The Third Sunday in Advent
The Lord is At Hand
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen! Today’s Epistle is a very good Epistle for the season of Advent because
God says here, “The Lord is at hand.” These Words mean, “The Lord is Advent and
now present among you” or “the Lord has now arrived to be with you.” After all,
He is Immanuel, and Immanuel means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23)
God also wants you to know in today’s Epistle that, because “the Lord is at
hand,” you have now been set free to “let your reasonableness be known to
everyone.”
Dear Christian friends,
Some words are notoriously difficult to translate from one language into
another. God’s Word “reasonableness” in today’s Epistle is a good example of
this difficulty. This very same Word is used in several other places in the
Bible, but it gets translated as “gentle” or “gentleness” in those other places
(1 Timothy 3:3, Titus 3:2, James 3:17, 1 Peter 2:18). Other translators of the
Bible say that the word can mean “moderation” (KJV), “unselfishness” and
“considerateness” (Amplified), and “forbearing spirit” (NASB, Luther). Perhaps
“serenity” could be added to the mix.
The idea behind “reasonableness” in today’s Epistle is NOT your ability to
think logically, but your ability to get along; to interact with your neighbor
in a peaceable, generous and forbearing manner. “Reasonableness” means that
• you do not get too “wrapped around the axel,” so to speak, with
whatever is happening around you. You content yourself with the thought that,
although your situation may seem impossible, God Himself will provide a
solution both for you and through you. You can shrug and say, “I leave all
things to God’s direction. What pleases God also pleases me” (cf. LSB 719).
• you can put up with a whole lot, so long as God’s Ten Commandments are
not being disregarded and His good name is respected. You sort of look the
other way when your dear fellow Christian is driving you insane, and you do not
act upon your urge to roar and get your way.
• if you were to compare yourself to a combat soldier, you would feel
equally content whether you were hit or missed by enemy fire (Luther). “What is
the worst that can happen?”
The truly amazing thing about this Word “reasonableness” in today’s Epistle is
that God is using this Word to do two things: both to expose the sins and
weaknesses of every person here; AND to speak comfort, peace, and
forgiveness—likewise to every person here. “Let your reasonableness be known to
everyone. The Lord is at hand.” If this Bible verse were a baby cradle, then
God’s condemning Law and His forgiving Gospel would be like infant fraternal
twins laid side-by-side in it.
Let’s Begin with the Ugly Baby
God does not command you, “Learn to be reasonable and forbearing” and He does
not say “Develop some reasonableness and forbearance.” God speaks to you as if
you already possess all the reasonableness—all the forbearance—you will ever
need! God says, “Let your reasonableness be known to all.” It is almost as if
God is saying to you, “Show everyone the reasonableness I have given you.”
Yet you know very well that you do not show it very well. Some of you
• lay awake at night, preoccupied by things over which you have no
control; worrying about tomorrow when you still haven’t yet survived today.
When you do that, you are not making use of the “reasonableness” of faith that
God has graciously given to you.
• throw a fit when you do not get what you want. The main and most
important thing for you is not your neighbor’s need, but your own.
• look the other way for your neighbor, but at all the wrong times. You
look the other way and you turn a deaf ear to his need, but when your
neighbor’s behavior gives you something to gossip about, he gets your full
attention!
• lock yourself away in the solitude of your holy hill, isolating
yourself from all others, so that reasonableness and forbearance are simply
never required from you.
In light of your history—in light of my—God’s Words in today’s Epistle stand in
accusation against us. When God says, “Let your reasonableness be known to
all,” He speaks as if your and I already have it. Yet none of us do very well
at expressing and displaying the reasonableness, the forbearance and
gentleness, which God has so graciously given to us. And God is fully aware of
all this. We know that God is fully aware of our unwillingness to be reasonable
and forbearing toward one another because God says today, “The Lord is at
hand.” The Lord is near and He is NOT blind!
The Second Baby Looks Like His Father
“Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.” If this
Bible verse were a baby cradle, then God’s condemning Law and His forgiving
Gospel would be like infant fraternal twins laid side-by-side in it. The
reality of our sin makes for a pretty ugly baby, to be sure, but this cradle
holds twins! And the second baby looks a lot like His Father!
“The Lord is at hand.” These Words speak about our dear Lord Jesus, who is the
very picture and epitome of reasonableness and gentleness and forbearance and
unselfishness toward us.
1. The “reasonableness” that God speaks about in today’s Epistle is the
same “reasonableness” by which our Lord Jesus lived the days of His humiliation.
a. This is the man who slept serenely in the stern of a boat, while a
terrible storm raged upon the sea. Yet Jesus completely trusted God His Father
for our sake, never fretting or wondering about how things might turn out for
Him.
b. “Reasonableness” also made it possible for our Lord Jesus to look the
other way when His enemies brought Him a woman who had been caught in a
notorious act of sin. “Reasonableness” allowed Jesus to say to this woman—as
well as to us—“Who condemns you? I do not!” (John 8:10-11).
c. “Reasonableness,” forbearance, gentleness: “Like a lamb that is led to
the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He
opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). By “reasonableness” the crucified and
dying Jesus could reckon “that God was able even to raise him from the dead”
(Hebrews 11:19)—which is exactly what God did after our Lord was put to death
for our sins and was raised for our justification.
2. And now God says to you, for your comfort and joy, “The Lord is at
hand.” The very reasonableness by which Jesus lived, He now gives to you! These
Words, “The Lord is at hand,” indicate that you have a big brother who is
always with you and always watching out for you. It is an act of your
freedom—freedom created for you by your Christ—that you may now “let your
reasonableness be known to all. The Lord is at hand” and you have nothing to
fear.
“Let your reasonableness be known to all”:
• If your neighbor requires your patience, you are now free to give your
neighbor patience. God has given His gift of patience to you, and if you ever
run out, He will certainly provide you with more! Your Lord Jesus is the very
fountain and source of your patience, and His blood now runs through your
veins.
• God “opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing”
(Psalm 145:15-16). “The birds of the air neither sow nor reap, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable than they” (Matthew
6:26).
• “Whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord” (Romans
14:8). “God is able even to raise… the dead” (Hebrews 11:19). “The Lord is my
helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6).
“The Lord is at hand.” These Words do more than summarize the theme of our
Advent season. These Words express the everyday reality of your life! The Lord
is Advent and now eternally present among you. The Lord has now arrived to be
with you forever. He is Immanuel, and Immanuel means “God with us” (Matthew
1:23).
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