READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 40:1-8
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
St. Matthew 11:2-10
Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who
is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of kings on earth. (Rev 1)
Who speaks to us on this third Sunday of the new Church
Year, saying,
“And Jesus
answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:”
The language war is one we have apparently lost, in these
last days. Words don’t mean anything to anyone anymore and we can never get a
clear meaning about anything. “Jesus is the reason for the season” is just such
a phrase that has fallen victim to this war
For that phrase seems to only be the modern rally cry for
American Christianity. It is used not to get people to go to church, but to
shout at giant corporations, political rallies, and talking heads. It is not
used to get people to actually find Jesus in Word and Sacrament this season, as
it means, but instead is used to ignite a flame of hatred against any and all
who would oppose it.
That is how we are with the good things God gives us. We
turn it around and use it against God and neighbor almost immediately after
receiving it. Now to be sure, Jesus is the reason for the season, but only in
the sense that without Him there would be no season.
But that is no more reason for the season than the reason
for anything in life. Jesus is the reason for the Easter season, for the Summer
season, for Construction season. It has become an empty phrase, because you
might as well say Jesus is the reason for everything and be done with it.
Happy Holidays has the same hollowness to it. Yes, you can
use it to be polite, if you wish, but when you say it you don’t know what kind
of happiness you are wishing to someone. Also “Keep Christ in Christmas”. You
think it means something good, but which “Christ” do you want everyone to keep
and in which Christmas?
What those words truly mean when they are said, is not what
others hear today. When “Jesus is the reason for the season” is said, people
should be encouraged to go hear of His cross in Church and be saved. When
“Happy Holidays” is said, people should be urged to experience all of God’s
blessings of the season and of family. When “Keep Christ in Christmas” is said,
everyone should be running to be in Church to hear of said Christ in His Mass,
or Divine Service.
Now, I’m not discouraging you from being holly and jolly
this season, but in all things we must find Christ and in turn we must give and
tell of Christ, otherwise everything is actually vanity and useless. We want to
be clear with our words, because we want God to be clear with His Word to us.
If we objectify Jesus, what we get is confusion and He might as well sit on the
buffet table of religions and fade away until the next plate.
Repent. Objectifying means to degrade someone to a mere
object, that is, its only worth is what we do to it or for it. This is
Christmas and Jesus for most people, even so-called Christians. Christmas is
how much Christmas spirit we have. Jesus is only how much we love Him and give
our lives to Him.
Jesus becomes the elf on the shelf. He moves as we say. He
does what we say. He acts how we say. He remains the infant in the manger forever,
for infants are much easier to manipulate and control than grown men.
Look at how deftly our Savior handles this situation and His
example is in the Gospel today. He is approached by certain men who ask Jesus
about Himself. They want Him to boast about being the savior. They want Him to
claim His throne right now. They want Him to bust all their friends out of
jail.
Jesus wants to talk about someone else.
Jesus wants us to see and hear of John the Baptist, “the
man born of woman of whom no one is greater” (Mt 11:11). Jesus wants us to
take note of his steadfastness: he was a reed that withstood the wind, even the
wind of the executioner’s axe. He was the man that chose the hard couch of
camel hair and the prophet who heralds the coming Christ, God in the flesh.
Before that, in the Gospel reading, Jesus is still not
talking about Himself, but others: the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf,
the dead, and the poor. Even the promises in our Old Testament reading take the
spotlight off of Jesus and place it directly on Jerusalem, sinners, the
wilderness, mountains, crooked ways, anything but Jesus.
Now, to be sure, Jesus is the only One acting and doing
something to every single thing and person He is pointing out, but that makes
Jesus the subject, not the object. Jesus is the One acting and someone else is
receiving the benefits of His actions.
The danger of making Jesus an object of worship is that we
miss His actions as a subject, because in our sin our actions take priority.
Jesus spends 3 years and 40 days in the spotlight and then He Ascends, He gets
out of the way so that it is impossible to objectify Him and so that He can
begin His true work of handing out salvation to all who believe.
Dear Christians, you are the reason for the season. You.
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary to, what, perform an amazing miracle in a
virgin? No. St. Gabriel tells us, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he
will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21).
Jesus suffered and died under Pontius Pilate to rescue you.
Jesus was baptized to cleanse you in baptism. Jesus caused His Word to be
written so that YOU may hear and believe. Jesus gave His Body and Blood for the
forgiveness of YOUR sins.
You. Second person singular and second person plural. First
and foremost Jesus is our subject Who opens heaven for His object: you. Jesus
objectifies you! Ha. But in this case, He does not stifle or muzzle, but frees.
He does not tell you what to think or like, but makes you loveable. He does not
put you on a shelf, so that you are not in the way, but seats you next to
Himself in honor.
This is not to say that we are free to rule as gods because
Jesus favors us in such a way. It is to say that we are humbled that such a One
as Christ, should stoop so low for such a one as I. Only a little more
offensive than God in a manger at His mother’s breasts, is God on a cross in
the arms of death.
All for little ole, poor miserable sinner me. And yet, after
Jesus has acted upon you, you receive sight to see Him in Word and Sacrament. You
made to walk in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. You are
cleansed from all former sins and given to hear His Gospel. You raised up from
the death the First Adam gave to you, to the death and resurrection of the
Second Adam, in baptism, for free.
Your warfare has ended and Jesus lifts you up as the example
of just what He has done for you. Your iniquity is pardoned and you have
received double for all your sins. You are the object of God’s love and
affection and you cannot escape the limelight of His attention any longer, for
it would be sinful.
For this is what the Subject of our worship does: Church.
And Church is piling up His love on the object of His love: you. We are beggars
before God, but beggars never had it so good as to be called “sons of the
kingdom” (Rom 8:14).
So Jesus is the reason for the season, because He has made
you the reason for the season. All things work for our good (Rom 8:28), because
God is good. Advent is our time to repent and prepare, because God has given us
repentance and perfect preparation. Christmas is the time for Christ, because
Christ made the time to begin our salvation.
We keep Christ in ChristMass by keeping the Mass in Christ
mass, that is going to His Service and doing what He says: confess, receive
peace, eat and drink. He will not allow any other ways to make Him the reason
for the season, to keep Him in Christmas, or to keep the day happy and holy.
This is what He gives. This is what we take.
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