Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
When you invite someone over to your home, what do you usually do before the guest arrives?
Well, even if your home is what some would consider spotless, it is likely that you still sweep the floor, mop the floor, vacuum the carpet, and dust off the shelves just in the case of that one spot, that one blemish.
So, if we would tidy up our homes, imagine the thoughts of John the Baptist as he saw the filthy condition of First Century Israel. Now, John was not considering the filth of their clothes and their outward cleanliness, he was concerned with their filthiness on the inside that to most people was not noticeable. He was concerned with the spiritual condition of the people.
Imagine what John would think of the spiritual condition of 21st century America? Today, according to Gallup[1], more than half of American adults have no religious affiliation – 53 percent as of 2020. They don’t attend a church, a synagogue, or a mosque. On top of this, so many Christian churches are denying the central tenants of the faith, such as justification by faith alone and even the resurrection.
So, why are they leaving, or have never been religious? Could it be that so many churches have given in to the winds of culture? Some wonder, what makes the church any different than belonging to a humanitarian service organization?
Numerous surveys conclude that politics and social justice may be leading many to abandon their religious commitments. Instead of trusting in God, they are placing their trust in human princes through government. Everyone has a god. It’s all a matter of who they put their trust in – the one true God: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, or a man-made god, who makes promises that could never be fulfilled.
Sadly, so many choose their man-made god. Now, this does not mean that we give up! No! Jesus says, “the harvest is plentiful” (Matthew 9:37), so we continue sowing the good news of salvation to all with ears to hear, so they too, would be saved! (Matthew 13:1-9)
If things appear bleak now, imagine John’s time. John faced huge challenges in getting out the important message of the Church – the Messiah is coming!
John was called by God to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. He was called to preach repentance. Wait just a moment. Isn’t John called “the Baptist”? Didn’t he just baptize people in the Jordan River? Well, he did, but he did so much more than that! Through his preaching is how he led the people to confess their sins and to be baptized.
Despite his odd appearance and his strange choice of food, John was very popular. John was known for calling things as they are. He certainly called a spade a spade. He never minced words. He never beat around the bush. He spoke truthfully and frank. He called sin, sin. He wasn’t in the business of gaining friends. Yet, people flocked to him.
John was certainly a herald. He was the messenger of God. As God’s messenger, he never gave in to the culture to make what he heard more comfortable to the people, but he remained loyal to God who gave him the message. John was called by God to preach. He was called to preach the truth: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). God called John to preach His message of repentance.
John is who Isaiah promised as the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:3). And that he surely did!
John would preach what we may call “Fire and Brimstone”! He spoke God’s Word without omission of what his hearers might find unpleasant or uncomfortable. Still, people from “Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him”(Matthew 3:5). Even with the fiery preaching, seemingly everyone wanted to hear him, confess their sins, and be baptized by him.
Here, in order to prepare the way for the Lord, John is calling upon Israel to turn and be converted, to become once again the flock of the divine Shepherd. Now, the Israel of John’s day is a flock of lost sheep, and John is calling them away from God’s final judgment to conversion and true faith in the God from whom they have wandered. You could say, John was calling for a revival of faith.
John was calling Israel out of the land to enter it again and become God’s people. By their unbelief they had become like the apostate Israelites who were exiled.
But why now? Why is John proclaiming this message of conversion of turning back to God in faith from unbelief? Well, it’s because the reign of heaven stands near! The Messiah is near!
For the Jews of that day, salvation was not thought of primary in terms of escaping from this life. Salvation for them meant God came down to save. You see, the people who came to John were looking for the Last Day, however they envisioned it. This Last Day would come in the reign of the Messiah. Jesus is the end-time Messiah, who has come to bring salvation into the world.
Among the countless throng who came to hear John preach, repent, and be baptized were many of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Pharisees were primarily a lay movement concerned about ritual purity and interpretation and application of the Law. The Sadducees were priestly, aristocratic, and denied life after death. But what united them was their failure to find any need to repent. They believed their good works and their good intentions were good enough for God.
For these men, why were they there? Was it a matter of curiosity? Were they hopping on the bandwagon of a popular movement? Now, for these men, John knew what was really in their hearts. He could read them. He knew they are not there to eagerly confess their sins. So, he calls them out: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7)
Do they really think that they could escape from God’s final judgment by pretending to sorrow over their sins and pretending to desire John’s baptism for the forgiveness of sins? Who warned them that they would be safe from God’s eternal condemnation if they only went through the outward ceremony of baptism, though they remained completely unrepentant?
So, who gave these unrepentant Pharisees and Sadducees the advice to come? Well, we don’t know, but we do know this is something Satan would do. Satan plants the idea that God can be pacified by a few outward religious observances. Satan plants the idea that an unrepentant person can enter God’s kingdom if he just goes through the motions. No, God requires a sincere faith. The way to turn to God is in sincere repentance.
We are often like those Pharisees and Sadducees. We think our good works matter for something. We fall for Satan’s lie that living a worldly “good life” is good enough for God. And when we fall short of what is worldly “good,” how often do we attempt to justify ourselves? “Yeah, sure, I’ve made mistakes. Who hasn’t? Can’t I just say, ‘my bad’ and just try better? Do I really need to confess those wrongs?”
For God, being what we consider “a good person” is never good enough. God doesn’t need our good works, but He does want us to come to Him in faith. So, it’s time to quit kidding ourselves about how good we are and honestly recognize our sins – of thought, word, and deed – and repent. John never sugarcoated his condemnation of sinners, and neither should we. As did the prophets before him, John told the people straight up if they refuse to repent, they would be without God’s grace.
But what is true repentance? Well, it means more than to be sorry for your sins. Repentance also encompasses faith; faith believing in God’s grace in Christ to forgive sins. Without the Holy Spirit working in the middle of faith, there is no sincere remorse for sin. Sin means nothing without the Holy Spirit convicting us.
Repentance is God’s work that leads a person to renounce sin by requesting God’s mercy and returning to His way. When we repent, we turn around from our sinful ways, and toward God and receive His forgiveness. We are converted from unbelief to faith. This confession of sins is the rhythm of life for a Christian. And Advent, like Lent, is a time to make sure that we are back in that rhythm of confessing our sins to God and to one another.
For those Pharisees and Sadducees, they thought blood mattered more than faith. They believed that physical descent from Abraham was enough. John didn’t buy it. Neither should we. So, physical descent is no substitute for heartfelt brokenness and confession of sin. The only proper response is to acknowledge one’s need, one’s complete absence of merit, and that all are completely dead in sin.
John proclaims that we ought to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). John says, “Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10b). If we are sinners, then how can poor trees produce good fruit? Well, through Holy Baptism, the Holy Spirit works in us repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, so it is not us who produce good fruit, but the Holy Spirit when we are united in Christ. Through your Baptism into Christ, you are united to Christ’s obedient life, you are united to His death as the payment for sin, and you are united to His resurrection victory! So, we prepare the way for Christ in this Advent season as we live in and treasure our baptismal grace.
In this grace, in us and through us, the Holy Spirit produces the fruit that we cannot produce by nature – such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We prepare Christ’s path by bearing the fruit of repentance – which is the fruit of faith – for the world to see, fruit that is not produced by us, but by the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist prepared the people for Christ’s first coming. John prepared the way for the Lord by removing all obstacles of His resistance to us. John calls on us to repent, to turn away from sin, and back to God. By faith in Christ, we are the wheat gathered into His barn for the unending joy in Christ Jesus. We repent and confess our sins. We live in our baptismal grace. We bear fruits of repentance worked by the Holy Spirit. Through repentance and faith, and through His Word and Sacraments, Christ prepares us for His coming!
We, in turn, desire others to experience God’s undeserved grace that we already have these holy days of Advent. So, we – like John – call on others to be prepared for the Lord’s coming through repentance and faith in Christ’s sure promise of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +
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