A Messenger Before The Messenger

Second Sunday in Advent

December 9, 2012

A Messenger Before The Messenger

Malachi 3:1

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus had a relative named John. They came from different backgrounds. John's family was a family with status; his dad Zechariah was a priest, who served at the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus' family was not well off; Jesus' guardian Joseph was a carpenter. Jesus grew up around the villages of rustic Galilee up north; John grew up around the capital city of Jerusalem in the south.

They had different backgrounds, but their ministries both ended in worldly failure and death. And they both were messengers with the same message. John was a messenger for Jesus; Jesus was a messenger for Himself.

“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3)

John cleared the way before Jesus by preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3). A lot of spiritual clutter and theological debris has piled up on the way of salvation between the time of the first promise of Jesus and His arrival in Bethlehem. The biggest road block for John's congregation in the wilderness was the corruption of repentance and sacrifice.

The Lord had established a clear pattern of sacrifices and ceremonies that clearly pointed to Christ. He would be the Sacrifice that would please God forever. These sacrifices of lambs and goats and other animals all required their lifeblood be shed. This continuous blood and sacrifice in the Old Testament was a preaching of Christ's blood and singular sacrifice that was to come on the cross.

But these clear patterns were distorted by the priests and rabbis. They forced their own messages into the Message. Animal sacrifices of the Old Testament that were intended to point to Jesus, were curved back on themselves. These symbols turned into the reality—they became the means of salvation. The promise of the coming Messiah shifted from the Shepherd King who forgives sin based on His own blood to a Warrior King who would lead a rebellion against the oppressive tyrants of the land. The popular image of Jesus shifted from King David the kind shepherd to Judge Samson the incredible hulk.

So the sacrifices of lambs and goats and other animals became the Message. Repentance was being really really sorry and offering your best goat as proof that you were really really sorry. But the people and the priests couldn't even get this small sacrifice right.

“It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ You place defiled food on my altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?” [says the Lord Almighty.] (Malachi 1)

To the unbelievers in the Church of Malachi's day (about 430 years before Jesus and John were born) repentance was at best sacrificing a fine choice animal. At worst it was offering an old diseased goat. The people and the priests of Israel approached God in the same way pagans approach God. Give Him something to tame Him. Noble pagans offer their best. Back then throw in some perfect lambs, gold, perhaps a virgin now and again; today billions of hours and dollars given to charity. And that should be good enough for God.

Cheap pagans give Him leftovers. Noble pagans give their best. But it is all given with the same pagan view of repentance: as a business transaction, a negotiation, a trade.

A different John, John the Evangelist, wrote in the first chapter of his Gospel,

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1)

John was sent to clear away the cluttered belief that repentance was a two-way deal with God. He preached baptism and repentance for the forgiveness of sin. True repentance is rooted in baptism. And what is baptism? The forgiving blood of Christ delivered to sinners by way of water and the Word. Repentance is trusting in the promise of the holy cross, where Christ unilaterally chose to be punished for our sin. He declares:

“The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time… I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31)

This is the message of John about Jesus; this is the message Jesus Himself preached. For the sake of Christ's sacrifice on the cross and through faith created and kept alive through His promises and Sacraments, He remembers our sins no more. We all have different backgrounds from John the Baptist, but his message of his Savior is for us. Our covenant with God that He established is not about negotiation or goats or money. He clears away our clutter and says, “Grace and truth come through Me and Me alone.” All praise to You, eternal Son!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.