Third Sunday in Advent [c] December 12, 2021
Luke 7:18–35
18 The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, 19 calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 20 And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” 21 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. 22 And [Jesus] answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. 23 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
24 When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. 26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is he of whom it is written,
“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
28 I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)
31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,
“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
In the Name of Jesus.
What should we want to see? We wake up Sunday morning, have breakfast, drive to Church, say “hi” to a few friends in the narthex, sit down in a pew, what do we want to see?
We open our Bible, maybe we’re on lunch break, maybe it’s before we go to bed—we open our Bible, what do we want to see?
We speak with a friend, a brother or sister in Christ, about a problem, maybe in our family, maybe at work—we speak with a Christian friend, what should we want to hear in that conversation?
Luke 7:24:
Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
The people of Jerusalem went out to see John the Baptist. The prophet John was out by the Jordan river, away from the city; he was calling all sinners to be baptized into repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
So what did you go out to see?
asks Jesus later.
You didn’t go out see a reed shaken by the wind. That is to say, you didn’t go out to see someone ready to tell you whatever was acceptable to the prevailing powers. You didn’t go out to see someone telling you whatever they thought you wanted to hear.
And you didn’t go out to see someone dressed in soft clothing—they’re in the places of power, in the king’s courts.
They went out to see John the Baptist. He was different. Dressed in desert clothing. Eating desert food. Yet, speaking gifts from the Lord.
You don’t get any gifts from the Sadducees in the city. They are dressed in the acceptable clothing. They do speak the acceptable message—acceptable, that is, to the prevailing powers and the winds of the culture.
The priests at the Temple and the Sadducees, they will instruct you how to live an acceptable life, how to stay away from those who are lowly and dirty, and they’ll tell you how much money you are to leave in the plate.
But they are not speaking gifts from the Lord.
That’s the distinction. Either you are going to hear preaching of how to live an acceptable life, or you are going to hear preaching which speaks to you the gifts of the Lord.
Either, the preaching is telling you what you need to do, what you need to commit, or it is telling you the opposite, what the Lord is doing, what he is giving you as gift.
Do you want to hear preaching which speaks to you not how to live an acceptable life, but which speaks to you gifts from the Lord?
Then if you live in Jerusalem, go out to hear this prophet. Go out to see John the Baptist. He’s out by the Jordan gathering sinners to the Lord’s Word. John is calling sinners out for their sin, and then bestowing on them the Lord’s Name. He’s baptizing them into the gift of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. So that, the sinners walk away from the Jordan, they return to their lives of work and play, but as sinners now cleansed by the gift the Lord is giving through his instrument John.
But when Jesus is reminding the people that they went out to the Jordan to see John the Baptist, to be baptized by him as a gift from the Lord for the forgiveness of sins, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were listening in. They weren’t happy. Luke 7:29:
[Jesus said,] “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by [John].)
The Pharisees and teachers of the Law aren’t pleased.
They preach the Bible. They have no problem with that.
They know the Bible cover-to-cover better than anyone else, and they’ll make sure you know it.
But they want the preaching of the Word of God to be about obedience, about your commitment, about your living a clean, victorious life. They want the preaching to be about, in short, your works-righteousness. They did not want the proclamation to be about the sinner being cleansed by the free gift of God, the sinner being justified by the word of forgiveness, the sinner walking back into life in Jerusalem with the full knowledge and confidence that God is a giver of gifts, and by his giving of gifts, the sinner is saved.
So the Pharisees and teachers of the Law reject the purpose of God for themselves (Luke 7:30).
So what should we want to see? We wake up on Sunday morning, have breakfast, drive to Church, say “hi” to a few friends in the narthex, sit down in a pew, what should we want to see?
We open our Bible, maybe on lunch break, maybe before we go to bed—we open our Bible, what do we want to see?
We’re troubled with a problem, maybe in our family, maybe at work—we speak with a Christian friend, what should we want to hear in that conversation?
We want to see the gifts of Jesus. We want to hear the Word to cleanse us of all sin. We want to be gathered to the One named as the Son of Man, for he came among sinners to stand in for all men, all people, taking our sin upon himself.
We want to hear the proclamation of the One who came eating and drinking with tax-collectors and sinners and made them his own. Luke 7:34:
The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
We want to see the Lord who takes a child and puts his Name on that child in Baptism, as we saw our Lord do this morning for little Lee Oliver, so that in Baptism, and because Baptism is not our work of the Law but our Lord’s gift of the Gospel—in Baptism our Lord is bringing to the sinner, and bestowing upon the sinner, all the gifts of the cross.
When we open our Bibles, at a lunch break, at a family devotion, whenever, we want to see this Lord who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for many, that in seeing this Lord revealed in the words of Scripture, we would again know the forgiveness of all our sin.
And when we speak with a friend, a brother or sister in Christ, about something troubling us, about any travail, we want to hear not a conversation which is nothing more than reed shaken by the wind telling us whatever it seems smooth and acceptable to our culture, but we want to hear the conversation bestowing the gifts of Jesus—the conversation of all sin, all our sin, being taken up by him and put to death on the cross, and of the gifts of cross being brought to us now, being bestowed upon us in our lives, in the Lord’s appointed ways of the preaching of his Gospel, in the bestowal of his Name in Baptism, in the receiving of his Body and Blood according to his Word and promise, for he is Lord who comes eating and drinking with sinners to bring to them all of his gifts.
In the Name of Jesus.