"Hearing Is Receiving" Third Sunday in Advent Gaudete December 15, 2013 Matthew 11:2–10
John the Baptist’s disciples were telling him what Jesus was doing. The healings, the exorcisms, the teaching, the miracles. John was in prison but John was hearing what Jesus was doing. John had everything he needed. He was hearing. He was a recipient. The ones he had been teaching were giving him exactly what he needed. They were telling him what Jesus was doing. How many of us are in prison of sorts? Some of us were raised in a Christian home and through countless times of worship on Sundays, Sunday School and Bible Classes, personal and family devotions, and conversations with brother and sister Christians we have heard this same thing. The deeds of Christ. The things Jesus has done. But is He really the one? Or should you look for another? You have heard. You have heard over and over what He has done but you remain in your prison. You have to make sure. Is He really the one, or is there something I’m missing? The thing about hearing is that you’re a recipient. The way the Scriptures talk about the work of God in making God in the flesh known is through proclamation, speaking. The way it is received is through hearing. So was the case with John in that prison cell. What was he to hear? What had been done to many. They were recipients. They had received from Jesus what He had come to bring them. The question of if Jesus is the one is answered in what people have received. They have not done anything but rather are the recipients of what Jesus has done for them: “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” John too is a recipient. He heard what Jesus had done. He will now hear it again. This is what he needs. He has been a recipient, a hearer. He needs to be one again: receive, hear what the Christ has done for many. The answer Jesus gives to the disciples of John the Baptist are of the miraculous deeds Jesus has accomplished. They are striking miracles indeed. The blind receiving their sight and the lame walking, lepers being cleansed and the deaf hearing, the dead being raised up and the poor having good news preached to them. Sight and ability to walk conferred. Leprosy cleansed and hearing restored. Those who were dead raised up and the poor receiving the proclamation of Good News. All of these things exhibit Jesus’ deeds, His work of coming as the Messiah, the Savior. He was the one who was to come and He told John’s disciples to speak that to John. All of this work of Jesus, healing and restoring, is bound up in bringing the dead to life and the poor hearing the Good News. It’s not just that there were a bunch of people who needed help in these ways, whether it was restored sight or cleansing from leprosy. These were the poor. These were ones who were in need. These were ones who needed to receive, who needed to hear, who needed the Gospel proclaimed to them. Sharp irony that John the Baptist was the Elijah who was to come, the Messenger who would go before the Lord to prepare the way… to preach! He spoke words people needed to hear and now he was the one who needed to hear them. This is what Jesus came to do; to restore, to heal, to raise up, to proclaim. And it’s not just that He did these things, He was these thing incarnate. He was the Word in the flesh. His very being was proclamation of the restoration, the healing, the raising up to new life, the proclamation of the Gospel. In the person and the deeds of Jesus was life. This was life that was entirely given by Him in what He did and said. Entirely received and heard by those who were recipients. Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? Jesus shows He is the one who is to come. He shows how. “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” You and I could be in the prison cell with John. You and I need the Advent message of repentance. Repent for being offended by Jesus as He comes to you to make you whole. As you go looking for another, a God who will let you in on the work of procuring your salvation. Repent for not being a recipient, simply hearing and believing. Whether you sit in a cell or are trapped by your doubts or the health problems that attempt to overwhelm you or about to collapse under the weight of those hurtful things your loved ones have said to you and are more and more unwilling to forgive them and love them even more than the hurt and pain they have caused you. Repent for your lack of repentance. Repent that you so often see little need of it in your life. Repent that you see so little need of hearing and receiving your Lord in His Word, in the bread and wine He offers you. Blessed is the one who is not offended. Blessed is the one who hears. Who sees that his only action is to receive. His only standing is to be a recipient, a grateful person who is in need and has received all in His Lord. It’s no coincidence that John in his jail cell is pointing people to Jesus even in his question. John is the one who Baptized Jesus. John is the one who, as Jesus says of him in the Gospel reading today, was the one who was the messenger the Old Testament promised would come, the one who would go before the Messiah, the one who would prepare the way of the Lord. It is not just a matter of details or historical event of John the Baptist directing his disciples, and therefore you, to Jesus regarding Jesus being the one who is to come. At the Baptism of Jesus Jesus sanctified Baptism for you and the Father directed you to His Beloved Son, the one in whom He is well-pleased, and then commanded you to “Listen to Him.” This is what John was the recipient of in his cell. He heard of the deeds of the Christ. In sending his disciples to Jesus asking if He was the one to come Jesus came right back at John with more of the same. More hearing. More receiving. Tell John what you see and hear. Look at all the things I have been doing. Tell Him that. He needs to hear that. And the same with you. You need the very same thing. Will you listen to your Lord? Will the Baptism of Jesus cement for you what has been accomplished for you in your Baptism? Will the words of your Lord in His Holy Scriptures impress upon you what the Triune God has done for you in those waters of Baptism, forgiving your sins, saving you, joining you with Christ in His dying and rising? Hearing these words is receiving what they offer. Forgiveness, new life, salvation. Even if you were bound up in a prison cell, you would still be free. You are Baptized. You are an eternal son or daughter of the Heavenly Father, you are the brother or sister of Christ, who entered those waters of Baptism as you have. Hear the words of your Lord just as He told the disciples of John to do. Look at all the things He had been doing, and there is your answer. What Jesus had done for all those people they were the recipients of. So your Lord accomplishes His deeds today. He acts and you receive. He invites and you hear. He says, Take and eat, this is My body, given for you. Take and drink, this is My blood, shed for you for your forgiveness. The point of John asking in prison about Christ being the one to come is not so that you can learn from this episode. It’s so that you can receive, just as Jesus was giving to people back then; Him acting and they receiving. It’s so that you can hear His words, His Gospel, His forgiveness, and so be renewed once again. Be forgiven over and over and more and more. Be continually receiving and healed in body and soul by Jesus Himself in the ways He does these things for you now. Jesus wasn’t just healing people. He was coming to them. He was bringing Himself to them directly. This was the almighty God coming to people who were in need in body and soul and He was bringing them and giving them what they needed—restoration, wholeness, life, forgiveness, salvation. When Jesus comes to you in Baptism it’s not just a way for you to understand better that you have new life in Him. When He comes to you in Baptism He gives you Himself, and all that goes with Him—His forgiveness, His new life, His salvation. When He gives you His body and blood in His precious Supper, think about this, He’s giving you His body and blood. He’s giving you Himself! He’s giving you everything that comes with Him. All His blessings. All His forgiveness. All His love, mercy, peace, and salvation. And you, dear friend in Christ, are blessed to receive this. He comes to you so that you may receive it. John the Baptist and the entire Scriptures will continue to point you back to Christ and that He comes to you in your Baptism and His Holy Supper. All what you hear and receive. What more do you need to hear and receive? What more could you tell others? What more could you give others? Jesus is the one who was to come and He comes to you still in the Gospel, in Baptism, and in Holy Communion. He is the one who has come to you and so He is the one you point others to as well. Hearing is receiving. Receiving means living, in body and soul; serving God in serving others, pointing them to Christ, the one who gives so that people may receive. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
