Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church

Rejoice John!

Matthew 11:2-11

December 11, 2022 anno Domini

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, Rejoice. Would John the Baptist say “amen” to that sermon as he sits in prison for preaching? It’s Gaudate Sunday. Rejoice in Latin. An imperative, a command from the Lord. Rejoice John.

But John was in a dark dungeon. He wasn’t wearing a rose-colored chasuble because things weren’t too rosey for him. He had preached the wrong sermon at the wrong time to the wrong man. Don’t tell the king to repent of his adultery. You might just end up in prison and it’s going to get worse for John. Herod’s adulterous wife knows how to silence a preacher’s mouth – separate his head from his shoulders.

You might think this Gospel reading is an odd choice for Gaudate Sunday, but it isn’t, because baptized Christians have an odd joy.  Or if we used the words of Saint Paul in today’s Epistle we have a mysterious joy.  Saint Paul calls Apostles and pastors “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries.” Those mysteries which pastors steward are the Word of God and the Sacraments of Christ. They convey to us a joy which is a mystery to the world, the joy of repentance and forgiveness, the joy of righteousness before God, the joy of being content with the Lord’s gifts, the joy of serving God in whatever vocation he has placed us. This joy is not found in our emotions. It is not fickle like happiness or satisfaction. It is a joy outside of us – the joy that the Son of God became man, the joy that Christ rose from the dead. Christian joy is as odd and weird as reading about a preacher in prison to inspire rejoicing.

John the Baptist didn’t get this joy, not at the time of the text, because he wasn’t getting what he expected. John the Baptist had been preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He called the Pharisees a brood of vipers. He told the IRS agents coming out to be baptized to stop stealing from the people. He told the soldiers (basically the Roman police force) not to take bribes or make false charges. He told the wealthy to empty out their three car garages and cut down on their sheds to share their belongings with poor. And he told Herod to quit being an adulterer with his brother’s wife. Just the kind of sermons you love to hear if they are being preached about someone else. But if God’s Law is aimed at your screentime, or your favorite pastime, or your lack of time in God’s Word then the pastor’s sermon isn’t so lovely.

John the Baptist had preached that judgment day was coming with the coming Christ. A winnowing fork was in His hand and the righteous grain was going to be separated from the useless chaff. He knew his cousin Jesus was the Christ. Before John was born, he believed that. He leaped in Elizabeth’s womb when he met his unborn cousin carried in Mary’s womb, but thirty years later Jesus wasn’t doing what John expected.

John was alone in prison and Jesus was out being welcomed by the crowds. Where was the judgment? Where was the winnowing? Jesus was popular and John was a pariah. What John saw did not look like the reign of God on earth. Herod was on his throne enjoying the fruits of his adultery and John was on death row. 

He wondered, “What is Jesus up to?” So, he sent two of his disciples to ask for him, “Are you the one who is come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus doesn’t give John a simple “Yes.” He gives him His Word and His Deeds. (Read vs. 4-5). Jesus is the coming one. He is doing exactly what was promised through Isaiah the Prophet. God has entered into His Creation. Jesus is judging sin and turning back its power. The blind are seeing. The lame are walking. The dead are being raised to life, but note the last thing Jesus says to John, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

We’ve heard that word offended before – it’s the Greek Word skandalidzo and it means the “trigger” on a trap, the little bit of peanut butter on the mouse trap that lures them into death. We know why the world is triggered by Jesus. He calls sin sin. He says men and women are different. He says male and female are the only two genders. He has the audacity to claim He and He alone is the true and only God and that if you want any hope of eternal life, He is the only option. There are no choices on the menu of salvation. There is one course, and it is the cross of Christ.

But the world that is offended at Jesus isn’t here this morning. You are. So, what triggers you when it comes to Jesus? Likely the same things that scandalized John the Baptist. I don’t know if John was angry in prison, but I imagine he was frustrated. The preacher is in jail and the adultatrous king sits on the throne. The righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords has come, and evil men are still in control and doing their wicked deeds.

What is the scandal for you? The diagnoses of a terminal illness? The loss of a child? A friend’s betrayal? A series of setbacks to life and marriage and family? The success of evil and wickedness in the world, while many liberal Christians and church bodies go with them on their merry way? Or maybe it’s your own prison. You’re a baptized Christian and you struggle with a pet sin, or anxiety, or depression.  Why can’t you rule over these things when you have been baptized, justified, and sanctified to be God’s child?

The mystery of the Christian faith is that you get no clearer answer than John the Baptist. Every Lord’s Day your pastor’s task is to tell you what Jesus has said and what He has done. Jesus didn’t just give sight to the blind or make the lame walk. He didn’t merely raise the dead. He rose from the dead. The Son of God came in the flesh of Jesus. He faced Satan in the wilderness and from the cross and won. He didn’t give in. He didn’t come down. He took your sin along with the sin of the world – the cause of every child’s death, the root of every illness, the tree from which all wicked fruit is born, and He suffered it. God’s anger at your sin burned itself out on Jesus. Your sin was swallowed in His suffering and death and the only way you’ll see it again is if you resurrect it by refusing Jesus’ forgiveness. Your sin is forgiven. Your death is dead. Your resurrection is certain, and the best day ever is coming your way.

But here’s the mystery. It’s now, but not yet. It’s yours by faith, but not by sight. Right now, while the Holy Spirit is working repentance and faith in the full number of those to be saved, Herod still sits on the throne and we find ourselves in any number of prisons. But that’s only what it looks like. That’s only how it feels. The reality is that Christ has won. Evil has lost. Satan’s going down for the last time and he’s trying to grab whoever he can fool. Your sin is forgiven and in the resurrection, you won’t sin, you won’t be selfish, you’ll want more for your neighbor than yourself and you’ll love exactly what God loves. And there you will feel and touch the fullness of Christ’s reign – macular degeneration – gone. Artificial knee – replaced with the real thing. Spine – straight and strong. Memory – clear and keen. That’s what we expected with the coming one and the mystery is that it is ours now, but not yet. It is coming as certainly as Christ came.  So, rejoice in the Lord always, even if you’re John the Baptist. I’ll say it again, rejoice. In the name of Jesus.  Amen.