Sermon for Advent 3 – Gaudete
Malachi 3:1-6 + 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 + Matthew 11:2-10
So we’ve got Jesus’ first Advent in humility, when He was born in a lowly manger and rode into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey to face the humiliation of the cross and death. Let the first candle on the Advent wreath remind you of that. We’ve got Jesus’ second Advent in glory to look forward to. Let the second candle remind you of that. Then we have this time in between Jesus’ first Advent and His second. The vast majority of Christians live in this time in between. It can be a dark time, a confusing time, a painful time as we wait and watch. In today’s Scripture readings, God reaches down into our darkness and holds out to us, of all things, joy, of which we are reminded by the light of a pink candle. As we heard in the Introit today, and as we’ll hear again in the Epistle next week: Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say (because it sounds so strange, given the circumstances): Rejoice!
The circumstances of Paul’s writing those words were that he was in prison for preaching about Christ, just like John the Baptist was in the Gospel. John’s entire life, from the time of his conception, was set up to herald the Advent of Christ. From the time his mother Elizabeth was greeted by the virgin Mary, with the tiny baby Jesus in her womb, and John leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb, John was proclaiming, “Christ is coming! Christ has come!” From the time John began his prophetic ministry on the banks of the Jordan River, his entire message can be summarized, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, because Christ is coming! Christ has come!”
But then, as John continues to preach against sin and direct people to Christ, King Herod puts him in prison. And it seems that, as the days passed in the dungeons, John began to wonder how Jesus could be the Coming One, because not much had changed in the world since His arrival. So he sends his disciples to ask Jesus, Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another? It seems that even John didn’t fully grasp that the coming of the Christ is twofold, once in humility, and then again in glory. As the last prophet of the Old Testament, as the very forerunner of Christ, it seems that John was expecting the Christ to come and usher in the kingdom of heaven on earth in a visible way, to come and rescue His people—like John—from the hands of wicked men, to come and crush the devil under His feet and end the reign of wickedness once and for all. Isn’t the coming of Christ supposed to mean the end of suffering for the righteous?
His second coming, yes! His first coming, no. At the first coming of Christ, King Herod remains on his throne of wickedness, and Caesar still sits on the pagan throne of Rome. At the first coming of Christ, John the Baptist remains in prison, Christ Himself is despised, rejected, and crucified, and His followers are promised more of the same. The first coming of Christ means the cross, for Christ and for the faithful.
But, in the midst of this time of humility and the cross, look what Jesus is doing! Or rather, listen to the report of His words and deeds, because John can’t go and see Jesus, just as you can’t. But he can hear the word about Him, just as you can. Jesus tells John’s disciples, Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. It’s true, not all blindness in the world was wiped out with Jesus’ first coming. But the blindness of those who came into contact with Jesus was removed. Not all the lame in the world were made to walk, but those who met Jesus were. Not all lepers were cleansed, not all the deaf were healed, not all the dead in the world were raised, and none of the poor was made rich in a worldly way. But every single one who was brought to Jesus for help was helped. Every single one heard the gospel preached. No malady was too great for Jesus to cure. No death was too powerful for Jesus to reverse. No sin was too big for Jesus to forgive.
And all of this was prophesied about the Messiah. Isaiah had prophesied long ago about the coming of Christ, In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD, And the poor among men shall rejoice In the Holy One of Israel. You see? Not only did Isaiah foretell the healing. He also foretold the joy Christ’s coming would bring.
But what kind of joy is this? Is it the immediate ending of all earthly suffering for His people? Is it the immediate end of the cross? No. The joy Christ brings to His people is that He will bear the cross for them. He will humble Himself out of love for sinners and die for them, and by His death, provide sinners with access to God, peace with God, and entrance into His heavenly kingdom. The joy Christ brings to His people is that you do not have to pay for your sins or make up for your wrongdoings in order to win God’s favor. Christ has earned God’s favor for you, and along with it, the promise of God’s forgiveness now, and the promise of the end of wickedness and suffering soon.
In fact, it is for your joy that Christ has postponed His coming in glory. Jesus’ delay before coming again has meant salvation for you and for countless others who would have never known Jesus or come into His kingdom if He had come back on the clouds immediately after His ascension. It is the patience of God and His desire that no one perish, but that all come to repentance, that has caused Him to allow this sinful world to continue in its sin awhile longer, so that His gospel can be preached, so that sinners can be brought to faith. Isn’t God’s patience cause for rejoicing?
Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me, Jesus says. Jesus’ humble appearance, His patience toward sinners, and His cross are offensive to our natural reason. We want a God who makes things right now, who comes in glory now, who satisfies our longings now. But Jesus doesn’t offer that now. All He offers is Himself now, and a cross. To some, that’s cause for rejoicing. To others, it’s a stumbling block over which they stumble and fall. That truth threatened to become a stumbling block to John the Baptist in prison. But Jesus calls him back from the brink, and speaks of the blessedness, the happiness, the joy of the one who does not stumble over Jesus—the one who still trusts in Him while bearing the cross. Because even if you lose everything on this earth, even if King Herod lops off your head, you don’t really lose anything. You keep God’s favor. You keep the kingdom of heaven. You keep Christ and His benefits. You keep your soul, your future, and your inheritance with the saints in light.
Now, Jesus has some strong words of praise for John the Baptist in the Gospel. Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’”
John was the last and the greatest of the Old Testament prophets who pointed to Christ’s Advent. “More than a prophet,” Jesus says, because John’s own coming was prophesied in the Old Testament, the messenger who goes before the face of the Lord Christ and prepares His way for Him. No task given to men was ever greater.
Even so, you have something even greater than John had. King Herod beheaded John the Baptist soon after Jesus spoke these words. So John wasn’t there for Holy Week. He wasn’t there for the institution of the New Testament in Jesus’ body and blood on Maundy Thursday. He wasn’t there to see the true depth of the love of God as the Son of God dies on the cross on Good Friday. He wasn’t there to hear the joyful news on Easter Sunday, “Christ is arisen!” Death, hell and Satan have been conquered! Christ reigns at the right hand of God. But you have heard all about these things from the testimony of the Apostles passed down to you through the ages. The joy of Easter is yours!
And that joy has sustained Christians for 2,000 years in ways that even John the Baptist never experienced. Compare John’s imprisonment with the Apostle Paul’s imprisonment, for example. John asked from prison, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for someone else?” St. Paul says from prison, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…Rejoice in the Lord always! You see how the joy of Christ crucified and risen filled Paul—and Peter and John and James and all the martyrs—so that they could face whippings and stonings and imprisonment and death, without despairing, because they learned from Jesus Himself that after the humility of death comes the glory of resurrection; after the cross comes the crown.
That same joy is for you, believers in Christ. Nothing can touch it. Nothing can move it or take it away. Even the cross you daily bear for following Christ only enhances this kind of joy, because it means that you’re being “counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41).
The joy of Christ’s salvation remains under the cross. Let today’s pink candle and today’s Holy Gospel remind you that, in the midst of our waiting and watching for Jesus to come again, in the midst of the darkness of this world and the pain of the cross, there is also the gift of joy for the one who isn’t offended by Jesus but who embraces Him in His cross. Let your joy be tied to Him and His victory over sin, death and the devil. Let His Word fill your ears and let His body and blood fill your mouth and your heart. Rejoice in the Lord always! Amen.
