15 December 2019 – 3rd Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 35:1-10; Luke 1:47-55; James
5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11
“The ransomed of the LORD
shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their
heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away.” Isaiah 35:10
Meaning: The Lord had already paid a price for the
release of His beloved from their exile so they may return to Zion – the ideal
established by The Lord for His people. The Promise.
While it may seem Isaiah’s meaning has more to do with
the Exile and Judah’s return to Jerusalem, we Christians may think in terms of
what is still yet to be – even after the Incarnation, the birth of Messiah.
Coupled with the reading from the prophet, this passage
in Matthew makes John’s question to Jesus perplexing. Evidently having
come to know more of Jesus and His public ministry, John had sent word to
determine whether Jesus really is the One to come or if they should keep
waiting. What makes it perplexing is the Baptizer’s previous declaration
in John’s Gospel: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
the world” (1:29). We also remember the Baptizer’s words
when Jesus presented Himself for baptism: “I need to be baptized by
You, and You come to me?” (Matthew 3:14).
By these statements it seems clear John already knew
who Jesus was and what His presence meant, yet he sent one of his disciples to
ask Jesus: “Are You the One?”
Some have suggested because John was imprisoned, he
may have lost some measure of his faith or, at least, his focus. If we
were to evangelize so faithfully and then be imprisoned because someone took
offense, would we not wonder whether we got it wrong or used the wrong
approach? Would we not – and do we not - need some sort of affirmation in
our darkest moments? Even as we go our merry way, do we not all from time
to time need to be reminded of His Presence in our lives? Of
course! It is not a matter of losing faith more than it may be a matter
of losing our way. And we’re pretty good at that – especially when we are
too self-absorbed.
There have been other suggestions that John probably
knew he would not get out of that prison alive; so rather than allow his
disciples to linger about with him when he was clearly going nowhere, and
perhaps given that he was aware that “Jesus must increase, but I
must decrease” (John 3:30), it was maybe time to cut the
cord and send his disciples to the One they had been waiting for all along, the
One John told them was coming.
Now that Jesus was among them, they no
longer needed a messenger – they needed the Message.
What is more perplexing still – especially for us - is
the virtual utopia Jesus presented to John’s disciple who had
come to ask, “Is it You?” Jesus presents the evidence; “The
blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matthew
11:5). A virtual paradise we only read about.
By what we can see, there are schools for the deaf and
the blind to teach them how to function without sound or sight. There are
all sorts of handicapped persons who may never walk again. Leprosy and
other debilitating diseases are still very much a part of our world. We
have not seen a resurrection, and there is still poverty.
From what we can see with our eyes, the birth of Messiah
changed nothing. And yet perhaps everything has changed, and we’re
missing it by being so focused on our own problems, our own lives, our own joys,
our own sorrows.
We read the stories of miracles performed by our Lord
while He walked the earth and we read the stories of miracles performed by His
apostles after Pentecost, but those miracles in our time are far and few
between. Surely, then, there is something else we need to be more aware
of, something more we need to anticipate, something much greater we must have
the faith to see.
The third Sunday of Advent is also known as Gaudete
Sunday, Gaudete meaning to “rejoice”. In real life and real living and
real disappointment and real heartbreak, especially during this time of year
when depression really sets in for some, how do we capture – or recapture – the
Joy that is proclaimed? How do we regain the “first love we
have abandoned” (Revelation 2:4)?
Please forgive me for saying it again; rejoicing in
something which has already happened and will not happen again is short-lived
and short-sighted. It is a Day marked on a calendar. There is great
anticipation – and rightly so! – but it will come to an end, and we will stop
waiting, we will stop anticipating. After the last present is opened (and
broken or torn or dirtied) and the tree is back in the box or thrown to the
curb, what joy is left? Do we really have to wait until next December to
“bring back that lovin’ feelin’”?
The joy of Advent is in the Promise yet to be;
and while it is very easy to lose sight of what is to come, we must learn to
focus on what we’re waiting for, where we’re going, and how we will get
there. This is why the discipline of Advent is so important to us in
developing new habits of holiness; being reminded to use the means of grace –
e.g., praying, fasting, studying the Scripture, and worshiping with fellow
disciples who are on the same journey. We are reminded, as we must often
be, that the greatest thing we can know is that the Best is Yet to Come.
The ransom has been paid. What is left while we’re
stuck here in this world in which blindness and deafness and disease and poverty
are still the reality of a broken world?
We have each other to remind us our Ride Home will surely come. It
will come, but we must learn to wait patiently and faithfully because it will
come in His Time, not ours; as Peter proclaimed, “Like a thief in the
night”. And it cannot be overstated;
this is not a THREAT – it is His Promise. And we who wait patiently and
faithfully will rejoice … because “sorrow and sighing will flee away”
– as surely will our blindness.
That is the Promise and the fruit of our faith. To
the Glory of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit – in Life Everlasting. Amen
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