+ 3rd Sunday in Advent – December 12th, 2021 +
Series C: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 7:18-35
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
King David. The prophet Isaiah. Zechariah and Elizabeth. John the Baptist. Mary and Joseph. These are the usual Biblical names in Advent. As the Advent season moves on, so too does the story of God’s salvation. God gave each of these memorable names a part to play in fulfilling Christ’s incarnation. In Advent we remember these names, the people and stories that point us to Jesus’ birth to save us.
It’s also good to remember the people in the Biblical story whose names are unknown. Nameless shepherds watching their flocks by night. The unknown owners of the colt Jesus rode into Jerusalem upon. The anonymous thief on the cross who believed in Jesus. Again and again, their stories point us to Jesus’ birth and life and death for us as well.
“Why don’t we know their names?, you might ask. Well, perhaps the gospel writers didn’t know their names either. Though I’m guessing they knew some of them. Perhaps they knew them but didn’t want us to focus more on their names than the name of Jesus, to whom they are pointing us.
Whatever the reason(s), there are blessings in remembering these unnamed biblical figures, whose names are known only by our Lord. Remembering the unnamed and unknown serves as a reminder that God knows even the people unknown and unnamed to us. By his grace, they too, have their God-given parts to play in fulfilling the story of Jesus’ life, birth, and death for us. It’s also a reminder that our Lord did not come only for the big named, celebrity types of the world. Jesus came to rescue the lowly, the forgotten, the unknown, unnamed. The sinner lost.
It’s also true that quit often these unnamed people in the Bible help us find our place in this great story of salvation.
At the center of today’s gospel reading from Luke 7, we find two such people. Unnamed. All we know is that they’re disciples of John the Baptist. Luke doesn’t tell us their names, but rather focuses our attention on the task they’re given by the baptizer. John sends these two disciples to ask Jesus a question. It’s question is every Christian asks at some point in life, and the answer they receive from our Lord is ultimately the only answer any of us ever receive.
“Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
Many have attempted to probe the mind and heart of John in order to parse the question. Did he doubt? He certainly had good reasons. Where was the axe swinging at the root? Where was the winnowing fork sorting the wheat from the chaff? Where was the baptism with holy wind and fire? Did he point to the wrong one? Are you the coming Messiah, Jesus, the Lamb of God, the one so great that I am not worthy to untie your sandals? Or do we look for someone else?
Perhaps John sent his disciples for their benefit. Maybe this was the only way he could point to Jesus now. Send his disciples two by two to Jesus and have Jesus speak for himself. Perhaps John knew that the day was fast approaching when his own head would be served up on a silver platter.
More than likely, it’s a little bit of both. John is a proxy. As the last of the prophets, John asks the question on behalf of all of Old Testament Israel who was watching and waiting. “Are you the coming One?” He asks it on behalf of Malachi and Zechariah and Obadiah. Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses and Elijah and Adam. Are you the One we saw in type? Are you the One who walked with Adam in the cool of the day, whom Moses heard in the burning bush? Are you the Passover Lamb, the Priest, the Prophet, the King, the Servant who suffers for the people?
“Are you the One who is to come or do we look for another?” John asks the question, that at some point, we’ve all asked. We ask it as we look around our country and see people, neighbors, friends, even family members, bitterly divided on everything from the pandemic to politics. We ask it as we sit by a hospital bedside – if we’re even able to be at that bedside – when our loved one is sick or dying. We ask it when we discover that John the Baptist lays the axe to the root of our own guilt, shame, despair, and sin as well. We ask it when we suffer for the sake of confessing Jesus’ name and living as his people. We ask it for our families and friends. We ask it for ourselves.
“Are you the One who is to come or do we look for another?”
In suffering, in our pain, and grief, it is all too easy to think that we too, are unnamed. Unknown. Forgotten.
But you are not. Neither were those disciples. You are known in Jesus. Named in him who bears the name above all names. Jesus. Immanuel. God with us. The list goes on because his love and mercy goes on as well.
“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard,” Jesus replies, “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”
Jesus’ answer points these unnamed messengers to what He is doing. If you want to know who I am, Jesus says, look at what I do. These disciples saw these things (verse 21) for themselves. But John did not. When they returned to John, they only had a report, only a witness, only a word, only a promise.
It does not sound like much - the witness of a couple of unnamed disciples - but it was enough back then, for them. And it still is today. for you.
In the manger of Bethlehem…on the cross in Jerusalem. That is where Jesus answers our question. “Yes! I am the one who has come. There is no other. I am the Word made flesh, born for you. I am the crucified one for you. I am the resurrection and the life for you.
And I am still the one who comes for you. Take, eat; this is my body given for you. Take, drink; this is my blood, shed for you.
And, I am the One who will come again that where I am, you may be also. Let not your hearts be troubled. I am coming soon.”
Amen, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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