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INJ
Isaiah 40:1-11 | St John 1:19-28
'Comfort, Yes, Comfort My People'
Rorate | Advent IV | December 24th, 2006
Matins
Dear Saints,
He knows if you've been sleeping,
He knows if you're awake,
He knows if you've been bad or good,
so be good, for goodness sake.
Oh, You better not pout, you better not cry,
you better not shout I'm telling you why,
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Be good, for goodness sake. And if you are good you get the toys, and if you are bad you get a lump of coal. Hmph. It that the theology of Christmas that we are teaching our children? Lord forbid! That is the devil's theology. John the Baptist knows better. His preaching and baptizing is for repentance. It's not “he knows if you've been bad or good,” John knows that you've been bad, really bad. John cuts through all the pretense of our feigned goodness and says, “Repent! Sinner, Repent!”
The call to repent is not the call to be good, to live better, it is the call to see and know our badness, is is the call to sorrow and contrition over our lost condition, and then it is the call to trust in the One who forgives and takes away our sins. Our good works and love for the neighbor follow, they come after repentance, they are the fruit of repentance, the aftershock of God's mercy.
There is nothing more dreadful, nothing that lacks all comfort like the theology that tells us that we will be given God's gifts based on our goodness or badness, that heaven goes to the good and hell to the bad.
Jesus does not give out presents based on our goodness or our badness. If that was the case them we would find much worse than coal wrapped up for us tomorrow morning, we would find God's wrath wrapped with a ribbon and eternal death with a bow on top.
But that is not what John was sent to preach, John was the way-preparing prophet, preparing the way for Jesus. John is the preacher of Jesus, the preacher of comfort. “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” That is what Isaiah said of John.
“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the LORD'S hand
Double for all her sins.”
What is John's message of comfort? He is to preach to Jerusalem, the to the church, that Her warfare is ended. Her iniquity: pardoned. Her sin: forgiven. And there's comfort in that.
This ended warfare is the ancient battle between Eve and all her children with the devil, that ancient serpent. It is the war that was declared in the garden of Eden, “I will but enmity between you and the serpent, and between your offspring and hers.” It the battle against the devil, and sin, and death. It is the war against darkness and punishment for our sin and God's wrath. This war is ended. Jesus ends it; He is this war's final victim. He ends our war by dying on the cross, by forgiving our sins.
“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned.”
So John preaches on the Jordan's Banks, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” [St John 1:29] See what this Lamb does with our sins? He does not judge them, pile them up upon us, load us down with them, destroy us with them. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus takes our sin away, carries it off, bears it Himself with it weight, the weight even of God's frown.
Dear saints, this is our comfort, our life, our hope and salvation, the good news to which we cling. The Lord doesn't give us what we deserve, punishment for our sins, no, He gives us what is His, even fellowship with the Father and eternal life with.
So...
He's making a list, checking it twice,
Gonna find out who's naughty and nice...
No, not Jesus, the Lamb of God. He's written your name with His blood on His list, the Lamb's book of life.
He knows that you've been bad, not good, and still He is pleased to be born in your flesh, to die in your place, to call you His brother and his friend. And that, dear Christians, is the most wonderful Christmas gift of all.
May God our Father grant us His Holy Spirit, that we would have ears to hear the comforting preaching of John the Baptist, that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and we would rejoice in the Lord always. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO