Advent of His Double Comfort :: Matthew 11:2-11

Our Gospel reading this morning from Matthew chapter 2 revolves around two questions ... the question of John the Baptizer to Jesus: Are you the Coming One? Or should we expect another? (v. 3) ... And the question of Jesus to the crowds about John: What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? ... What did you go out to see? (vv. 7-8). These questions are not insignificant as we reflect on the coming of our Lord. They both ask ... 

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

1. John the Baptizer asked this question first of Jesus. 

Like John, every Christian has probably asked this question in one form or another at least once. Maybe you heard it phrased this way instead: What do you think of Jesus? Is He actually God, or just a good man with a good word about good living? ... Is God really a man, or does he just seem to be? ... Did God really come in the flesh? ... Did God really die? ... Is Jesus really our Savior, or is He the Judge? ... Is Jesus the center of your being, or an embellishment? Do you believe the Word of God is all about Jesus, or Do you believe in the modern, politically correct, socially sensitive, humanistic Jesus? In other words ... Why are you here? 

Is Jesus the Coming One? Or should we expect someone else?

Maybe for you generational Lutherans, these questions sound out of place. Most of you come every week. We don’t like to think we have doubts. 

Unfortunately, it’s not a silly question. It’s never out of place. The devil is at work all of the time, on the prowl, trying to devour us with thoughts to imagine a “Christ” of our own making (1 Pt 5:8) ... a Jesus who wasn’t born to die for you, and to rise into new life for you, ascending for you to prepare a place for you with him in paradise forever. The devil is dying to convince you to believe in a Jesus other than the one we see and hear in the Old and New Testaments. 

Believe it or not, there are many “Christian” congregations that actually teach that Jesus was not born of a Virgin, that he didn’t die to atone for your sins, or rise from the dead and ascend into heaven before coming again. They ask what is God really saying to us today? They make Jesus into a man of their own design. Like the Jews of Jesus’ day, there are Christians expecting someone and/or something else.

2. So why are you here? 

Two thousand years ago, when people actually met Jesus, they didn’t want to believe he was the Prophet like Moses (Dt 18:15), the King of Kings (Dn 2:37, Rv 19:16), and the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek (Hb 7:17). They didn’t want to believe that a nobody from Nazareth could be the Son of Man. Jesus was too humble, too unorthodox, too untraditional. They wanted someone else. They wanted their own God.

This is the same problem many people face today. The world is filled with false Jesuses. Some of us are looking for the Jesus of our hopes and dreams ... a giver of bling. Some of us are looking at The Good Guy who smiles at everyone no matter who they are. Some of us want the Submissive Jesus who ignores what we do in privacy ... pornography, anyone? Some of us want an Ecumenical Jesus who allows us to define him on our own terms ... you know, we make him into a deeds not creeds man. Some of us think our Jesus is pleased when we learn to pay lip service to the existence of God. (Who is your God?) Some of us have in mind a Jesus who changes His values and morals and judgments as frequently as we do. Too many of us have a Jesus who always agrees with us ... our doctrine, our morality, our history, our tradition. 

Yes, too many of us have only my Jesus. 

So brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to ask ourselves, why are we here? Do you believe in the spiritual Jesus, the one who speaks to your heart? Do you think you can find him apart from his Word and sacraments? Do you believe in a mystical Jesus who exalts your emotions and feelings, that he communicates through that tingle in your spine?

Why are you here? What have you come to see and hear today? Who are you seeking?

Is Jesus really the coming one? Or should we expect another?

3. You can hear and see the answer today.

As Jesus told John: Open your eyes and ears. Bear witness to the truth. The blind are looking up to see, the lame are walking, the lepers are being cleansed, the deaf are hearing, and the poor are being evangelized. This is all good news! The Jesus of scripture is doing everything that was prophesied of him. You who now hear the Gospel are no longer blind and deaf. He has made you clean. And we are beginning to know that the entirety of the Old Testament really is pointing to the true Christ. The entirety of the New Testament really is revealing the true Christ. As Jesus said: Blessed is the one who doesn’t stumble over Me (v. 6). 

In other words, blessed is the one who believes that Jesus is God in the flesh ... true God and true Man. Blessed is the one who receives all that he taught and commanded with joy, because it shows you your sin and your need for a savior. Blessed is the one who actually believes that Jesus was born to die for you, then rise from the grave for you, and ascend into the heavens for you where he is preparing a place for you before he comes to judge the living and the dead ... and that this objective justification is enough for you. Blessed are you who have been given faith in Christ. Behold ... the advent of our Lord (Isa 40:10).

4. Which leads naturally to the questions Jesus asked the crowd: What did you come see today? 

If you see this congregation as just a social group of wonderful people, you are not here for Jesus. If you see a worship service as a place one can go to in order to feel good, you are not seeing reality. If you see the messenger of Christ as simply expressing his opinion, and you reject him out of hand or cling to him automatically, without examining what is taught and preached in the Word, you have not come to see Jesus. If you thought that by coming you can make yourselves clean today, washing yourselves in a baptism of your own making ... or that Jesus will somehow take note of your dedication to him on Sundays and reward you, you have come for the wrong reason. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the name of Jesus, repent.

John is pointing you to bear witness to Jesus, who saves you now (1 Pt 3:21) through the sacrament of Baptism, which he pours out upon you generously, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life (SC)? John is pointing you to Jesus, who fulfilled all righteousness ... healing not just you but all of creation. This is the good news! John is pointing you to Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world by means of his body and blood given in the feast of forgiveness that has no end.

5. This is why we are here: God serves you through all of his advents. 

God’s advent is happening now. This congregation is the assembly of Christ’s holy people, whom he chose before time began. He has gathered you together to bring you into repentance, to wash you daily in his flood of baptism, to proclaim to you his word of absolution, that your sins are forgiven on account of Christ. He has called you here to forgive each other. He has called you here to feed you his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. He has called you here to strengthen the faith he gave you, the faith in him that saves you. These means of grace enable the blind to see, and the dead to hear. These are how the gospel is proclaimed. Behold, his advent.

Our Lord Jesus Christ ... true God and true Man ... now lives in you and with you and for you. His word is one with you. He has forgiven your sins on account of his life and death. He suffered all of God’s wrath for your sin. He has given you his righteousness. And he has promised to give eternal life to all who believe this. 

Jesus has not promised that everything will feel good right now. He hasn’t promised to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise here on earth ... although you may enjoy that. God may ask you to stand firm in the face of persecution, or enduring illness, or certain death, always patiently confessing Christ before those who may not accept it, and who might not accept you if you do not change. That is our calling. 

But he has promised to nurture and nourish you here through his Word, and in his Word. He has called you through baptism and in baptism to continue living in baptism. He has called you to hear absolution from the pastor as from God himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven. He has called you to receive His Holy Supper, which he delivers specifically for the forgiveness of your sins. 

This is why we are here: To return to God’s word and sacraments as often as we can. To Receive them with joy and confidence, knowing that we will receive in our commendation from God (1 Cor 4:5). Then we can thank the Lord and sing his praise, rejoicing always (Pp 4:4). We can tell everyone what he is doing here ... how he is making us whole, in body and soul, just as Isaiah proclaimed ... 

Upon a high mountain, get up, herald of good tidings; 

O Zion, lift up your voice with strength, herald of good tidings. 

O Jerusalem, lift it up; fear not. 

Say to the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! (Is 40:9).

The advent of his double comfort has arrived, in Jesus’ name.