Jesu Juva

“The Way of Joy”

Text: Matthew 11:2-15; Isaiah 35:1-10

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Why are they there? The disciples of John, I mean. Why aren’t they with Jesus? Why aren’t they following Jesus? They’re not with John as his friends; that I could understand. They’re still his disciples, we were told today.

John knows that’s not right, so he sends them to Jesus. With a question. A question to ask that Jesus might help them and teach them. John had already pointed to Jesus and said: Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29! He had already said that Jesus must increase and he must decrease (John 3:30). John had already confessed that he was not even worthy to loose the strap of Jesus’ sandal (John 1:27). But maybe that’s why. Jesus didn’t look the part. You sure you got the right guy, John? The carpenter’s son? From Nazareth? His sandals? You sure?

So John sends them to Jesus. Maybe John knew his time was short. That Herod, who had imprisoned him, soon had to fish or cut bait. And releasing him was unlikely. So his disciples needed to go. As much as John must have appreciated having them around, this was more important. They needed to leave him and go to Jesus.

So Johns sends them to Jesus. And he tells them to ask: Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?

Jesus could have just said yes. But words weren’t enough. Jesus’ lowly appearance made the words hard to believe. So Jesus gives them more. He points to the Word of God in the Old Testament, in the prophet Isaiah. This is what would happen when God comes to save. And this is what is happening now. But not just these things. Even more. Jesus goes beyond what Isaiah said. For in addition to the eyes of the blind being opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped, more than the lame man leaping like a deer and the tongue of the mute singing for joy, He says this too: the dead are being raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them. Go and tell John.

So that when they did, tell John, John could say to them: then why are you still here? Go! GO! Follow Him! You need to be His disciples. Not mine. My time is up.

What Jesus added there is important. That the dead are raised up could be a reference to when Jesus raised back to life the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17) - which Luke records right before this episode of John in prison! Or it could mean those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, which would go along with what He says next, the poor having the good news preached to them. I think we usually think of the first because it’s a miracle like the rest. But maybe it is the last, the preaching, that is the greatest for Jesus. The proclamation, the good news that He is the dead one who will be raised. And because He is, so will we, the poor and lowly, He wants us to know. We won’t all be healed, but we will all be raised. And even those healed now will have to face death later. So that’s the real foe here. The Messiah is here to deliver us from death and hell. The healings, the miracles, are the little signs of the greater work.

And I think that’s where we sometimes get confused, like John’s disciples. We think the little signs are the greater work, and the greater work, the preaching . . . well, not so much.

Or maybe our problem is that we don’t see ourselves as poor. And certainly we aren’t when it comes to the things of the world - we are quite wealthy. Christmas has become a holiday of great wealth and spending. But how about spiritually? Do we see ourselves as poor? I don’t want to be poor! I want to have a faith that cannot be moved! I want to be strong and steadfast. I want to stand on my own two spiritual feet and not need rely on God so much. Isn’t that what growing up is? And isn’t that what God wants?

Well, no, in fact. That’s not what God wants at all. He doesn’t want you to think you need Him less and less and thereby grow away from Him. He wants you to realize that you actually need Him more and more and so grow more in Him. That you know it is better to be washed by Him than to wash yourself. It is better to be fed by Him than to feed yourself. It is better to be forgiven by Him than it is to forgive yourself. He wants His strength to be your strength, for His riches to be your riches. So you are and must be poor, or as Luther said it: We are beggars, this is true. And while poor is not good in the world, it is just right for Jesus.

So if that is true, where would you expect to find Jesus? In a palace or a hospital? In a five star restaurant or in a prison? He’s out with the blind, the lame, the deaf, the lepers, the sinners, the outcasts, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the homeless, the people we avoid, the people we step over as we hurry on our way. That’s not where you’d expect someone whose sandal John, the great John, the no-one-greater-born-of-women John, to be! But that’s how God rolls. The Son of God had the palace, the five-star restaurant, and more, in heaven. And glory beyond that. He left that. To come down to you.

So if you’re looking for Jesus, don’t look up - look down! That’s where He is and will be FOR YOU. Not far away in heaven, but here, washing you, feeding you, forgiving you. You who are poor. You who need all those things. And especially He came down that you would see Him from where all those things come - on the cross. Bloody Jesus. Dying Jesus. Whipped Jesus. Abused Jesus. Mocked Jesus. Rejected Jesus. Thrown out Jesus. That’s your Jesus. Great Jesus. The Jesus who didn’t say: clean yourself up, get better, and maybe I’ll let you into my heaven. But who came to die for the dead, the spiritually dead, to scoop us up from the grave to rise to life with Him.

John knew that, so go! GO! He tells his disciples. Follow Him! That’s where you should be.

But there’s something else Jesus said, too . . . And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Offended by the kind of Saviour He is. Offended by who He is hanging out with. Offended by how He sees us.

But people are offended by Jesus. Then and now. They don’t like His teaching. They want what He says is wrong to be right. The want to believe there are other ways to heaven than Him. They don’t want to be saved by grace but by being good. They don’t want to be poor, humble, and underserving, but rich, proud, and admired! They don’t want to live by faith, what they cannot see, and so have to believe and trust, but to live by what they can see and feel. That way they are the arbiter of truth, not Jesus, and they can believe what they think, what they know, not what Jesus tells them.

And this kind of thinking . . . it lives in us, too. It’s part of the sin we inherited. To put our thinking above God’s thinking, our word above His Word, our wants and desires over His, to make myself something, not nothing. But to be offended by Jesus and so to turn away from Him, His Word, and His truth, is to then also turn away from His blessing and lose it.

So if John were here today, what would he need to clear out of the way for YOU to follow Christ? What false loves, what idols, what wrong thinking, what sins, what twisted desires? Where are you that he would say to you: why are you still here? Go! GO!

But you don’t want to lose those, right? Those things John would clear away. But you must. You must be dead to be raised. You must be poor to have the good news preached to you. You must be empty to be filled. You must be sinner to be forgiven.

So listen to John, and go! GO! Go to the font and remember you are a baptized child of God. Go to absolution and hear those words of forgiveness. Go to the Supper and eat and drink not earthly food, but heavenly. Go to the Word and hear all that your God has come down from heaven and done for you. And is still doing. These are His Christmas gifts to you. The gifts He came in flesh and blood to give.

So go! GO! Here, but then out there. To the deaf, the blind, the sick, the lame, the sinners, the dead in their trespasses and sins. Not to those who can repay you, but to those who can’t. Help them, do good to them. For that’s what Jesus has come and done FOR YOU. That’s Jesus living in you.

A lot of people struggle at this time of year. It’s supposed to be a season of joy, but for all kinds of reasons, some people, maybe many people, aren’t very joyful. Maybe it’s because we’re looking for joy in the wrong place. I’m sure John wasn’t joyful in prison, but if his disciples left him and went to follow Jesus, that would be a source of joy to him. Which seems backward, and yet that’s the way of Jesus. So maybe the path to joy is to bring such joy to others. Not to seek it for ourselves, but for them. The author of Hebrews said this of Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). The cross wasn’t joyful, but the joy it would bring us gave Jesus joy. Joy to go there and endure that. FOR YOU.

John wants that joy for his disciples, and that is his joy. And on this Sunday when we lit the rose-colored candle on the Advent wreath, this Sunday of joy, that is our joy as well. The joy of Jesus, His gifts, and His life. That life we now get to live. A life that because of Him will never end. And a joy that because of Him lasts more than a day or even twelve. So as we sang in the Introit: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Which, think of it this way, is not just an exhortation, but a promise. That not when you stay, but when you go! Go! you will rejoice. Not when you stay where you are, not when you stay in your sins, but when you go! Go! to Jesus, you will rejoice. For going to the one who came to us as a baby, and who comes to us now with and in His gifts, you will go to Him in the end, on that day He comes again for you. That day there will be only joy. That’s where you need to be. That’s where Jesus wants you to be - with Him, in His joy. To rejoice in Him, always.

So go! Go! To the one who advents, comes, for you.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.