Advent 2 – Series
A (December 4, 2016)
“Prepare the Way
of the Lord” (Matthew 3:1-12)
INI
Out in the wilderness, those who went to
see and hear John the Baptizer preach would have been reminded of the
wilderness wanderings of the people of Israel.
For 40 years they camped in the desert, following the Lord wherever he
told them to pitch their tents and HIS tent, the tabernacle. Over and over again, the Israelites tested
the Lord’s patience with their unbelief.
It was their unbelief that had shut them out of the Promised Land for so
long a time. The wilderness may have
also reminded John’s hearers of the time when the people of Judah were exiled
in Babylon. That 500-mile stretch of
desert between Palestine and Babylon, with all its obstacles and hindrances,
was like the obstacles and hindrances that separated the people from God … the
obstacles of sin and unbelief in dry, barren hearts. And there, at the Jordan River where John was
baptizing, they would have been reminded of the way God brought them back to
the land, passing through the waters of the Jordan, with the Lord always being
faithful to his promises even when the people were unfaithful.
We chide the Israelites for their idolatry,
for their doubt, for their covetous desire to return to the flesh-pots of Egypt
John’s call to “Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is near” is for us, also. It is
necessary for us to “Prepare the way of the Lord” in order to properly welcome and
worship him. The Kingdom of Heaven had
come to earth in the person of Jesus Christ.
All the blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven were centered in the manger
of Bethlehem. All the blessings of the
Kingdom of Heaven were won for us at the cross of Calvary. And through faith in the Christ Child, we
will be ready to welcome our Advent Lord when he comes again and brings his
Kingdom in all its glory.
So, “Prepare the Way of the Lord” by
repenting of your sins (vv. 2, 6).
In the movie “The Princess Bride,” the kidnapper
Vizzini constantly says that the events that keep happening around him are
“inconceivable,” to which the swordsman Inigo Montoya finally says, “You keep
on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” The same goes for the way we use the word
“repentance.” “I do not think it means
what you think it means.” Repentance is
not merely saying, “I’m sorry,” or feeling regret about something you have
done. Neither does it mean walking
around, beating your chest, berating yourself, and crying out, “Woe is me! I am a sinner!”
Certainly, we should feel regret and sorrow
over our sins which have offended God.
Certainly, we confess that we are “poor, miserable sinners.” But real repentance is a change of heart … a
turning away from going your own way to going God’s way … turning away from sin
and guilt and turning towards the cleansing and forgiving grace of God in Jesus
Christ. Moreover, repentance is not just
a one-time deal. It’s a condition. It’s a heart condition. It’s a lifestyle.
You see, repentance is a like a two-sided
coin. Contrition – being sorry for your
sin – is heads. Faith – trust in God’s
grace in Christ – is the flip side of the coin.
Both are necessary in this lifestyle of repentance. In fact, the document that kick-started the
Reformation begins with this very same thought.
The very first of Luther’s 95 Theses says, “Our Lord and Master Jesus
Christ, when He said ‘Repent,’ he willed that the whole life of believers
should be repentance.”
Regarding a lifestyle of repentance, St.
John the Baptist also declared, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” He said this to the Pharisees and Sadducees who
were coming out to the wilderness to see him.
But John saw right through them.
He calls them a “brood of vipers.”
He recognized their false motives for coming to be baptized by him. If the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not
allow themselves to be baptized by John, they would lose their status among the
people, since so many people were coming out to see and hear this popular
wilderness preacher. And so John saw
that these so-called spiritual leaders were not truly repentant, and therefore
they would not “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” Their unchanged lifestyle would show that they
not truly had a change of heart.
How do you and I “bear fruit in keeping
with repentance”? John answers that for
us in Luke’s account. The people asked
“What should we do then?” John told them
to share your food and clothing with others and be merciful. He told the tax collectors to stop defrauding
people and be honest, be people of integrity.
He told the soldiers to stop shaking people down and be content with
your pay.
What would John say to us today? He would probably say something similar. He would point each of us to our vocation and
tell us to be faithful in our station in life.
Are you a son or a daughter? Bear
fruit in keeping with repentance by serving, obeying, loving, and cherishing
your parents. Are you a parent? Then don’t exasperate your children, but
bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Are you married? Then honor your spouse, and be pure and
chaste in all that you say and do. Are you
single? Serve your friends and your
family, and also be pure and chaste in all that you say and do. Do you have a job? Do it wholeheartedly, as if you were serving
the Lord.
“Prepare the way of the Lord” by repenting
of your sins and being ready to welcome your Advent Lord who comes with all the
blessings of His Kingdom.
John said that Jesus would baptize with the
Holy Spirit and fire. On the day of
Pentecost, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and tongues of fire
rested upon them. “Our God is a
consuming fire,” the author of Hebrews wrote.
At Pentecost, however, God was present there in all his fiery-fullness,
but the disciples were not consumed, just as God’s fiery presence did not
consume the burning bush that Moses saw at Mt. Sinai. And when you were baptized, God came to you
in all his fiery fullness. There were no
tongues of fire. There was no dove
descending from heaven. There was no
voice saying “This is my beloved son.”
But God’s gracious, life-giving presence was there nonetheless, for he
promises that in baptism “he saved us … by the washing of regeneration and
renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus
Christ our Savior.” (Titus 3:5-6)
For those unwilling to repent … for those
who have not “prepared the way of the Lord” in repentance … this baptism with
fire will mean the pouring out of an unquenchable fire. John the Baptist calls these individuals
“chaff,” the wheat husks that are gathered after the harvest and are burned
up. When our Lord Jesus returns at his
Second Advent – when he returns for his final harvest – those who have been
filled with faith and have borne the fruit of faith will be gathered into the
barn of heaven. But those who in this
life stubbornly separated themselves from faith in the saving death of Christ
our Lord will experience the unquenchable fire of hell.
We also learn from our text today that we “prepare
the way of the Lord” by not assuming that we are saved by our bloodlines, our
heritage, or our traditions. (vv. 7-10)
This is what the Pharisees and Sadducees assumed. They figured that because they were
descendants of Abraham, they were automatically in God’s favor. But John said to them, “Do not presume to say
to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’”
Are we guilty of this assumption? I think sometimes we are. Some people are tempted to assume that
because they were born into a Christian family, that automatically makes them a
Christian … in spite of the fact that they despise their baptism by never giving
it a second thought, by taking it for granted … in spite of the fact that they
seldom come to church to hear God’s Word and receive the Lord’s Supper … and
when they do, it’s just a ritual that they go through. They don’t really think about what it truly
means.
Closer to home, we may be tempted to think
that we are just a bit closer to God because of our Lutheran heritage, our
liturgy, and various church traditions.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love all of this and I will continue to uphold
the richness of our Lutheran theology and worship and hymns and
traditions. But if we for a moment begin
to believe that we have an automatic ticket to heaven because we are Lutherans,
then we are dead wrong. In fact, if we
believe any of that, then we are as dead as a rock. Stone-cold dead.
But God can work with rocks, too. John said, “I tell you, God is able to from
these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”
The Pharisees and Sadducees clung to their bloodline for their
salvation, but John said, “That’s not going to cut it. See these desert rocks? God made them. And he can make them alive if he wants to,
and he can turn them into living beings with faith in the Savior.”
God can work with rocks. He told the prophet Ezekiel, “I will give
them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their
flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ez. 11:19). He once worked with a stony guy named Peter,
whose name means “rock.” Peter denied
Jesus, but by grace Jesus forgave him and gave him a rock-solid faith.
Apart from the Holy Spirit working in us
through the Word of God, our hearts are like those stones. Cold and lifeless. Dead.
With no place upon which seeds can take root and grow. But God sends his Word of forgiveness through
the death and resurrection of Christ, and he makes alive what once was
dead. He waters that hard, crusty soil
in Baptism, plows it under and breaks it up, and he plants the seed of faith,
and it grows and bears fruit. That’s
what he’s done in you and me. He’s taken
our stony hearts and made them alive by grace.
He has made us children of Abraham, those who have been declared
righteous by faith in Jesus.
We “prepare the way of the Lord” by
repentance. But Jesus is the One who has
“prepared the way” for US by being bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to us in his
very own flesh … born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate,
raised again on the Third Day, given to us in the Lord’s Supper, and coming
again on the Last Day.
INI
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