Sermon: Third Sunday of Advent, Matthew 11:2-11, December 11, 2022Faith Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

Sermon: Third Sunday of Advent, Matthew 11:2-11, December 11, 2022

Faith Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

When you’re in the heat of the moment of human history, it’s challenging to see with clarity the truth of what is going on all around you. Case in point: the pandemic. It’s not over. Between 200 and 300 people still die each day in this country because of the coronavirus. And yet for most of the population, life seems to be returning to some kind of normal. Still, there are ever evolving variants of the virus that may bring most all of us back to wearing masks again. And the science keeps on changing because the virus keeps changing. This is but one of any of number of examples of contemporary circumstances that make it almost impossible to have clarity about the truth of what is happening.

Hence the famous saying, “hindsight is 20/20.” That is to say, sometimes it takes historical retrospective for us to connect the dots and see the forest for the trees, the big picture, in short, to see reality with accuracy. Such clarity is elusive in the thick of things of the present moment.

This is part of the human condition, and it was part and parcel of Jesus’ day and that of John the Baptist. We have the advantage of the vantage point of some 2000 years of Christian history that results in a greater understanding of Jesus and what he was up to. But the ancient people hearing Jesus preach and teach and watching him perform miracles did not have the wider perspective that we have. You’d think that first hand eye witnesses would have an advantage, but that’s not necessarily the case.

Not even John the Baptist had clarity about Jesus, though you would think of all people, John would have known what Jesus was all about. So even John, while in prison, sent some of his disciples to Jesus with this question: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

Notice in the passage from Matthew that Jesus doesn’t give a direct answer to John’s question. Jesus could have said, “Yep, John, I am the one. Have no doubt about it.” No, Jesus says this in Matthew instead: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: those who are blind receive their sight, those who are lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, those who are deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”

What Jesus is doing here is giving a summary of the acts of his ministry – even raising the dead, for in the 9th chapter of Matthew it is reported that Jesus brought back to life a little girl. In other words, Jesus seems to invite John to draw his own conclusion about Jesus being the Messiah based on his summary report of his ministry.

Jesus concludes his message to John with this punchline: “And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” This is the same state of blessing suggested by Jesus in the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount also in Matthew. And taking no offense literally means happy are they who are not scandalized by Jesus, happy are they for whom Jesus is not a stumbling block.

Taking no offense is in essence the posture of faith, of trust, of belief in and openness to what Jesus was doing in his public ministry. So, we seem to be left with this: while they say that seeing is believing, and that’s true, it’s also perhaps true that quite significantly believing is seeing. Let me say that again: perhaps sometimes believing is seeing – or leads to and makes possible seeing. Sometimes it’s only with the eyes of faith, of trust, of openness that we see clearly what’s going on amidst the confusing craziness of our world and of human history.

Take, for example, the parent or teacher who sees potential in a wayward child that others don’t see, and then with that insight nurtures the child toward great achievements that surprise everyone else. That’s not uncommon. Maybe you yourself have benefited from someone else having faith in you.

This dynamic might apply to the question about Jesus as the Messiah, the promised one. It is the perspective of faith, of trust, of belief that leads to the confession that Jesus is the promised one.

This same logic of believing is seeing may also apply to Jesus’ view that the least in the dominion of heaven are greater even than John the Baptist.

After Jesus sends his message for John, Jesus turns to the crowds to talk about John, concluding basically that John the Baptist was the greatest prophet and indeed the greatest human being that ever lived. “What, then, did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet…. Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the dominion of heaven is greater than he.”

It takes some believing is seeing to unpack that statement about the least being greater than the greatest! From common vantage points, based on the crowds that he drew, John was a great celebrity, full stop. But it takes a different vantage point to see how John’s greatness pales in comparison to the least in the dominion of heaven.

And who are those least ones? They are the very ones to whom and with whom and for whom Jesus ministered, namely the blind, the lame, those with skin diseases, the deaf, the dead and the poor. How can folk such as these be called great?

But from God’s vantage point, they are the great ones. God sees something in the least, the last, and the lost that fallen humans fail to see. God, in other words, is the great parent who sees potential in the least, and in seeing that potential lifts them up to a greater place.

The bad news is that we live in obscurity most of the time, dazed and confused. The good news is that Jesus’ ministry accompanied by the working of the Holy Spirit brings people to faith, to trust, to belief, and seeing and apprehending reality as God sees and understands it. Or as the apostle Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3b) Thanks be to God for the Spirit’s leading and guiding us into all truth, as Jesus promised in John’s Gospel before his departure!

Thus, by our faith, our trust in God’s vantage point, a trust birthed by the interventions of the Spirit, we also come to see the greatness of the least in the dominion of heaven. We, too, come to see the good things happening to them as signs of the messianic age and indications that Jesus is indeed for us the promised one, the Messiah.

By such faith, we come to understand that the weak are powerful, the least are the greatest. By faith we come to apprehend the logic of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:3-5) And on these blessings go to those whom we least expect to be blessed.

It’s a matter of human logic being turned upside down in a way that is only understandable by faith. Again, believing is seeing. Jesus says as much in the doubting Thomas story in John’s Gospel: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:29)

Faith, belief, trust, openness allows us to see things that others do not or cannot apprehend. For example, that God is at God’s most powerful in the humiliation of the cross. And that death and sin are conquered by God having raised Jesus, the crucified one, from the dead.

Also consider the sacraments, for example, and the water of baptism. Some might only see water and a nice human ritual that doesn’t really do anything of transcendent significance. Yet, with the eyes and perspective of faith, baptism is a water bath accompanied by God’s word in the power of the Spirit that cleanses us from sin and makes us God’s children. No ordinary shower can do that!

Or as Martin Luther says of baptism in the Small Catechism: “How can water do such great things? Clearly the water does not do it, but the word of God, which is with and alongside the water, and faith, which trusts this word of God in the water” – that’s what makes baptismal water more transformative than plain water.

Or take the sacrament of the altar. Some might see only bread and wine, but from the vantage point of faith, we see and receive and experience Jesus’ real bodily presence along with the bread and wine. Again, here’s what Luther has to say about this in the Small Catechism: “How can bodily eating and drinking do such a great thing? Eating and drinking certainly do not do it, but rather the words that are recorded: ‘given for you’ and ‘shed for you for the forgiveness of sin.’ These words, when accompanied by the physical eating and drinking, are the essential thing in the sacrament, and whoever believes these very words has what they state, namely, ‘forgiveness of sin.’”

Now let’s consider how believing is seeing transforms our perspectives in our ministry of serving those whom the world sees as the least. From the vantage point of faith and apprehending with God’s perspective, people in our care are not just pathetic recipients of our largess, ones to be pitied. No, they are the stars in the sky of the dominion of heaven, greater even than the greatest, namely, John the Baptist! That puts a whole new perspective on our social ministry doesn’t it? The people we serve become greater than we ourselves. The power structures are completely reversed.

And then we come to see our ministry not just as social service, but as signs of the messianic age, of the coming of the Messiah, and see in the ones with whom we serve the face of Jesus, the face of our Messiah.

Thus it is that from the perspective of faith, the wilderness, deserts and dry lands of our world rejoice and blossom abundantly, as promised in today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah. Thus it is that weak hands are strengthened and feeble knees are made firm and fearful hearts are made strong as Isaiah suggests.

And thus also, so it is that as the letter of James says, we can be patient for the coming of the Lord as farmers wait for the precious crop from the earth, without grumbling, “why hasn’t it all happened yet?” Our trust in the Lord is that which makes for our confident, patient waiting.

In short, believing is seeing makes all the difference for us in our weary world. Faith, trust, openness changes everything in terms of how we view our present realities. That’s truly a cause of rejoicing on this Gaudete Sunday, this Sunday of rejoicing, as we join our voices with Mary in proclaiming the greatness of the Lord in lifting up the lowly! Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.