart from sinful people like us. If there is no forgiveness, then God’s total knowledge reveals our every sin. If there is no forgiveness, then God’s power is there to punish our sin. Without forgiveness, God is simply the ultimate terror.
When there is forgiveness, then God is comfort and assurance. When there is forgiveness, God’s holiness is for us. When there is forgiveness, God’s knowledge serves us. When there is forgiveness, God’s power protects us. With forgiveness, God is the ultimate comfort. He is the ultimate re-assurance.
Forgiveness does not come cheap. The one who earns forgiveness must satisfy God’s justice and God’s justice requires the punishment of sin. That is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus took your sin into Himself. Then, when God punished your sin, the punishment fell on Jesus and not on you. When Jesus hung on the cross, He took your place as the target of God’s just punishment of sin. This is nothing other than God’s perfect love enduring God’s perfect justice for you. This is Jesus earning forgiveness for you.
Jesus put the finishing touches on the cure for doubt a few days after He died. His friends placed His dead body in the tomb, but it did not stay there. Instead, Jesus transformed His mortal body into immortality and rose from the dead. His resurrection is the ultimate sign that Jesus will do exactly what He has promised to do. He will return and raise us all to live with Him forever.
John did not see Jesus do any miracles, but he heard the proclamation of Jesus from his disciples. They proclaimed the physical healing miracles of Jesus as His credentials. Then they proclaimed the forgiveness of sins to John and the Holy Spirit removed his doubts. Faith does not feed on miracles. Many of Jesus’ opponents saw His miracles and refused to believe. Faith feeds on the Gospel … the proclamation that Jesus forgives sins.
People do not die for something that they know is a lie. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people died proclaiming that they saw, touched, spoke with, ate with, and otherwise interacted with the living Lord after they knew he had died on the cross. They proclaimed the forgiveness of sins earned by Jesus Christ in their lives and they proclaimed Him with their deaths. Through these martyrs we receive the same proclamation of the forgiveness of sins that John received from his disciples. This is the proclamation that cures our doubts; Jesus Christ forgives sins. Amen
Last printed 12/12/2013 8:28:00 AMPage 1 of 2
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