Deuteronomy 18:15-19; Philippians 4:4-7; St John 1:19-28
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Getting into the hearts of stubborn man is a dangerous mission. A treacherous one, full of difficulty. Some might even say its impossible. Jeremiah opined, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jer 17:9) But as we’ve learned with camels and needles, rich men and heaven, what is impossible for man is possible with God. God was determined. He had a plan. He made a promise. He was going to fulfill it.
So He sent His loyal soldier named John to go first. He was not the Christ. He was not Elijah. He was not the Prophet whom Moses proclaimed in our first reading. He was not the Light. He was just John. A dutiful servant of the Most High God. A witness, come to bear witness about the Light.
So he took his post out in the wilderness. Out there where Israel sojourned. Out where the Lord led them out of Egypt on the way. Where He provided and protected. Where He spoke and declared Himself to be their God and they His people. John was out there in the desert, among the shrubs and thorns, eating locusts and wild honey, to be the Voice. Simply the Voice. The Voice saying, Make straight the way of the Lord. That is the way into men’s hearts. God’s Word, the Voice, comes in through the ear. And He demands direct access. The Lord will not take a crooked route. He insists on a straight path. So He sends John.
But the self-righteous hearts of men will allow no direct or easy access. Called to love God above all, they are easily distracted with other loves. John was sent as the Voice, but men weren’t listening. The Pharisees heard his preaching. Those they sent to John, the delegation of priests and Levites, heard his preaching. Yet their hearts rejected the direct appeal of John. “Make straight the way to my heart? Why? The Lord already has my heart. I already believe rightly. I’ve said all the right things.”
But John knew better. He didn’t just listen to what they said. He watched what they did. For he knew that hearts are deceitful things and loves are not only spoken, but acted out. And so he saw what drove them. He saw what moved them and gave them delight in life. He saw what put a spring in their step. And it wasn’t the love of God at all.
In fact, they were like us. They may have said that God was their Rock, their Foundation, their Security. But in looking at their lives and how they lived, they were more like Scrooge. Always more concerned with their bottom line.
They may have said, “God gives my life meaning,” but then John looked and saw the way they lived; what they sacrificed for. He could see that they were more devoted to their kids and grandkids than God Himself.
They may have been considered “good guys” by others, but John listened to their conversations. Heard all the hate and gossip and criticism that came out. He could see they weren’t very godly at all.
John was a Voice trying to get men’s attention. Trying to stimulate their calloused consciences and stir up their minds. An apparently impossible mission. He must have felt like a wife talking to her husband who’s not really listening. You may have his physical presence, but because he’s not really listening his heart and mind are somewhere else at the moment.
The same Isaiah who prophesied the coming of the Voice also says, Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? (Is 53:1) Our Lord wants direct and total access to your heart. And He comes in through the ear; through preaching. But men have stopped up their ears and hardened their hearts. Often its like talking to a wall.
So how will God get direct access to men’s hearts? Especially after John is thrown in prison and the Voice is lost? Cut off, along with his head? How will God accomplish their impossible mission? When prophets are killed and preachers are silenced?
Remember that this was God’s plan laid out from before the foundation of the world. He would raise up the Prophet like Moses and put His Word in His mouth. As St Paul writes to the Thessalonians, May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and Word (2 Thess 2:16-17).
John did his part in the plan. He went before the Lord to prepare His way. Giving knowledge of salvation, through a baptism of repentance by the forgiveness of their sins. Now things would get really treacherous. God would send His Son. The same One John preached. The One whose sandal straps John was not worthy to loose. The One who is named Jesus and whose feet are the feet of God Almighty. The One who demands complete and total access to man’s heart and all of his devotion and love.
But when He came on the scene He was not like the voice at Mount Sinai that was so loud and so intimidating that it drove men away. Rather, He was a quiet voice. A merciful voice. His way is to forgive the idol-loving hearts of men. To speak His Word directly into their hearts by way of their ears about who He is and what He came to do.
For this little feet of the One born in the manger had one mission. His walk would always be in one direction. To the Cross. To die for idolatrous men. To reclaim the hearts and lives of His creation. To redeem us who can’t seem to detach ourselves from our idols and our false worship. He lived to walk to the Cross.
That was His focus. He was not distracted. He had no idols. His one and only love was to walk that way to the Cross. To be the Way for you. It was His love for the Father and for you that drove Him. He prayed to the Father, Not My will, but Yours be done (Lk 22:42). And this is the will of the Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life and be raised up on the Last Day (Jn 6:40).
Dear friends, this was His passion. This was His delight. This is what put a spring in His step - thinking about saving ungodly sinners from God’s wrath. For the joy set before Him He endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2). And so, ever since He was born, His holy feet were set for battle. To carry out God’s mission when it was even the most treacherous and would cost Him His life.
So His baby feet grew up to stand in the Jordan River and be baptized by the Forerunner and Voice and to be identified with stubborn hearted sinners forever. His feet grew up to stand and preach full and free forgiveness that would come through His death and give men new hearts. His feet would grow up to fall in the Garden of Gethsemane as He sweat Blood. His feet would go to Golgotha, were His sandal strap would be untied, and those beautiful feet would be nailed to the Cross and laid in a tomb.
But this soldier’s mission was not yet complete. Those feet would stand again in His Resurrection as He appeared to the disciples, speaking His Gospel of peace. Again, as Isaiah says, “Therefore My people shall know My name. Therefore in that day they shall know that is it I who speak; here I am.” How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” (Is 52:6-7)
As He breathed the Spirit on them, so does He do for you in and through His Word so that you may be granted new hearts through Holy Baptism and faith. In the Jordan of the font, He stood wth you, and by His Word gave Himself direct access to your heart. There He gave you a new one. One full of faith toward God and love toward one another. So that now, through Jesus, you have access to the Father’s heart. For you hear His Word of consolation, and in confidence, draw near to Him in prayer, your hearts free from anxiety, bringing your requests to Him.
Even more, you not only hear His Word, you also know His will. St Paul says is clearly to the Thessalonians: This is the will of God, your sanctification (1 Thess 4:3). That is, to make a clean break with all that would inhibit the coming of Christ. To stop trying to go your own way and prepare the way of the Lord that you may delight in His will and walk in His ways to the glory of His holy name.
That wives would submit to their husbands as to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and died for her. Children, that you would obey your parents. That workers would serve wholeheartedly as if serving the Lord, not men. That widows put their hope in God. And that everyone, every baptized and believing Christian, would give thanks to the Lord with their whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
John was not the Christ. But Jesus is. And He completed the mission by dying and rising to impart new life in order that you may stand and rejoice at such benevolence. So that your feet might come to this altar and receive His Body given for you and His Blood shed for you. So that your feet might bear your crosses with confidence and gladness and in the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, which guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Getting into the hearts of stubborn man is a dangerous mission. A treacherous one, full of difficulty. Some might even say its impossible. Jeremiah opined, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jer 17:9) But as we’ve learned with camels and needles, rich men and heaven, what is impossible for man is possible with God. God was determined. He had a plan. He made a promise. He was going to fulfill it.
So He sent His loyal soldier named John to go first. He was not the Christ. He was not Elijah. He was not the Prophet whom Moses proclaimed in our first reading. He was not the Light. He was just John. A dutiful servant of the Most High God. A witness, come to bear witness about the Light.
So he took his post out in the wilderness. Out there where Israel sojourned. Out where the Lord led them out of Egypt on the way. Where He provided and protected. Where He spoke and declared Himself to be their God and they His people. John was out there in the desert, among the shrubs and thorns, eating locusts and wild honey, to be the Voice. Simply the Voice. The Voice saying, Make straight the way of the Lord. That is the way into men’s hearts. God’s Word, the Voice, comes in through the ear. And He demands direct access. The Lord will not take a crooked route. He insists on a straight path. So He sends John.
But the self-righteous hearts of men will allow no direct or easy access. Called to love God above all, they are easily distracted with other loves. John was sent as the Voice, but men weren’t listening. The Pharisees heard his preaching. Those they sent to John, the delegation of priests and Levites, heard his preaching. Yet their hearts rejected the direct appeal of John. “Make straight the way to my heart? Why? The Lord already has my heart. I already believe rightly. I’ve said all the right things.”
But John knew better. He didn’t just listen to what they said. He watched what they did. For he knew that hearts are deceitful things and loves are not only spoken, but acted out. And so he saw what drove them. He saw what moved them and gave them delight in life. He saw what put a spring in their step. And it wasn’t the love of God at all.
In fact, they were like us. They may have said that God was their Rock, their Foundation, their Security. But in looking at their lives and how they lived, they were more like Scrooge. Always more concerned with their bottom line.
They may have said, “God gives my life meaning,” but then John looked and saw the way they lived; what they sacrificed for. He could see that they were more devoted to their kids and grandkids than God Himself.
They may have been considered “good guys” by others, but John listened to their conversations. Heard all the hate and gossip and criticism that came out. He could see they weren’t very godly at all.
John was a Voice trying to get men’s attention. Trying to stimulate their calloused consciences and stir up their minds. An apparently impossible mission. He must have felt like a wife talking to her husband who’s not really listening. You may have his physical presence, but because he’s not really listening his heart and mind are somewhere else at the moment.
The same Isaiah who prophesied the coming of the Voice also says, Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? (Is 53:1) Our Lord wants direct and total access to your heart. And He comes in through the ear; through preaching. But men have stopped up their ears and hardened their hearts. Often its like talking to a wall.
So how will God get direct access to men’s hearts? Especially after John is thrown in prison and the Voice is lost? Cut off, along with his head? How will God accomplish their impossible mission? When prophets are killed and preachers are silenced?
Remember that this was God’s plan laid out from before the foundation of the world. He would raise up the Prophet like Moses and put His Word in His mouth. As St Paul writes to the Thessalonians, May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and Word (2 Thess 2:16-17).
John did his part in the plan. He went before the Lord to prepare His way. Giving knowledge of salvation, through a baptism of repentance by the forgiveness of their sins. Now things would get really treacherous. God would send His Son. The same One John preached. The One whose sandal straps John was not worthy to loose. The One who is named Jesus and whose feet are the feet of God Almighty. The One who demands complete and total access to man’s heart and all of his devotion and love.
But when He came on the scene He was not like the voice at Mount Sinai that was so loud and so intimidating that it drove men away. Rather, He was a quiet voice. A merciful voice. His way is to forgive the idol-loving hearts of men. To speak His Word directly into their hearts by way of their ears about who He is and what He came to do.
For this little feet of the One born in the manger had one mission. His walk would always be in one direction. To the Cross. To die for idolatrous men. To reclaim the hearts and lives of His creation. To redeem us who can’t seem to detach ourselves from our idols and our false worship. He lived to walk to the Cross.
That was His focus. He was not distracted. He had no idols. His one and only love was to walk that way to the Cross. To be the Way for you. It was His love for the Father and for you that drove Him. He prayed to the Father, Not My will, but Yours be done (Lk 22:42). And this is the will of the Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life and be raised up on the Last Day (Jn 6:40).
Dear friends, this was His passion. This was His delight. This is what put a spring in His step - thinking about saving ungodly sinners from God’s wrath. For the joy set before Him He endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2). And so, ever since He was born, His holy feet were set for battle. To carry out God’s mission when it was even the most treacherous and would cost Him His life.
So His baby feet grew up to stand in the Jordan River and be baptized by the Forerunner and Voice and to be identified with stubborn hearted sinners forever. His feet grew up to stand and preach full and free forgiveness that would come through His death and give men new hearts. His feet would grow up to fall in the Garden of Gethsemane as He sweat Blood. His feet would go to Golgotha, were His sandal strap would be untied, and those beautiful feet would be nailed to the Cross and laid in a tomb.
But this soldier’s mission was not yet complete. Those feet would stand again in His Resurrection as He appeared to the disciples, speaking His Gospel of peace. Again, as Isaiah says, “Therefore My people shall know My name. Therefore in that day they shall know that is it I who speak; here I am.” How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” (Is 52:6-7)
As He breathed the Spirit on them, so does He do for you in and through His Word so that you may be granted new hearts through Holy Baptism and faith. In the Jordan of the font, He stood wth you, and by His Word gave Himself direct access to your heart. There He gave you a new one. One full of faith toward God and love toward one another. So that now, through Jesus, you have access to the Father’s heart. For you hear His Word of consolation, and in confidence, draw near to Him in prayer, your hearts free from anxiety, bringing your requests to Him.
Even more, you not only hear His Word, you also know His will. St Paul says is clearly to the Thessalonians: This is the will of God, your sanctification (1 Thess 4:3). That is, to make a clean break with all that would inhibit the coming of Christ. To stop trying to go your own way and prepare the way of the Lord that you may delight in His will and walk in His ways to the glory of His holy name.
That wives would submit to their husbands as to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and died for her. Children, that you would obey your parents. That workers would serve wholeheartedly as if serving the Lord, not men. That widows put their hope in God. And that everyone, every baptized and believing Christian, would give thanks to the Lord with their whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
John was not the Christ. But Jesus is. And He completed the mission by dying and rising to impart new life in order that you may stand and rejoice at such benevolence. So that your feet might come to this altar and receive His Body given for you and His Blood shed for you. So that your feet might bear your crosses with confidence and gladness and in the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, which guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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