What did you go out to see? A Meditation on Luke 7, for the 3rd Sunday in Advent

And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken

the men of this generation? and to what are they like?

They are like unto children sitting in the

marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying,

We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have

mourned to you, and ye have not wept.  For John the

Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye

say, He hath a devil.  The Son of man is come eating

and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a

winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!  

But wisdom is justified of all her children.

A brief survey of what we entertain ourselves with, shows us to be a strange assortment of folks.  From our music to our movies, our games to our hobbies, there’s an endless variety of things we enjoy going out to see.  We post the things we enjoy or stimulate us on social media, and we send each other a dizzying array of communications from various sources—it’s just part of our technologically interconnected lives together.  Often people don’t need to go anywhere to see almost anything, or to communicate with almost anyone.  From the small glowing window on our cell phone, to the larger glowing windows of our monitors and televisions, we can see things in almost every corner of the globe.  But the question Jesus asks of the people around Him regarding John the Baptist (and indirectly about Himself) still applies to us:  What did you go out to see?

Whether we go out in person, or we go out through an electronic portal, we go out to see a great many things.  We see things that are noble, and things that are disgusting—things beautiful and things ugly.  But when we go out to see Jesus, His Prophets and His Apostles, just what exactly are we going out to see?

The question rings in our ears, because we bring a lot of baggage to the quest to see Jesus.  In our sinful pride, there are some who want to see Jesus as a supporter of all our personal goals and ambitions; as our cosmic concierge; as a voice of sympathy for our self inflicted stupidity; as our source of power to accomplish our designs; as our absolution for our unrepentant wickedness.  This wide array of desires people have when they seek Jesus often betray self centered idolatry which lies so deeply in our hearts, and which seeks to bend all things around us to our service.  Of course, those who don’t think they need Jesus, or don’t think he’ll support them in their selfishness, only go out to mock and deride Him, some going so far as to slander Him or deny that He ever existed.  The sin inside ourselves which prompts us to seek or abandon Jesus isn’t what prompts us to know Him rightly—it is the motivation of a sinful heart to enslave Jesus to our desires, or to disregard Him for the pursuits of our own corrupted liberty.

Recognizing this, many theologians over the centuries have observed the Biblical witness that no one actually seeks God rightly on the basis of their own personal piety.  Fallen mankind doesn’t seek God out of faith, because the fallen nature doesn’t really trust God—somewhere way down deep, the sin which infests us cries out against us, and the Law of God which is also written on our hearts speaks out our condemnation.  The sinner doesn’t seek the true God in his sin, because he knows that the true God is his inescapable Judge.  Therefore the sinner, of his own evil resources, seeks out gods who will approve of his sin, distorts or curses the true God, and finds for himself only the company of demons and other wickedly self-absorbed men.  They pipe for God to dance with them, and then ridicule Him when He doesn’t prance to their tunes.  They call for God to mourn with them, and then scorn Him for not placating them while they suffer in the wages of their evil.  The sinner doesn’t seek the true God, because the true God does abide their delusional claims to self divinity.

Fortunately for us, God does not leave our salvation hanging on our ability to seek Him.  Instead, He sends His Prophets and Apostles in the power of His Holy Spirit to bear His Word to us, and ultimately sends His Word Incarnate to seek and to save lost sinners by bearing the weight of our sin upon Himself.  Knowing that we cannot in our wickedness seek God for our life and our redemption, God sends His Only Begotten Son to be our salvation, and to gather unto Himself all who will repent and believe His blessed Gospel.  Yet such a Word of salvation can be fierce and unsettling to sinners lost in their own prideful debauchery.  It will reach unbidden into their darkness, shining the light of truth which dispels all their self justifications.  That Law which annoyingly gnawed on them through their conscience, is now refined into a hammer which shatters every pretension.  Without the cover of dark delusion and the distraction of prideful pretense, the sinner is brought naked and broken before the Judgment Seat of Almighty God—a place in which only deep sorrow for one’s own sin, and complete despair of one’s own works, may abide.  It is not a gentle or kindly place, but it is the necessary place where true conversion begins:  where we are met by Jesus, finally seeing rightly who we are and who He is reflected in the brilliant but deadly mirror of His Law.

But it is here, in this place of broken contrition, of despair for our own ability to save ourselves or those around us, that we are finally met by the awesome and incalculable love of that same true God.  When every false hope is finally stripped away, Jesus holds out the one hope which will never fail, and will never fade:  that by His Cross He has paid your debt of sin, by His dying He has shattered your death, and by His resurrection He secured your life forever.  This gift of grace is not of your doing, not of your seeking, not of your imagination, but it is of His immutable work of love to seek and to save you.

What we go out to see in the world is often just a reflection of our own inner darkness, but what God comes to bring to us is a reflection of His own most marvelous light.  And to you, who have been sought by God, who have heard His Word of Law strip you bear and His Word of Gospel clothe you in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who live by grace through faith in Christ alone, you are a child of His eternal wisdom, justified by His eternal love and mercy.  Do not be surprised that the world misunderstands you and your saving Lord, or that they seek from God all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons.  That same Word which came to you and called you to life by His Holy Spirit, comes to the whole world, and is reflected through you into the darkness all around you.  That same Word which enlivens and enlightens you to faith in Jesus Christ, seeks to enliven and enlighten every soul which will repent and believe the Gospel.  Yours is not to save the world, for you know already that you could not even save yourself.  Yours is to trust in the God who alone saves, and whose love alone is powerful enough to seek and to save the whole world through that same Eternal Word which saves you.  To Him alone be honor and praise and glory, now and forever.  Amen.