“What You Hear and See”
Gaudete, the Third Sunday of Advent - 12/15/2024
Matthew 11:2-11
Rev. Christopher W. Brademeyer
That portion of God’s holy Word for consideration this morning is our Gospel lesson from the eleventh chapter of the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew with special emphasis on verses two through five which read as follows:
“Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers[a] are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
Thus far the Scriptures.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Much has – and can – be made of the Lord’s direction to St. John the Baptist’s disciples. Indeed, many sermons have been preached in many churches about a supposed duty of Christians to go tell what one “see(s) and hear(s)”. While it is true that people will only know the Lord if He is preached to them, to take that away from this text as the central message is to place the emphasis on the wrong syllable, so to speak.
I’m sure you’ve heard sermons like this. The preacher spends his time chastising the congregation to go out and do something. A text like the one before us would be used to cajole Christians into being missionaries or the like. To be sure, many people enjoy hearing preaching like this. But, this is not what the text is about.
It is a sad indictment of our age that we look for our marching orders in a given biblical text. We are coached by popular culture and pop “Christianity” to find ourselves in Scripture. Is this really what Scripture is? A myopic enterprise to enable a sinner’s narcissism? Is this really what we are to take away from a text such as this?
To hear such instruction from this text is to miss the main point. The Lord Jesus does not tell these disciples to go and tell as if such going were the point, instead, we are to look at the object that these men were told to report: the work and words of a particular man, Jesus of Nazareth.
Our Lord’s doctrine – His teaching – is demonstrated through His ministry of miracle-working. What does God think of sinners? What is His disposition toward those who suffer under the oppression of sin, death, and the devil? Well, what do you see? What do you hear? The blind received their sight. The lame were made to walk. Lepers had their flesh restored. The poor hear good news. Even the dead are restored to life. This is what God desires for those He made and who suffer under sin: forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Our Lord is no pretender. No one apart from God Himself has such authority. Which mere mortal can do these things? Which sinful man can with the simple utterance of a word drive away sickness and restore health? Who among the fallen race of man can roll back the tide of death with a single word? The disciples of John seek to know if the Lord is truly the Messiah, but who else could do these things?
Our Lord’s own work of mercy and healing continues even today. In our churches we see miraculous things such as these! By water and the Word, the dead are brought to new life in Baptism. By the Word of God, bread and wine are not simple sustenance, but are the very Body and Blood of Christ. By this same Word, the proclamation of an imperfect and sinful man called to be a pastor truly and completely grants remission of sins as surely as Christ’s own words to the thief on the cross.
Sinners that we are, we will always be tempted to find ourselves in the Scriptures, to find some place where we can insert some work of our own into Christ’s perfect work of salvation. We must resist such temptation. God is God, and He will redeem those whom He has elected.
Even in my relatively short time as a pastor, I’ve had many conversations with people who are concerned about unbelievers. Why do we let false teaching that places its emphasis on us and our doings trouble us so? Christ will draw all men to Himself no matter how many people we tell or how well we do so. We must simply trust Christ to do this, as He has already done for us.
When reading Scripture, instead of looking for yourself, turn your attention to the One Who can truly save, the true object of Scripture: Jesus Christ. He and He alone is able to redeem us from the sorry state we find ourselves. Sin is beyond our capacity to control and we are unable to destroy it. Indeed, such is the totality of our corruption that everything we do or produce is tainted with it. No matter how selfless the act, no matter how righteous the deed, sin corrupts it all. Such is our sinful nature, that we are convinced that we can somehow overcome and transcend sin if we would simply try harder.
It is not us who restores the withered flesh of the leper. We cannot give hearing to the deaf. We cannot make the blind see. We cannot raise the dead. Jesus Christ does these things. He alone has mastery over sin, death, and the devil. He has promised that we too will be raised from the dead and will enjoy life everlasting. We will be free from corruption, decay, disease, infirmity, sickness, sorrow, and sin. By His own death He has won these things for you. And, by his means of grace, He confers these benefits even now on sinful man.
So, dear Christian, take this to heart: the Scriptures give us Jesus, the one who has redeemed you from your sin. He is their object and the object of our faith. Good thing too, for He alone is able to remedy the sinner’s plight. He alone has the power to take sinners and bring them into His own body. He alone grants remission of sin and forgiveness. These things he gives freely to those who trust in Him for their salvation.
In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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