SERMON FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT
BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO IS NOT OFFENDED BY ME
Theme: The Good News of God’s salvation is totally contrary to our natural way
of thinking. That is part of the reason why we continually need to hear God’s
Word.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to John’s disciples and to all Christians,
“Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.”
Dear Christian friends:
Jesus wants you to know in today’s Gospel that it was not only His enemies who
were scandalized and offended by Him. Make no mistake about it: there were many
people who hated Jesus intensely. However, Jesus is not speaking about His
enemies in today’s Gospel when He says, “Blessed is the one who is not offended
by Me.” Jesus is speaking about John the Baptist and John’s disciples and all
those crowds who gathered around Jesus to hear His Words of life. Jesus is
speaking about His family and His close friends (compare Luke 4:18-29). Jesus
is speaking about all Christians everywhere, about you and me. Jesus says us in
today’s Gospel, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.” Blessed are YOU
and blessed am I when we are not offended by Jesus, by His Words, and by His
deeds.
JESUS’ WORDS AND DEEDS ALWAYS SCANDALIZE AND OFFEND
Right now you may be thinking to yourself, “I am NEVER offended by
Jesus! I am a Christian! I love Jesus and His Words! Far be it from me to be
offended by Him!”
I, too, am a Christian, dear Christians, yet there is a part of me that
is continually offended by Jesus. (There is a part of you that is offended,
too, if you are able to admit it.) God’s Words require to believe that “nothing
good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:18). God’s Words tell me
that, no matter how holy I might wish to be and no matter how sincerely I might
desire to follow faithfully after my God, I do not have the ability to do so.
My natural born heart and my human mind remain in a state of rebellion against
my God. Without doubt, you and I both have been given God’s miraculous gifts of
a “clean heart” and a “right spirit” (Psalm 51:10) through the indwelling power
of His Word—but my unclean heart and the old, evil spirit of unbelief are
always right there, tempting, sweet-talking, threatening, mocking. I believe
“the Old Adam in [me] should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and
die with all
sins and evil desires” (Small Catechism, Baptism IV), but I also believe that
the Old Adam in me is a very good swimmer. This Old Man in me does not want to
hear from God; even hates to hear from God. This Old Man in me is offended by
Jesus.
You have the same struggle with sin in your life. I am not telling you
anything you do not already know deep within. Part of you wants to love your
Lord Jesus “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). The other part of you—and the
other part of me—cannot stand what Jesus says and does. It is a sheer miracle
from God—a miracle continuously performed and sustained by His Words—that we do
not turn away. That is why Jesus says to John the Baptist, to John’s disciples,
to you and to me and to all who would love Him, “Blessed is the one who is not
offended by Me.” Knowing the inborn inclinations of those who love Him; knowing
that His Words and His deeds enter into an alien and foreign land when they
enter into us; knowing that He ALWAYS scandalizes and offends even His dear
saints, Jesus says, “Blessed [Happy] is the one who is not offended by Me.”
THE OFFENSE IS ALWAYS THE SAME
What exactly is the offense or scandal that Jesus inevitably creates?
Only this: Jesus does EVERYTHING for me and I have NOTHING for Him. Jesus must
do EVERYTHING because I can do NOTHING. I was a beggar before God made me His
Christian and I remain a beggar today. This is what Jesus warns John’s
disciples about in today’s Gospel: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by
Me.” Do not be offended by this one fact: By Jesus and Jesus alone—through
Jesus’ Words and Jesus’ deeds alone—
… the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the
deaf hear, the dead are raised up, [and] the poor have good news preached to
them.
Stated another way, Jesus’ Words and deeds perform actions for us that we could
never do or even desire to do on our own.
· Jesus’ Words and deeds miraculously give us the new sight of faith,
where once we were “people who walked in darkness” (Isaiah 9:2);
· Jesus’ Words and deeds have miraculously made it possible for us to
walk in paths of righteousness (Proverbs 8:20) where once we were totally lame
and crippled and unable even to rise from our misery;
· Jesus’ Word and deeds have cleansed us from the leprosy of our sins.
His same Words and deeds continually exert their power for you on a daily
basis, cleansing and forgiving you, fresh and new, like a shower every morning.
Why are these things so offensive? These things are offensive because they
require us to admit that, apart from Jesus’ Words and deeds we have nothing and
we are nothing. Apart from Jesus we are blind and lame, leprous and deaf,
impoverished and even dead. Apart from Jesus’ Words and dead, we are each an
empty tin can or an un-inflated balloon. Only His Words and His deeds raise us
up, forgiven, cleansed, and made alive. Stated another way, only Jesus’ Words
and deeds provide you with what He calls blessedness or happiness: “Blessed is
the one who is not offended by Me.”
THE OFFENSE IS NECESSARY FOR PREACHING THE FAITH
Most of you have heard my preaching and teaching long enough to know
that, before too long, I always end up comparing the things we believe and
teach to the things that are taught in the Baptist and Pentecostal churches.
Some might even say I throw stones at Baptists and Pentecostals. (The reason
why I don’t say so much about the Roman Catholics is that we do not have Roman
Catholics on every street corner in Versailles.)
Why would I do such a thing?
You need to know, dear saints, that I do not point out the false
teachings of the other church bodies—or the nonsense actions of our own church
body—for the sake of throwing stones as though I am a schoolyard bully. I love
you. That is why I point out false teachings to you. I warn you about the false
teachings of the other church bodies because, in each and every case, these
other church bodies teach you to rely entirely too much upon yourself and to
place too much confidence in your own abilities.
Why would I warn you about false teachings in the Church and among
other Christians?
I have a duty and responsibility to see to it that no one is misled. I do not
wish for you to be lulled into a false sense of confidence in yourself because
self-confidence will inevitably destroy you. Stated another way—and I am using
St. Paul’s Words here—I do not want myself or you or anyone else to “think of
[ourselves] more highly than [we] ought to think” (Romans 12:3).
· When you or I put ourselves on a pedestal, we inevitably knock our Lord
Jesus off the pedestal—or at least we insist on sharing His glory by sharing
the pedestal with Him.
· When we look at ourselves, our eyes are not on Christ.
· When we focus on our deeds and our holiness and our commitment to
Christ, we quickly make secondary Christ’s deeds and Christ’s holiness and
Christ’s commitment to us. That is the way the flesh operates.
· When I spend my breath speaking about my love for Jesus, I end up
taking away from the time I can use speaking about Jesus love for you and for
me.
· When we obsess about our faith—as if it might be something that we give
to God—we will inevitably lose concern for the miraculous and precious gift of
faith that Jesus gives to us through His Words and His deeds.
ONLY GOD’S GIFT OF FAITH MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO OVERCOME THE SCANDAL AND OFFENSE
Jesus is saying to you today, my Christians, “Blessed [Happy] is the one who is
not offended by Me.” Jesus is not speaking to His enemies in this Gospel. Jesus
is speaking to those who love Him, who want to follow Him and be with Him, and
yet who also find it so hard to admit every day that apart from Him they have
nothing (John 15:5).
Go and tell John what you have heard and seen: the blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up,
[and] the poor have good news preached to them.
Jesus wants you to know that your true happiness and blessedness lives ONLY in
the realization and the confession that you now see only because He has opened
our eyes; that you are of all your sins cleansed solely because of His medicine
and miracle; that you walk by His strength and power alone; that you hear
because He has unplugged your ears; that you are poor except for what He alone
gives; that you live, but only because He has raised us up from the dead. These
are the things that you may expect to continue hearing from this pulpit.
“Blessed [Happy] is the one who is not offended by Me.”
The peace of God…
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