How to Meet Jesus: Meditations on Matthew 3

St. John the Baptist is introduced in his prophetic ministry, as one who called everyone to “repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”  I’m not sure how many preachers these days start their ministries this way, but my guess would be that it’s fairly few.  How many congregational “call committees” are out hunting for a pastor who looks or sounds anything like John the Baptist?  Truth be told, most of us would much rather be told anything other than what God actually sends His preachers and prophets to say.  When the world finally gets tired enough of folks like John the Baptist, they put their heads on platters.

But take a moment to reflect on how you would react, if a scruffy looking fellow, devoid of any finery or pretension, walked into your local congregation, and called everyone to repentance, because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  How would you react?  Would you be frustrated, or angry, that someone had the audacity to command you to change your life?  That’s what repentance is, after all—a turning away from evil, and toward God.  That scruffy, intense, poorly dressed preacher with bugs in his teeth (remember, John ate locusts and wild honey…) who looks you in the eye, and issues you the divine warning that you must turn from your evil because God is near, probably makes you really uncomfortable.  In fact, you might get really angry at the nerve of this guy.  He’s telling you to leave your self-idolatry behind; to stop lusting after your neighbor; to stop wasting your wealth while others go hungry; to stop ogling the bikini barista; to stop following false teachers; to stop loving yourself above all things, and rather love God and your neighbor instead.  He pierces through all your fine clothes, your pomp, your pretentions of well being, and warns you that God knows your heart.

This fiery, unashamed preacher of repentance, warns you that while you may think you can fool the guy next to you into thinking you’re a holy and decent fella, God knows every seedy thought that perverts your heart.  He knows the dreams you keep secret from your wife and kids.  He knows the plots you burry deep, away from the eyes of your parents and friends.  He knows exactly how corrupt and selfish you are, how fearful you are to lose the idols you cling to, and how addicted you are to personal pleasure and satisfaction.  He knows… He sees… and He’s coming.  There’s no safe pew for you to hide in, no bible study group or service organization that’s going to save you from His all knowing gaze.  Go ahead, straighten your tie, adjust your skirt, and primp your hair—it means nothing to the God who knows you inside and out.  That boorish preacher, with all his audacity and lack of pretense, shatters your delusional world, and brings you face to face with the reality that God—the only true God—is coming, and you have nowhere to hide.

I don’t think most people think this deeply about what St. John the Baptist’s call to repentance really means—they either ignore it, soften it, or let it slide on by.  I know I usually do.  Since it is given to us for our readings this week, however, we must discipline ourselves to hear this Word of the Lord, and spend some time inwardly digesting it.  While that dirty little sinner in you and I would love to ignore a call to repentance and focus only upon cheap grace that demands nothing of us, we must hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Jesus does come to seek and to save the lost, but He also comes with unquenchable fire to thoroughly purge out His threshing floor.  This is the practical reality of His coming, which is an encounter with a real God and King.  There used to be an old adage that people would keep their house in good shape in case the President of the United States stopped in for dinner.  But how much more ought we to prepare our house—our body and spirit—for the Advent of our Lord?  Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, Governors, all come and go, but there is only One Eternal and True God who remains forever.  No one changes His Law, or revokes His Word.  God alone is Holy, and He insists that all in fellowship with Him be holy, pure, and righteous as well.  Jesus is coming, but He’s not just coming for a political stump speech; He is coming to judge the living and the dead, and His Kingdom has no end.  When He renders a verdict, it is irrevocable, with none to spare you from His Word.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but His Word will never pass away.

So perhaps, with that perspective, we can hear St. John the Baptist’s cries for repentance for what they are—an urgent plea for mercy.  John no more wants you to burn at the coming of Jesus, than Jesus wants to burn you.  The problem is, that you and I, in our evil and twisted state, love our wicked selves more than we love our righteous and holy God.  We love debauchery and gluttony, lewdness and spite, vengeance and violence, oppression and domination, more than we love God… otherwise, we wouldn’t do those things, or revel in them every time we turn on the TV, cruise the internet, watch movies or play video games.  If we really loved God above all things, and our neighbors as ourselves, we would act like it.  All the time.  Waking and sleeping.  But we don’t, and truth be told, somewhere down deep in us, we don’t want to.

St. John the Baptist’s call for repentance is a call to the world for mercy.  He knows, that everyone who loves their sin more than God, will be given the wages of their sin, which is death.  He knows the fire and the judgment to come, and carries a Word from the Lord, that God does not desire the death of anyone, not even the wicked… not even you and me.  And St. John the Baptist knows that on your own power, you are too weak to turn from your sins, to withdraw yourself from the wickedness that is your undoing.  John knows what God has known all along—repentance comes as a fruit of faith.

You see, for you and I to turn from our sins and truly repent, to be sorrowful for our wickedness and seek to amend our lives, we must have something given to us that we do not have.  We must hear the other great sermon that St. John the Baptist gives, which is “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  Here the heart is enlivened by the Holy Spirit working through the Word, His Law convicting our conscience of sin, and His Gospel giving us hope and trust in the One who has come to deliver us from our sins.  As we hear the Word of the Lord, that Jesus has given His life as a ransom for all who will believe in Him, so that His death becomes our death, and His life becomes our life, we are born again from above by the almighty power of His Spirit working through His Word.  No longer are we just condemned sinners awaiting a tortuous and just fate, but we are saints whose sins have been washed away by the Blood of the Lamb.  We may be sinners in need of mercy, but we are most wondrously sinners who have obtained mercy!  We have been given life, and peace, and hope, all because of the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Now that we have been given the love of God in Christ Jesus, we have a love to give back to God and our neighbor.  Free from the curse of sin and its consequence, we are free to live in Jesus and for Jesus, who is our eternal life and blessing.  Now that we live by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we are both empowered and impelled by the Holy Spirit to turn from a life of sin and evil, and toward the God who saves us.  How is it that we prepare to meet our coming King?  We hear His Word, and we keep it.  We hear His Word of Grace and Gospel that tells us our sins are forgiven, and we are freely adopted as His children forever.  And we hear His Law, that continues to call us to drown that old sinful nature so deep down within us, and rise up in our Baptism to a new and holy life.  We live by faith, which casts off the dark shroud of our evil nature, and clings to the blessed light of His eternal grace.  We live to meet our King and Savior, in both Faith and Repentance.

And so, if you are so blessed as to receive a visit from one who comes to you in the spirit of St. John the Baptist, who shakes you from your deadly complacency in your faithless sin, and calls you to repentance and faith in the Son of God, give thanks—for the King of Glory is coming, and He desires that you should meet Him well, clothed in the Blood of the Lamb, with a faith that is ever turning from evil and toward His marvelous light.  Give thanks for God’s gift of the two greatest sermons ever preached by a mere man:

Repent!  For the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!

Behold!  The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!

Amen.