Angel-ed [Advent 3; St. Matthew 11:2-10]

Whenever you hear a word in holy Scripture like tell or message or report, it is almost always the word that literally reads: “angel”. What angel really means is message or messenger; one who has a message to tell.

The Gospel is such a message. We could even call it the message of the angels, for their only message is of Jesus. This message is what St. John was given to preach. As he was preparing the way of the Lord, he reported the Gospel message.

There are only two human reactions to the Gospel, when it is preached to you. The first is idleness and the second is violent opposition. If we remember what happens to St. John the Baptist after this, we would know that Herod liked to listen to John, but did nothing about what he said. Herodias, on the other hand, listened to John, but had John’s head served to her on a plate, for it.

That’s it. Your human condition is so utterly corrupted, that you only have those two choices, for you cannot by your own reason or strength believe or come to belief. So what is it that you do, exactly? What is your reaction to the Gospel?

Upon hearing this, you should break out in song at all times of the day, as we have been talking about on Wednesday evenings. You should be publicly confessing what you believe to everyone everyday. You should be investing all of your earthly treasure in it, looking forward to a heavenly treasure. You should have zero time to do anything else except to listen to and hear this message.

John the Baptist has the message of the angels and he speaks it to your as an angel. Rotting in prison, his sin gets the best of him. He sees Jesus not baptizing in fire, not bringing wrath, and not saving him. So, he appears to lose it.

In fact, St. Luke says that the disciples John sends come back as angels to John, meaning they come back to retell the Gospel to John in prison. They return because the Gospel needs to be preached. Comfort needs to be spoken to you.

There is nothing else in the world to hear. When the breath of the Lord blows, the grass withers and you are the grass. Your iniquity needs pardoning. Your stewardship needs to be accounted for. That which you hide in the dark recesses of your heart must be brought to light. Those who are in prison, must be freed.

You are in prison. You are a slave to your bellies and yourself. You return to the same sins that you thought had been done away with. You look for salvation in distraction yourself or in others. Finding none, you continue to look for it in those same places; again and again.

You want God in control and yet He is not controlling your life. You want your problems solved and yet they continue, endlessly. You want to love Jesus, but you find that to be one more struggle, day to day. You want out of your prison, but it would take too much of your effort and time to breakout.

Darkness is upon us all, whether we admit it or not. We would rather do nothing when we hear God’s Word, because rejecting it outright, in front of everyone, would be embarrassing.

It beats the alternative. That would be belief that all this is real; that you actually have to do something about this Jesus person. That you can’t sit idle and that rebelling against God is wrong and the fact that you must struggle with this everyday means you are not doing it.

So what do you do? Is God really just making the blind see, the lame walk, cleansing lepers, making the deaf hear, raising one or two of the dead, and speaking nicely with the poor people 200 years ago? Is this just another metaphor?

If you continue in sin, preferring your own judgments and emotions, then yes, this is all a metaphor and nothing to do with you whatsoever. However, Jesus is in control and He is doing something. That something is actually losing control and doing nothing.

Yes, Jesus loses control! This Christmas you will hear of God who is a baby; vulnerable, subject to parents, and dependent. This Lent, you will hear of the God-man who allows His enemies (you and me) to arrest Him, scourge Him, and kill Him. Jesus hands over control to you, does nothing about it, and suffers and dies.

God is in control precisely because He did not take control. God is active, because He rested in order to be handed over. Jesus preaches and shows us this on the cross, but you and John the Baptist don’t like it.

You don’t like that there is suffering, yet Jesus suffered. You don’t like that there is injustice, yet Jesus was falsely convicted. You don’t like that there is capitol punishment, yet Jesus was condemned to it. The opposite of what you and St. John want, Jesus is doing, for you all.

This is the Gospel that is continuously preached to you. Jesus releases those from the prison of their sin, death, and the power of the devil, by becoming the prisoner. Jesus heals perfectly with His true Body and Blood, by giving His Body and Blood over. Jesus forgives by allowing Himself to be the Unforgiven One upon the cross.

Jesus, the creator of the angels, brings this message of Himself to you. Because you are idle in your sin, Jesus gives His spirit which is never idle, especially when hearing the Word. Because you violently react against God in sin, Jesus takes on that violence upon Himself, almost as if He is letting you vent it all out on Him.

Giving you Faith, and by that faith alone, there is now a third Way to react to the Gospel: Rejoicing. You now rejoice in the midst of your suffering and death, because Jesus has taken their guilt and power away from you. Though they do their worst, which is kill, not even death can hold you because it could not hold Jesus.

Being baptized into Jesus, you are now where His Body is and wherever it goes. Yes, it ascends in to heaven to sit at the right hand of God, but it comes to dwell among you in the flesh. The Body of Christ gathers around the Good News of salvation, preached at this Altar and given in these sacraments.

God is not in control because your life is in control. God is in control because you find forgiveness of sins on earth. God is not acting because you feel happy. God is acting because you hear of Jesus crucified for you.

God is not working because peace in the world is growing (its not). God is working because Peace with God has been made and is being handed out for free, only in Jesus. Through faith you remain in this world to receive forgiveness. By grace you are justified in the middle of committing your sins. For Christ’s sake you are made a holy saint though you remain a sinner.

You doubt because God’s ways are not your ways and a cross looks like a horrible instrument of peace and comfort. However, the God your soul longs for, to save and commune with you, acts only in this way to remove idleness, violence, and all sin from you that you might live and hear His Word of forgiveness.