The consequences of Christmas

Posted on December 26, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for St. Stephen

Acts 6-7  +  Matthew 23:34-39

Merry Christmas, everyone! And a very blessed Festival of St. Stephen to you as well. It’s because of St. Stephen’s day that there’s red on the altar today instead of the white of the Christmas season, because red is the color of martyrs, and St. Stephen was the first martyr of the Christian era. We’ve only celebrated this feast of St. Stephen a few times over the last 15 years, and maybe you’re still wondering, what does martyrdom have to do with Christmas? What does red have to do with white?

It’s very simple. White is the color of holiness and purity, and, therefore, white is the color of Christ and of Christmas, which celebrates Christ’s nativity, His birth. Red is the color of blood, and we use it in the Church to symbolize the shedding of a person’s blood to the point of death. And not just any death, but the death of one who died for his testimony about Christ, for his martyrdom. That’s what red has to do with white, what martyrdom has to do with Christmas. We rejoice at Jesus’ birth. We sing praise to God that the Christ was born for us. But we never, even for a moment, lose sight of the fact that Christmas has consequences, and no one exemplifies that for us better than St. Stephen.

What does a person do who believes that the Word (ho Logos) became flesh and made his dwelling among us? In other words, what does a person do who believes that Christmas is true? For Stephen, it meant devoting himself to the apostles’ teaching in Jerusalem and learning the Holy Scriptures better and better. It meant that his Old Testament Jewish faith made the seamless transition to a New Testament Christian faith as he was led to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, born of a virgin, just as Isaiah had prophesied, born in Bethlehem, just as Micah had prophesied, crucified, risen, ascended, and reigning, the one atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, the one Mediator between God and man, just as so many of the prophets had prophesied.

Stephen, as Acts tells us, was a man full of grace and power, full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit. He was one of seven devout men who were chosen to be ministers, deacons in the Jerusalem church, to help with the distribution of food to the believing widows.

So Stephen’s vocation was not that of a layman. He, along with those other six men, was ordained into the office of deacon, and while he certainly devoted some of his time to the distribution of food as an assistant to the apostles, he also devoted time to preaching the Gospel, as we heard in today’s Epistle, as he testified among the people of Jerusalem in the temple. As a consequence of his faith in the Christ, born in Bethlehem, Stephen spoke publicly to everyone as he had opportunity. He spoke of Christ as the fulfillment of the Law. He spoke of faith in Christ as that alone which saves.

But just as Herod persecuted the babies of Bethlehem who dared to be born at Christmas time, the Jews in Jerusalem persecuted Stephen for confessing Christ. They challenged his witness of Christ. “He’s speaking against the temple! He’s speaking against Moses! He’s condemning good works!” None of that was true, of course. The Jews were perverting Stephen’s message. People pervert our message in the same way today. “Those Lutherans say that a person is saved by faith alone! They’re forbidding good works!” The first part is right, the second part is wrong. We don’t forbid good works. Neither did Stephen. Just look at all the good works Stephen did in the process of preaching salvation by faith alone in Christ! But we do teach, as Stephen taught, that no works are good apart from faith in Christ, and that faith alone – apart from works – is what makes us right with God. Where there is faith, faith in the Christ of Christmas, there are also fruits of faith, consequences of Christmas. But the fruits don’t save. Christ saves, through faith alone.

But these Jews would have none of it. They dragged Stephen off to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court, and they falsely accused him and questioned him. Now, we didn’t even read most of chapter 7. Stephen retells a long portion of Old Testament and of God’s interactions with the people of Israel. And this theme repeats over and over: God gave our forefathers every gift of grace, every advantage, every opportunity, but they always ended up persecuting the very prophets who were sent to tell them the truth, to teach them to repent and put their faith in the true God. Jesus said the same thing in today’s Gospel: from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah. To the blood of Christ himself, murdered on a cross.

As a consequence of Christmas, because Stephen believed that the Word had become flesh, he had to speak up – out of love for God, out of love for his fellow Israelites who were steeped in sin and impenitence and unbelief, and out of faithfulness to his preaching office: You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.

Sometimes – sometimes, when people hear the hard truth about their sin, they repent of it. They realize the horrible crimes they’ve committed against God and are crushed with sorrow, like the people of Jerusalem to whom Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost. But sometimes – I’d have to say most of the time — the preaching of the Law produces anger. “Who do you think you are? How dare you call me a sinner! How dare you judge me!” Sometimes it produces absolute rage, as it did in the case of the Sanhedrin with Stephen. When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.

And then, both to strengthen his servant Stephen and to further enrage the Sanhedrin, Jesus, now seated at the right hand of God, gave Stephen a vision, a vision that assured him: the Son of Man, the Word made flesh, has indeed risen from the dead and is ruling over all things in heaven, in the heaven that is prepared to receive you now, Stephen. Don’t be afraid!

And, as a consequence of Christmas, he wasn’t afraid, because the Word had become flesh, our human brother, and had taken Stephen’s sins and ours to the cross and paid for them there and had opened heaven’s doors to all who believe in Him. Even as they dragged Stephen out and began to stone him to death, Stephen prayed two perfect prayers, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

How could they hate Stephen so? How could they think they were serving God by stoning this man to death? That’s one of the consequences of Christmas. The light came into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. The message of Christmas – that God has come into the world as man, that man’s works cannot save, that salvation is found in Christ alone – that message stings the pride of men. That message divides people. Do not think I have come to bring peace to the world, Jesus told his disciples. Not peace, but a sword. God sends prophets and teachers and wise men, and the world persecutes and mocks and kills them.

It must be this way, as a consequence of Christmas, as a consequence of mankind’s rejection of the Christ. The majority of the world will always be unwilling to receive the Christ of Christmas. They’ll tolerate a tiny little baby and the cute story of some shepherds and wise men. But they won’t tolerate it when we claim that that baby is the Almighty God in whom alone is salvation.

But see how confidently Stephen faced his death! See what love still flowed from his lips! How could Stephen pray for those who hated him so and who hated his Savior, too? That was a consequence of Christmas. Because Christ was not born to save good men, but the most wicked of men. The Lord Jesus also prayed for those who nailed him to the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And the grace of the Lord Jesus spilled over into Stephen’s heart, praying for the deliverance of his enemies, praying that they might be brought to repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, just as he had been. And we know that at least one of those wicked men who were present there that day was delivered, as Saul would eventually be converted and forgiven all his sins, including his role in the death of Stephen.

Then Stephen fell asleep. What beautiful words the Scriptures now use to describe the death of the saints. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said. “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” If we remain steadfast in the truth of Christmas, if we follow in the footsteps and the witness of St. Stephen, then, as a consequence, death becomes a sleep for us, too.

Don’t be fooled with the rest of the world into believing that Christmas is about snowy white fields and picture postcard manger scenes. Red is mixed with white at Christmas, as blood is mixed with snow. Christmas has consequences, and if you would celebrate Christmas rightly, then you must know the consequences and be prepared for them. Truly, Stephen shows us the consequences of Christmas, not just with his willingness to die for Christ, but with his faith, his humble service, his love for God and for men, his patience, peace, boldness, courage, confidence in the face of death, and mercy in the face of persecution – those are the consequences in the believer. The shedding of blood at the hands of an angry world – that is the very real consequence for the believer. If you believe the Christmas story and live your faith, if you are baptized and live according to your Baptism, then you are marked for death, just as Stephen was.

But, you know what the name “Stephen” means? It’s the Greek word for “crown.” How fitting! Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. That, too, is the consequence of Christmas, and God’s gift to you who believe. A blessed Feast of St. Stephen to you all, and a very Merry Christmas! Amen.

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An unexpected Nativity with unexpected gifts

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Christmas Day

Isaiah 9:2-9  +  Luke 2:1-14

Maybe you have a Nativity set up at your house. I recommend it. It’s better than all the secular Christmas decorations combined. It’s that familiar scene of Mary and Joseph kneeling over the Christ-Child in the manger. There are usually animals nearby, and shepherds, and angels, and a star, and maybe even the wisemen, although they weren’t there yet when Christ was born. Think of how unexpected that scene was to everyone involved as it unfolded before their eyes.

Oh, those who had been paying attention to God’s revelation through the holy prophets knew that a special Child would be born. Adam and Eve knew it. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—they knew it. Moses knew it and wrote it down so that all Israel could know it, and even some outside of Israel who cared enough to study the Jewish Scriptures, like the wisemen. King David knew it. Isaiah knew it and wrote about it in the First Lesson you heard today. To us a Child is born, to us a Son is given. He even foretold that the Child would be born of a virgin. So all the faithful in Israel were certainly expecting the Messiah’s birth.

A few were given a few more details. Mary and Joseph and Gabriel knew how He was conceived. They expected with greater precision when He would be born, some nine months after He was conceived.

But no one, and I mean no one, was expecting Him to come as He did. Caesar Augustus, did you know when you decreed your census of the entire Roman world that you would be God’s instrument in getting Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, where they needed to be, so that the Christ could be born there as Micah had foretold? Joseph, did you know that your wife would deliver her baby before you got back to Nazareth? Mary, did you know that you would be giving birth in a stable and laying your Son in a manger for a bed? Travelers to Bethlehem and innkeeper, did you know that, by filling the inn in Bethlehem, you would be setting the stage for the most memorable birth in history? Farmer, did you know that your hay would provide the Lord’s bedding? Builder of mangers, did you know that your craftmanship would serve the Creator? Shepherds, did you know that you would be visited by angels and become the first visitors to welcome your God to earth? The answer is, no, not at all. Did the angels know ahead of time what exactly their role would be on that first Christmas night? Almost certainly not.

But God knew what He was doing and how all these creatures, men and angels, would fit into His Nativity, at just the right time, in just the right place, and in just the right way.

Yes, even the angels were likely wonderfully surprised by how God brought His Son into the world, like their very own Christmas present to unwrap, getting to watch it all unfold and then learning that they, too, would get to be a part of the story, part of the Lord’s unexpected Nativity scene that is recreated in Christian homes and churches and yards each and every year.

And what great gifts they were given! Unexpected gifts! The holy angels got to be part of God’s grand Nativity, and their role has been commemorated by Christians for 2,000 years.

One of them was given this gift, to be privileged to proclaim to the shepherds one of the clearest, sweetest, most profound messages in the whole Bible: To you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. No celebration of Christmas is worth anything at all if it doesn’t recognize and center around the Child who lay in the manger. His identity is not insignificant. It’s everything.

A Savior! Because mankind had been enslaved in the dark dungeons of sin and condemned by God’s righteous judgment to spend eternity dying in the devil’s kingdom. Only a special Substitute could save us, a human being like us who could take our place under God’s holy Law, and fulfill it, and pay for our pardon with His own precious life. That’s the kind of Savior we needed, and it’s exactly what the angel meant when He called that Child “Savior.”

He also called Him “Christ,” the very first messenger to apply that title to Him, long before Andrew or Peter or anyone else confessed it. The long-expected Anointed One had been born, the One who would teach and preach, make atonement for sin, die and rise again, who would reign over the world and build His Church and, finally, bring judgment and justice to the world.

And the angel also called Him “the Lord,” and that’s maybe the most profound, because the word he used for “Lord” is the special Old Testament name Yahweh or Jehovah. In other words, the angel made it plain to the shepherds, this isn’t just a human Savior who has been born to you. God has now joined Himself to the human race. Jehovah has been born among you as one of you. Yahweh has been born “to you,” for you, because He loves you and wants to save you from your sins. What a gift that angel was given, to be able to proclaim that truth! What a gift you have been given to hear it proclaimed to you in the words of that angel all these years later!

That same angel was given another gift, too, to be the very first messenger to point sinners to their newly arrived Savior and tell them how to find Him. Then it was in a manger, wrapped in swaddling cloths. Now it’s in the preaching of His Word, in the waters of Holy Baptism, and in the most intimate way of all, in the bread and wine of the Christ-Mass.

Finally, a whole multitude of the heavenly host, possibly all the created angels together, were given a most wondrous gift. When the Firstborn came into the world, then the word from the Old Testament was fulfilled: Let all God’s angels worship Him! They praised God and said, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men! They praised God in heaven, and they praised God on earth as He lay in the manger, and they proclaimed the peace God had come to earth to bring, and the goodwill of God that His birth displayed. Yes, you’re sinners. But God doesn’t hate you. He gives His own Son to you as the most unexpected gift of all, persuading you to repent and to trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins.

How unexpected, that God would include you and me in His Christmas revelation and in His plan of salvation! There’s so much we don’t know about our part in the plan and the specific roles we’re going to play before it’s all done. But no one really knew what to expect before Christ’s Nativity, either, and yet God put everything and everyone in place. He’ll do the same for you and me and for His whole Church before Christ’s expected second coming, not in a humble manger, but in glory and power. He’ll come in an unexpected way, at an unexpected time, and with unexpected gifts for those who worship Him now and who are eager to worship Him them—gifts beyond our wildest imagination that God Himself will be eager to watch us unwrap! Christmas, more than any time of year, should teach us this Biblical truth: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. Amen.

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Wonder at the One who is the Word

Posted on December 24, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Christmas Eve

Hebrews 1:1-12  +  John 1:1-14

Some of you may know what those Greek letters say on the front of your service folder. The first letter is an omicron. Omicron has been getting a lot of attention lately. But it’s just a letter of the Greek alphabet: “little o.” That little mark above the omicron puts an “h” sound in front of the “o,” so, “ho,” which just means “the.” The next five letters, lambda, omicron, gamma, omicron, sigma are the English letters L O G O S. “Logos,” which is the word for “Word.” Ho Logos. The Word. The Word became flesh. The breathtaking truth of Christmas is that the baby Boy who lay in Bethlehem’s manger was the Word, Ho Logos, who was in the beginning, and who was with God.

He’s called the Word, like the word that is born from a person’s heart and mind and mouth. Now, sometimes our words don’t reflect what’s really in our hearts. Sometimes our words are false, lying words, spoken to cover up sin rather than to express the truth. But “the Word,” Ho Logos, isn’t like that. He is the perfect representation of who God the Father is, the express image of His person, as the writer to the Hebrews puts it. Whatever we see Jesus doing in the Scriptures, whatever we hear Him saying, whatever anger or indignation, whatever compassion or love we see in Jesus, expresses perfectly the character and the will of God the Father. So when we see Ho Logos, the Word, lying in a manger, we learn to what great lengths our God is willing to go in order to save us from our sins. He who was in the beginning and was with God, He who is the true Word of God, became flesh, and was born, not in a king’s palace or in a celebrity’s mansion, but in a place where animals came to feed.

But Ho Logos wasn’t only with God. St. John tells us that the Word was God. And he explains that relationship a little later, saying that Ho Logos is the Only-Begotten of the Father, or, as He’s simply called throughout the New Testament, He is and always has been the Son of God, eternally born of God the Father, so that there was never a time when He didn’t exist. He was in the beginning, true God from true God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. But as to His human nature, He was born in time, born of a virgin mother who miraculously conceived by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit.

As God, the Word is responsible for the creation of all things. All things were made through Him. But now the Creator has joined Himself to His creation, has taken on human flesh. The Author of the story has entered the story, so that He might save His fallen creatures.

And fallen we are! Every one of us! The human race is corrupt, twisted. We have some memory of what is right and wrong, some nebulous sense of who the true God is. But by nature, no one truly knows Him, or truly worships Him as God. No one, by nature, fears or loves Him or trusts in Him or listens to Him. Our Creator has revealed Himself in the holy Bible, but who takes it seriously anymore, much less literally? Our Creator has told us what is good and right in His Ten Commandments, but the world rejects them, or keeps the ones it feels like keeping, when it feels like keeping them, and even then, it’s only superficial obedience. Like condemned criminals waiting for execution, our whole race had been cast into darkness and death.

But, St. John writes, in Him was life, and that life was the light of men. Life was lying in the manger, as a present from God the Father, not to His children, but to His enemies. To all who stood condemned before God, to all who were dead in trespasses and sins, He offered life! He offered His own life! One day He would literally offer it up on a cross in payment for the world’s sins. And now, risen from the dead, He offers life instead of death to all who believe in Him. To all who were trapped in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief and the filthiness of sin, He was a light shining in a dark place, even from His birth, offering sure and unchanging truth about who God is and how alone God can be reconciled to sinful man, only by entering His light. Only through repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The light shines in the darkness.

And the darkness has not comprehended it. Most didn’t want the light. His own human race, His own Jewish people didn’t want Him, or His light, or His life. Most still don’t. The truth of Christmas, the meaning of Christmas is being preached here this evening and at faithful churches around the world today and tomorrow. But the seats are nowhere near full. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. And why not? St. John reveals the answer just two chapters later: This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

But the rejection of Christ isn’t the whole story. But all who did receive him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, children who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God. Christ the Word who was with God, Christ the Word who is God, Christ the Creator, the Life and the Light of men, was received by some. He was received first by Mary herself, then by Elizabeth and John the Baptist and Zacharias, then by Joseph, then by the shepherds, then by Simeon and Anna, then by the wise men, and on and on through the ages. The Christmas story has been told and believed, together with the Good Friday story and the Easter story. And those who believe are invited to be baptized and to be accepted as children of God, born again of water and the Spirit.

The Word became flesh and dwelled among us for a time. Those who believed in Him when He was here on earth beheld His glory, not only on the Mount of Transfiguration where His face shone like the sun, but also in the little Child in the manger and in the bloody Man hanging from the cross. The glory of God, the glory of Ho Logos was seen with the eyes of faith, just as it’s seen now with the same eyes of faith whenever the Gospel is preached. We see the glory of God in His relentless desire to save fallen man by becoming Man. We see the grace and truth of Ho Logos, lying in the manger.

Tonight and tomorrow, we celebrate the birth of the Word of God into the world, given to us, spoken to us by the heavenly Father. Oh, come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord, Ho Logos of God! Amen.

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The Lord’s Prayer: Amen

Posted on December 22, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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The Lord’s Prayer: Amen

This evening we finish up our discussion of the Lord’s Prayer, even as we finish up the Advent season. We end them both with that neat little word that says so much: Amen! (And as we’ve noted before, it can pronounced Aee-men or Ah-men.)

Amen! What does this mean? That I should be certain that these petitions are acceptable to the Father in heaven and are heard by Him; for He Himself has commanded us so to pray and has promised to hear us. Amen, Amen, which means: Yes, yes, it shall be so.

Amen is a word of certainty. It’s a Hebrew word that means, “faithful,” “firm,” “trustworthy,” “true.” Jesus used the word often. Some translations leave it as is, “Amen, Amen, I tell you.” Some say, “truly, truly I tell you.” Some, like the NKJV, say, “Most assuredly I say to you.” The children of Israel were to say, “Amen!” after each of the curses Moses pronounced on those who broke the covenant God had made with them. Each of the four Gospels (in the King James tradition of manuscripts) concludes with the word Amen. St. Paul and St. Peter use it after doxologies and benedictions in their Epistles. And St. John uses it throughout the book of Revelation.

Some of the Greek manuscripts of St. Mattew’s Gospel add the Amen to the Lord’s prayer, along with that famous doxology, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.” Other manuscripts don’t include it, but it probably does belong there. In any case, it’s a fitting ending to any prayer, but especially to the Lord’s Prayer, because, as Luther points out in the explanation, God Himself has commanded us so to pray and has promised to hear us. So, yes, Amen, we should be certain that these petitions are acceptable to our Father in heaven. And yes, Amen, we should be certain that He will do what we are asking Him to do in each one of the seven petitions.

We add it to the First Petition: Our Father, Hallowed be Thy name! Amen! Yes, yes, it shall be so!

We add it to the Second Petition: Thy kingdom come! Amen! Yes, yes, it shall be so!

We add it to the Third Petition: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen! Yes, yes, it shall be so!

We add it to the Fourth Petition: Give us this day our daily bread. Amen! Yes, yes, it shall be so!

We add it to the Fifth Petition: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen! Yes, yes, it shall be so!

We add it to the Sixth Petition: Lead us not into temptation. Amen! Yes, yes, it shall be so!

And we add it to the Seventh Petition: But deliver us from evil. Amen! Yes, yes, it shall be so! Amen! Faithful, firm, trustworthy, true.

It’s ironic, isn’t it?, that our study of Amen coincides this evening with our observance of St. Thomas’ day. His most famous moment in the Bible is the opposite of an Amen. When the other ten apostles told him, The Lord is risen! We have seen Him! Thomas should have added his Amen, because the Lord Himself had foretold His resurrection on the third day, and the apostles were reliable witnesses. Thomas was anything but certain. Instead, Yes, yes, it must be so!, his reply was, No, no, it cannot be so!

But he became certain, and that’s really the important thing and the thing for which we should remember Thomas and give thanks for Thomas. He became certain after He saw the Lord Jesus and the nail prints in His hands and the spear gash in His side. The Lord told him to stop being unbelieving and to start believing. And Thomas’ answer was as good as an Amen: My Lord and my God! And the martyr’s death he willingly endured at the end of his ministry was like a great Amen to the Gospel he had believed and confessed. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved! Amen, yes, yes, it shall be so!

That’s important for us to understand, because no Christian has a perfect faith that always trusts and never wavers. And many Christians have moments like Thomas, when we should know better than to doubt or disbelieve, and yet our flesh gets the better of us. We all start out as disbelievers, and many people go through long stretches of their lives as unbelievers, unwilling and unable to add their Amen to the Lord’s curses and to the Lord’s promises. But then the Holy Spirit changes their minds through His Word, as He changed Thomas’ mind through His appearance. And they and we are finally able to reply with a full-throated Amen, to the Lord’s Prayer, to the Gospel itself, and to all the promises God has made in His Word.

His promise to come the first time in humility, for redemption, was received by believers in the Old Testament with an Amen, Yes, yes, it shall be so. And their faith was rewarded at Christmas, and on Palm Sunday. The promise of Christ’s first Advent proved faithful, firm, trustworthy, and true. Only one promise remains to be kept: Jesus’ promise to come again, His promise of a second Advent. As we close out this Advent season, we sit and wait in hope for that second Advent, together with the Apostle John, who penned these final words of the Book of Revelation: He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

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Not the preacher, but the preaching

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Advent 4

Philippians 4:4-7  +  John 1:19-28

As I mentioned last week, we’re going to spend some time today focusing on the preaching of John the Baptist, as we always do on the 4th Sunday in Advent, because as we use this season to prepare our hearts and arrange our lives for Christ’s Second Advent, so the whole purpose of John’s ministry was to prepare the hearts of his hearers for Christ’s First Advent. Not for the Advent of His birth, obviously, but for His Advent, His “coming” onto the scene to begin His three-year ministry, which would lead up to His death and resurrection, which was the fulfillment of His first Advent. The truth is, we need the preparatory preaching that John offers as much today as the people in Israel did back then.

When a preacher steps forward into the limelight, as, for example, just about any televangelist or mega church preacher you’ve ever seen, they tend to focus on themselves, don’t they? Or even if they don’t, their hearers focus on them—how they’re dressed, how cool or hip they are, how charismatic, how “real,” how fiery, or how brilliant. They tend to draw attention to themselves. They often attempt to sell themselves, almost like a used car salesman, as they personally benefit from their “ministry.”

That certainly wasn’t the case with John the Baptist. Now, he was certainly different. He stood out from everyone else by living alone in the desert, by wearing his camel skin clothing and leather belt, by eating locusts and wild honey for his diet. And his preaching was certainly bold, and his baptizing was novel, and it got people’s attention. But as soon as John got people’s attention, he immediately pointed them away from himself, unlike so many preachers today.

I’ve used the example before of a road sign. You’re supposed to notice the road signs, especially the warning signs along the road. They’re supposed to get your attention. But only for a moment. Only so that you get the directions or the message that the sign was put there to communicate. Then you forget about the sign and focus on where the sign was pointing.

So it was with John. He got people’s attention for a moment, and then pointed away from himself. That surprised people. It surprised the priests and Levites who approached him in today’s Gospel. They thought he must be claiming great things for himself, gathering a group of supporters for himself with some cunning political aim. So they came as an official delegation sent from the Pharisees to ask him, Are you the Christ? They didn’t believe he was, or else they would have been out there listening to him, confessing their sins, being baptized, and doing what he said. No, they had come to challenge him, whoever he was claiming to be.

If John had wanted a following for himself, he could have said “Yes, I am!” But the Evangelist John makes it very clear to his readers that John never made such a claim about himself. He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” Well, then, they figured, he must be making some other great claim for himself, if he’s out here taking it upon himself to preach and to baptize. “What then? Are you Elijah?” Some of the Jews wrongly interpreted Malachi’s prophecy that “Elijah will come” before the Christ, thinking that the man who had gone up into heaven in a chariot and a whirlwind would descend from heaven again. And he said, “I am not.” John wasn’t that Old Testament Elijah, although, as Jesus tells us elsewhere, he was the one referred to figuratively in that prophecy. “Are you the Prophet?” they asked. THE Prophet whom Moses wrote would come from among them, referring to the Christ. And he answered, “No.”

“Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” Luke gives us more of Isaiah’s prophecy that was fulfilled in John the Baptist. He writes, The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ” That was John’s job, to straighten the road ahead of the Christ. That’s all. Not to make a name for himself or gain glory for himself. He was a voice, a voice that would carry out the work of a figurative road construction crew.

John wouldn’t do any plowing or bulldozing or repairing of roads. But with his voice, with his preaching, he would do that to men’s hearts by turning their attention to the Lord’s imminent arrival. Now, if you know that the Lord is coming soon, then there is no time for business as usual. He’s coming up the road. So consider how you live. Consider where your heart is, what your heart is focused on, what it’s attached to, what your desires are. Consider the works you have done and are doing. Are they works of obedience? Works of kindness and generosity, focused on the benefit of those around you? Or are they works of which you should be ashamed? Consider the plans you’re making for today and tomorrow and next year and beyond. Is this how you want the Lord to find you when He comes?

Where there are valleys—unrepented sins against God’s commandments, a heart and life that are engaged in shameful deeds—let there be repentance and a confession of sins to raise the valley up. Where there are mountains and hills—pride in how good and decent you are, and how lucky God is to have you in His family—let there be recognition that God doesn’t see you nearly as highly as you see yourself, and let there be repentance and a confession of sins to bring the mountain down, so that it’s level with everyone else. Where there are crooked places and rough places—sinful habits and harmful behavior and a haphazard treatment of God’s Word and Sacraments—let there be repentance and confession of sins to make your heart and your life straight and smooth for the coming Lord. And you will see—all flesh will see—the salvation of God.

Why? Because when God comes, when the Lord Christ comes and finds penitent hearts, neither secure in their sins nor proud of their own decency, then He can announce the good news, the Gospel, that He is the One who would pay (or now, has paid) for all sins on the cross. Then He can invite the weary and heavily burdened to come to Him and find peace and rest and forgiveness and salvation. But if He comes and finds people secure in their sins, or indifferent toward the things of God, or proud and arrogant, then He has nothing to offer but Law and accusation and condemnation.

So John was sent to get the people ready, as all ministers are still sent to get the people ready before Christ’s Second Coming. And we, like John, point away from ourselves. As John wore that strange camel skin garment, so we wear this strange clothing, these vestments, when we’re carrying out our ministry. Always remember why: only to draw your attention for a moment, like a road sign, so that you may see Christ in the preaching office He gave us so that we might preach Him and not ourselves.

“Oh,” the world says. “That’s all you are? A nobody? A voice? A road sign? Then why should we listen to you?” As the envoys said to John, “Why do you baptize, then, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” Why do administer this new Sacrament? John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water. But there stands among you one whom you do not know. It is he who comes after me, who is already ahead of me, whose sandal straps I am not worthy to untie.”

Why do I baptize? Why do I preach? So that you may not be destroyed due to your ignorance of who Jesus is. You dismiss Him at your peril. You think He will come and deal with all the other sinners out there, but you—you must be safe, because, well, you are you. No, it doesn’t work that way. There’s only one way to be safe and ready for the coming of the Mighty God, who comes with vengeance against His enemies. “I baptize with water.” It doesn’t hurt, although it does kill the Old Man. I baptize with water, not with destruction, not with consuming fire. He will do that when He comes, if He doesn’t find you already washed in a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Well, you here have been baptized. That’s good! That was a first and very important step. Now continue to listen to the preaching of the preacher who doesn’t matter, but whose preaching does, turning your attention from the preacher to the Christ who is preached, so that you may live daily in repentance and faith, doing works of kindness and generosity and love at all times, and rejoicing while you’re doing it. Isn’t that how you want the Lord to find you when He comes? May God mercifully grant it, for Jesus’ sake, by the power of His Holy Spirit. Amen.

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