Third Wednesday in Advent
December 19, 2012
Dear friends in Christ.
How many of you have ever wondered to yourself, “Did
I really do the right thing?” How many
of you have ever wished that you could take back something you’ve said, or go
back in time and fix something you did?
How many of you have ever seized one of those perfect opportunities that
come your way only once every few years, and then doubted the choice you
made? Has it ever happened that as you
sat alone, playing and replaying the event in your mind, you still wondered if
you had made the right choice—even when all the evidence shows that you made
the right decision. Has it ever happened
to you that you still doubted your actions, even after talking with friends who
assured you that it was the right thing to do?
Well, if anything like this has ever happened to
you, then you are not alone, because this is the very thing that happened to
John, the forerunner of the Christ! As
he sat in prison, locked away because he had boldly confronted Herod, the ruler
of those lands, accusing Herod of sin because he had enticed his sister-in-law
away from his brother Philip and she had become Herod’s wife; as John sat in
prison, he had plenty of time to wonder if he had done the right thing. He had plenty of time to wonder if he had
backed the right horse so to speak, which is why he sent his disciples to ask
Jesus if he was the one who was to come or if they should be looking for
someone else. Essentially John was
asking Jesus, “How do we know that you are the Christ?”
As Matthew tells us: “When John heard in prison what
Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who was
to come, or should we expect someone else?” 4 Jesus replied, “Go back and
report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk,
those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the
good news is preached to the poor. 6 Blessed is the man who does not fall away
on account of me.” 7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to
the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed
swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine
clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did
you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This
is the one about whom it is written: “ ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’ 11 I tell you the truth: Among those
born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he
who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (Matthew
11:2–11, NIV84)
How do we know that you are the Christ? This was a question that was weighing heavily
on John’s mind as he sat in prison. This
was a doubt that satan most likely introduced into his mind as he had all the
time in the world to review his ministry, his preaching, and all his activity
in the name of the Christ of whom he was the forerunner. This was a doubt that marked John as who he
truly was, a child of God who needed the Lord’s strength and encouragement;
just as Elijah did when he ran away from Jezebel and traveled to Mt. Sinai
where he received strength and encouragement from the Lord; just we need
strength and encouragement in our lives when doubts come creeping in and cause
us to wonder about what we’ve been taught.
How do we know that you are the Christ? When John’s disciples asked this question of
Jesus, Jesus knew the encouragement that John needed. For Jesus simply answers, “Go back and report
to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those
who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good
news is preached to the poor. 6 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on
account of me.” (Matthew 11:4-6, NIV84)
Essentially what Jesus is saying is, “Judge for yourself, based on what
you have heard and seen.” “Judge for yourself, based on the things I am doing;
the very things which Isaiah said I would do.”
“Judge for yourself and you will see that there is no doubt that I am
the one who was to come! You do not need
to be looking forward to someone else!
This is how you can be certain that I am the Christ.”
What a comfort these words must have been to John as
he sat in prison! What a great assurance
for him to hear his cousin and his Savior assure him not only that he, Jesus,
was, indeed, the Christ, the one who was to come into the world as the Messiah,
but that he, John, the forerunner, had done his job of preparing the way for
the Lord, extremely well. This, in fact
was the very thing Jesus was telling the crowd, as John’s disciples were
departing to go back to John with Jesus’ answer. Matthew tells us, “As John’s disciples were
leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out
into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go
out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are
in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell
you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written: “ ‘I
will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ 11
I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone
greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he." (Matthew 11:7–11, NIV84)
As Jesus stood before the crowd of people there, he
told them, in no uncertain terms, that even though John was currently sitting
in prison, he had done his job to prepare the way for the Savior! John was the messenger whom the Lord God had
revealed ahead of the Savior to prepare his way. John was the one who pointed Jesus out as the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the Word.
John was the one who had so eloquently proclaimed the Law of God,
cutting the people to the heart, moving them to repentances, and thus preparing
them to receive Jesus as their Savior.
Thus, in pointing to his actions as the Messiah, and pointing to John’s
actions as the forerunner to the Messiah, Jesus reveals two witnesses that
proclaim him as the Christ who was to come to be the Savior of the world! He is the Christ not simply because he said
so, but because he was the one who accomplished what the Scriptures said the
Christ would do. He was the Christ not
simply because he said so, but because John, the forerunner whom the Scriptures
foretold, prepared the way before him and proclaimed him to be the Christ, the
one who was to come to be the Savior of the world.
Today we can have the same confidence that the Lord
bestowed upon John while he sat in prison.
For today, as we look forward to the celebration of our Savior’s birth,
we can be absolutely certain that he is indeed the Christ. We can be absolutely certain that he came as
the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is the one who came into the world to live
a perfect life under the requirements of his own law; a perfect life that he
has lovingly applied to you and me through faith. He is the one who came into this world to
give his life as the Lamb of Atonement, so that his payment for our sins might
wipe God’s slate clean. He is the one
who came into this world to preach the Gospel so that his Word might be carried
to every nation, tribe, people, and language; that they might believe in
him. He is the one who came into the
world so that you and I might be made his own and live under him in his
kingdom.
What a comfort it is to have our Savior’s assurance
that we don’t need to look for anyone else!
By his words, by his actions, by his fulfillment of all the prophecies,
we know that he is the Christ, the one who was to come into the world! What a comfort it is to know that this great
assurance is there, written down for us so that we can look at it again and
again. Though we may still face
decisions in our lives that cause us to wonder if we did the right thing, when
it comes to our Savior, we never need to wonder. Though we will face times when we will doubt
our actions, or wish we could go back and do them over, when it comes to our
salvation, we can always be confident, because we know: Jesus is the Christ who
came into the world to free us from our sins so that we could be his own and
live under him in his kingdom.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
