Advent 3 - Gaudete, 2022
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Matthew 11:2-10
Gaudete
December 11, 2022
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist is in the King’s palace but he is not clothed in soft clothing. He’s in the dungeon, shackled and clothed with prison garments. Such is the fate of the Lord’s prophets who prepare the way of the Lord. Jerusalem, as Jesus notes, is the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. Herod arrested John and threw him in prison because Herod did not like how John preached to him. John had told him that it was not lawful for him to take his brother’s wife and pretend that she was his wife. Herod did not like being told to stop cohabitating and living with someone who wasn’t his wife, so he threw John in prison. There, in that lonely dungeon, John awaited execution.
We aren’t told exactly the spiritual condition of John the Baptist, whether or not he was afraid or doubting the Lord’s promises because of his current situation. But what we do know is that John the Baptist is not God. He is not incorruptible. And yet, at the same time, according to our Lord’s own words, among those born of women, there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.
Before he was thrown into prison, John preached in the desert wearing camel’s hair, a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. This same attire and behavior, with his fiery preaching, were attributes of another prophet of old. It wasn’t Malachi, but Malachi alludes to this. He prophesies thus, concerning John the Baptist, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” says the Lord of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the Lord of hosts. “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4). Malachi explicitly calls John the Baptist, “Elijah the prophet.” John is in line with Elijah in his ministry of preparing the way of the Lord.
Aside from Moses in the Old Testament, Elijah stands alone as one of the greatest of prophets. For it was Moses and Elijah that appeared next to our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. While Elijah did not write any books of Holy Scripture, he was, without a doubt, a great prophet. Elijah was sent by the Lord to confront King Ahab’s wickedness and to pronounce a three year drought upon the land because of their unfaithfulness. Eventually the Lord sent Elijah back to Ahab that the Lord might bring the people to repentance and thus, send rain upon the land.
When Elijah and Ahab met, Elijah told Ahab to bring all the people to Mount Carmel. There, Elijah rebuked the people for going back and forth between the worship of God and the worship of baal. Then, he proposed a contest. The prophets of baal would set up a sacrifice and so would Elijah. Then they would both call down fire. Whoever’s God would send down fire would be the true God. Try as they might, the prophets of baal could not call down fire from their false god. Then Elijah called for four jars with water to be poured upon his sacrifice, not once, not twice, but three times so that water ran around the altar and filled the trench around it with water. Elijah called upon the name of the Lord to send down fire, and He did. Fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. Then the people repented. They realized that Yahweh, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob was the true God. And then, Elijah had the prophets of baal put to death. It was an impressive miracle.
Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, was not so pleased. She was not impressed by this miracle. It was partly because of her that the worship of baal was so prevalent in Israel. 450 of her prophets of baal had been put to the sword. Jezebel then vowed to do the same to Elijah within 24 hours.
Elijah had been party to a host of miracles. As a prophet, he had performed more miracles than most other prophets in the Old Testament. He knew the great power of the Lord. He had seen it. He knew God’s providence. He knew what God does for His people; what he does in protecting those whom He loves and those who love Him.
Elijah had seen the Lord’s power in the most direct and awesome way. But less than a day later, he fears the wrath of Jezebel. He himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and sat down under a broom tree and asked the Lord that he might die saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” Elijah not only ran away. He is making an attempt here at suicide. He went a day’s journey into the wilderness without food or provision, sat down under the broom tree and wanted to die. But the Lord intervenes. The Lord sends the Angel of the Lord, that is, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity—the preincarnate Christ, the Messiah Himself—to Elijah. He came to Elijah and fed him with bread cakes and a jar of water. Throughout a 40-day journey, the Angel of the Lord sustained Elijah until he came to Mount Horeb.
Elijah stands next to Moses as one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament. But still, he was frail human being. And even the greatest prophets of the Old Testament can still suffer from depression, can become suicidal, can suffer dark moments, can doubt. In the end, however, Elijah was saved by God’s grace from Jezebel, from Ahab, and even from himself.
If one of the greatest of prophets, if not the greatest prophet, can suffer in this way, certainly also can John the Baptist suffer in this way, while locked away in in the dungeon for preaching God’s Word, lacking food, suffering loneliness, and waiting on the Lord. And if these great men of the Bible, at times, can fall prey to doubt and discouragement while waiting on the Lord to fulfill His promises, so can you. No doubt, you have. “Why is the Lord taking so long?” “How long will He wait to fulfill His promises and return in glory?” “How much longer do we have to dwell here, in this dying world, in loneliness, while our loved ones—our family members and friends—are called home to heaven?” “Why are we, the Christians, the ones with faith, who actually love the Lord and delight in His Law and observe His statutes and just decrees, why must we be made the ridicule undergo exclusion and discrimination in the world?” Is there anything we can look forward to?
In this regard, we hear two messages this morning—one from Jesus Himself and the other from St. Paul. John the Baptist sent word by his disciples to ask if Jesus was the Coming One, or if they needed to look for another. Jesus gently responds, “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. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” That last little bit there—blessed is he who is not offended because of me—that’s you. You are blessed because you are not ashamed to receive Him, because you expect His coming, and you look forward to welcome Christ into the world, and you look forward to the Last Day—because of this, you are blessed. Though you were not blind and you see, though you were not lame and can now walk, though you were not deaf and now you can miraculously hear, you are the poor in spirit and you have the gift of the Gospel preached to you. Your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. And you are not ashamed of Him, obviously. You are here, worshipping Him by receiving Him in Word and Sacrament.
And so, we rejoice with St. Paul who says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!” There are so many great reasons to rejoice today. Jesus gave the blind their sight, the lame the ability to walk, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf hear, and your ears hear the Gospel. Since Jesus did these things for those people and performed miracles for them, you know that He much more will he gladly help you. You can be at ease, your warfare with this world has ended, your iniquity has been pardoned. All those sins that you fear will cause God to hate you, have been forgiven. The Word of our God stands forever. Your sins, which were many, are forgiven.
In +Jesus’ name.
