Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, while the rest of secular society is caught up in the frantic rush of shopping, parties, and other distractions – enable Your Church to take pause to contemplate the wonder of Your undeserved mercy and love in Jesus Christ and rejoice now and forever. AMEN

The November Issue of the Lutheran Witness provides some startling statistics about the affluence of the unhappy people in America.

1. American controls 20% of the world’s wealth and makes up less than 5% of the population.
2. Every seven seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age five dies of hunger, while American’s throw away 14% of their food.
3. More than half the world lives on less than two dollars a day while the average American teenager spends nearly $150 dollars a week.
4. We spend more on trash bags than the world does on all its goods.

Yet people feel cheated. These are tough times. Forget joy.

Let’s be even more specific and personal. Man pursues joy in every avenue imaginable. Here are some examples to describe where joy cannot be found:

Not in Unbelief -- Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: "I wish I had never been born."

Not in Pleasure -- Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure. He wrote: "The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone."

Not in Money -- Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of money. When dying, he said: "I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth."

Not in Position and Fame -- Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: "Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age regret."  Six weeks before Elvis Presley died, a reporter asked, "Elvis, when you first started playing music, you said you wanted to be rich, famous and happy. Are you happy?" "I'm lonely as hell" he replied.

Not in Military Glory -- Alexander the Great conquered the known world. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, "There are no more worlds to conquer."

Where then is real joy found? -- The answer is in Jesus Christ alone.
John the Baptist is practiced in the discipline of Advent like no other: confession, repentance, fervent prayer, immersion in Scripture, fasting, and a Spartan life in the desert.

Our question this Sunday: Did John the Baptist rejoice in the answer of Jesus to his question:  “Are You the Coming One or should we wait for another?”
The Old Testament text from the Minor Prophet – Zephaniah says “Rejoice. O Daughter of Israel”. It is a summons to rejoice in the covenant God as King in whom majesty and mercy are united.

• The text speaks directly to John in his prison cell, ‘Be glad and rejoice with all your heart…the Lord has taken away your punishment. I will deal with all who oppressed you”. John was familiar with the words of Zephaniah. However, did he doubt that Jesus was the Messiah or rejoice in the answer of Jesus?

Saint Paul in the Epistle makes it no easier with imperatives to always rejoice.

• He exhorts us to let gentle forbearance be evident to all including our enemies, not be anxious about anything especially in the face of suffering, and let prayer and thanksgiving lead us to the peace of God.

• The wearing of black and a long face, which typify expressions of piety, are totally foreign to Saint Paul. Paul the theologian of grace is equally the theologian of joy.

• Obviously by the life of Paul – a frequent prisoner - and the imprisonment of John = Christian joy does not come and go with our circumstances. Joy is an abiding quality of life.

• John went from imprisonment to a bloody end of beheading.  Did he go to his end in joy, prayer, thanksgiving, and peace? Our Lord Jesus provides the answer.

The first part of the answer is found at the Baptism of our Lord.

• John is the voice of Old Testament prophecy and therefore completely reliable. He is in full agreement with the teaching of Christ in refusing to accommodate any person who believes salvation is through blood heritage to Abraham, a covenant of obedience, or good works.

• His message is clear –repent, confess your sins, and produce fruit worthy of repentance.

• He proclaims a Jesus so superior and mighty that he is not worthy to carry His sandals

• Note that Jesus comes to John in humility as opposed to power and status. This is the Christmas story: God coming to us! In light of his own preaching, John says incredulously: “I myself have need to be baptized by you, and you yourself are coming to me? (Matt 3:14) Jesus replies, ‘Allow it at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. (3:15).

• The fact that Jesus needs to say “Allow it at this time” to persuade John to baptize him indicates that John does not understand how the Coming One will manifest the reign of heaven.
  • John the Baptist desired to see the Coming One as the exalted Lord and Judge.
  • In Jesus words to allow His baptism or in the King James “suffer it”, indicates that His baptism is a concession, an allowance due to His state of humiliation; the sinless Son of God receives the baptism meant for sinners because he is our sin bearer.
  • His baptism is necessary preparation as the humble Son of Man and obedient Son of God
  • Preparation includes the baptism of John by water, the baptism of our Lord by water and the Holy Spirit, the bloody baptism of his crucifixion, all which prepare the way for our Christian baptism by water and the Word.

• Jesus baptism is not exemplary but vicarious for sinners like you and me, pointing forward to His suffering and death in our place.

• His baptism in the dirty waters of the Jordan anticipates His death and resurrection much like the anticipation of Advent to his coming birth.

In our Gospel, The question of John and the answer of Jesus again speak to the identity of the Messiah.

• John sends two witnesses to Jesus and Jesus provides two witnesses – His miracles and teaching prove that He is the Messiah.

• Jesus tells the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and good news is preached to the poor.” Then He adds, “Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at Me”.

• Jesus returns to His citation of Isaiah in His Nazareth Sermon. He cuts off in mid-verse statements dealing with the day of vengeance of our God.
  • By citing verses in this abbreviated way Jesus says something profound to John the Baptist.
  • He omits the very aspects most expected from the Messiah – wrath and executed vengeance - upon those considered enemies of God.
  • Instead, Jesus comes as a Messiah of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
  • His ministry is not to execute judgment but to absorb the wrath and judgment of God on the cross in our stead.

• Both John and Jesus are rejected. Rejection is fundamental to their ministry because we in our sin are enemies of the Gospel.

• John probably realized that his end would be death, but struggles to reconcile his fate with the promise of the Messiah to release those in bondage.

• Jesus resolves his struggle in the answer of the cross where He alone will bear the curse and vengeance of God. There is no Gospel if He had come to judge because no one is worthy to stand before Him. He alone is the Lamb of God.

Jesus answer ends with the Parable of Brats.

• “Therefore to whom shall I compare this generation. And to whom are they like? They are like the children in the marketplace, sitting and calling one another, who say, “We played the flute for you and you did not dance, we sang the dirge for you and you did not mourn”. For John the Baptist has come not eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, “He has a demon”. The Son of Man comes eating and drinking, and you say, “Behold a man, a glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. And Wisdom is acknowledged as just from all her children.”

• Basically, neither the fundamentalism of John nor the unhampered attitude of Jesus satisfies people who insist on their own way.

The accusation of glutton and drunkard used by Jesus is rooted in Deuteronomy 21 which administers death by stoning for such a rebellious son.

• His reference to a friend of tax collectors and sinners speaks to the same Deuteronomy text and involves crucifixion. “And if a man has a crime punishable by death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God”. (Deuteronomy 21: 22-23)

• Paul quotes this verse in Galatians 3:13 as explicit reference to the crucifixion as a demonstration of the curse of God upon Jesus. Hence Jesus answer to John is surprising but true; as a friend of tax collectors and sinners he will suffer and die by crucifixion at the hands of the religious establishment.

John has his answer. Did he rejoice in prayer and thanksgiving?

• We know his ministry was divinely ordained, he fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah, he announces that sinners must repent to be saved, he baptizes our Lord with water, He hears the words of God the Father – “This one is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”, he knew that only God could send the Holy Spirit, and two of his followers “Andrew and John become Apostles of Christ.

• John learns that the work of Christ ushering in the last days defies all human expectation.

• • Instead of exalted Lord and judge, John finds a humble servant and obedient Son.
  • Suffering and death are the means of partnership they share in fulfilling all righteousness.
  • The baptism of the cross is the divine plan of salvation and how Jesus as the Coming one will save His people from their sins.

Romans 15:13 defines the source of joy as faith and the object of joy as God Himself. The text reads: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Two examples follow: (1) for those who hear the answer of Christ and have joy and (2) those who insist upon their own way and reject the answer.

During the Second World War, a father holds his small son by the hand, runs from a building just struck by a bomb. In the front yard was a shell hole. Seeking shelter, the father jumped from a roof into the hole and held up his hands for the boy to follow. Terrified, yet hearing his father’s voice telling him to jump, the boy replied, “I can not see you! The father, looking up at a sky tinted red by burning buildings called to the silhouette of his son, “But I can see you, jump!” The boy jumped, because he trusted his father.  Joy is associated with life. Faith enables us to face life or meet death, not because we can see, but with the true certainty that we are seen; not that we know all the answers, but we are known by God.

It is April 1988. The evening news reports that a photographer jumped from a plane along with numerous sky divers shown on the telecast. As the final sky diver opens his chute the picture becomes blurred and erratic. The announcer reports that the camera man had fallen to his death having jumped out of a plane without a parachute. Imagine reaching for the rip cord and realizing he was in death certain freefall. Until that point, the jump like most in life probably seemed exciting and fun. Experiences in sorrow prepare us for and enlarge our capacity for joy when we trust in the Lord. But in this case, tragically the man acts with thoughtless haste and deadly foolishness. Nothing could save him for his faith was in a parachute never buckled on. Faith in anything but an all sufficient Savior is just as tragic. Only with faith in Christ dare we step into the excitement of life.

Our Epistle is properly from the Captivity Letter of Philippians. Paul like John is beaten and imprisoned. He knows not only conflict but also joy in the midst of conflict and suffering.

• For Paul and John, faith is a living, resolute, total confidence in the grace of God, a trust so certain that they are willing to die a thousand deaths for it.
  • That trust enabled the imprisoned apostle to write to a persecuted church in his keynote address: “I rejoice and you too rejoice in the Lord always.”
  • That trust caused John to send His followers from prison to find the Christ

Did John doubt? Perhaps for a time, but most likely not after the answer of Jesus. He knew Jesus was the Coming One.

• He goes to his death in the subordinate role assigned to him by God.

• He is more than content. The Gospel of John tells us …”he rejoices as the bridegroom’s friend rejoices in the bridegroom’s joy”.

• Jesus declared him the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy who heralds the advent of the kingdom.

• John goes to his death knowing that the ‘Lord is not slow in keeping His promises, as some understand slowness. He is a patient God, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2Peter 3:9).

• John learns that grace and mercy precede judgment from a loving God and that is our JOY.

Dear friends, in Christ we will not get everything we want, but we will get everything we need.

As we close, listen carefully to these words Excerpted and adapted from Luther in 1518 in explanation of the 37th of his 85 Theses:

“May our joy this Christmas be the confidence and joy of conscience found by Saint Paul and John the Baptist in the answer of our Lord; that through faith our sins become, not ours, but Christ’s, upon whom God laid the sins of us all and bore our sins (Isaiah 53:6). He is the Lamb of God which bears the sins of the world (John 1:29). All the righteousness of Christ in turn, becomes ours. For he places His hand upon us and it is well with us; He, the savior, blessed forever, spreads His garment and covers us with His grace. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say again; rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)” AMEN.

PRAYER