Text: Matthew 3:1-12
In those days, John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 2“Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near!” 3 Yes, this is he of whom this was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.”
4John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him. 6 They were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit in keeping with repentance! 9 Do not think of saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 10 Already the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I baptize you with water for repentance. But the one who comes after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Sermon
Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples give him praise. Amen. (Romans 15:11)
John preached in the Judean wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord. Make his paths straight.”
It would be great to have John here in Racine – where the streets are not straight, where the roads are filled with cracks and holes, and our east/west highways are filled with traffic barrels.
John preached the Old Testament message of Isaiah: “A voice is calling out: In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord. In the wasteland make a level highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be made low. The rugged ground will become level, and the rough places will become a plain” (Isaiah 40:3, 4). The theme of John’s preaching would be the title of our opening hymn, “Prepare the royal highway.”
John and Isaiah’s message to us in Racine and Caledonia is “make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” John wasn’t talking about physical road construction. He was talking about spiritual destruction followed by reconstruction.
Make straight because there are things in your life that are not straight. Something isn’t right. You know it in private … but don’t want everyone to know it in public. Something in your life is twisted, confused, and crooked. Could it be that your home has been broken by an affair, or alcohol, or divorce? Are there cracks and potholes of anger and tension and tiredness in your house? Is your life crooked because you are dealing with all your past dumb mistakes?
We know there is something wrong in our houses. It usually starts with something not being right with us in God’s house. It could be as simple as we aren’t in God’s house very much. Or it could be our lackluster faith, our boredom with God’s Word, or our lack of prayer and devotional life. It would be that we are the opposite of the Palm Sunday crowds welcoming their King on the highway into Jerusalem. There are no waving palm branches, no spreading of garments, and no shouting. There is no excitement in our hymns, no emotion in our prayers, no thoughtfulness in our offerings.
John comes preaching in the wilderness – an uncomfortable place. He wears camel’s hair and a leather belt – uncomfortable clothing. He eats locusts and honey – no matter how much climate alarmists want us to add bugs to our diet – that is an uncomfortable food group – even worse than vegetables.
We need to be made uncomfortable because we often become comfortable with our sins. We may become used to the impatience while we drive, the vitriol while on social media, the anger in our hearts, the gossip on our lips, the lack of love in our lives, that we don’t even notice these as sins anymore.
John comes along preaching in the wilderness a message of “Repent! The kingdom of heaven is near!” That message should make us uncomfortable.
Repent means to turn around. Reverse course and make a straight path back to Christ. Empty the skeletons out of your closet. Censure your excuses. Revile your desires. Shine a light into your darkness. Strip always all your phoniness and pretense. Quit pretending everything is fine. Because it’s not. That’s only a mirage in the wilderness. It’s a wilderness of dried-up old sins out there in the world. But it’s also a wilderness in here in our hearts.
Repent means to turn around, return to the Lord, and let Christ take over.
In repentance we die to our old way of life and are raised to a new life in Christ. St. Paul said, “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer” (Romans 6:2)?
Repenting in the biblical sense is more than having a change of heart or guilt after being caught. It’s more than a New Year’s resolution to do better. Repentance is turning away and turning back. It’s turning away from Satan’s lies and turning to God’s truth; turning away from darkness and returning to the light; turning away from what leads to the kingdom of hell and turn into the direction of the kingdom of heaven.
Repenting is leveling everything to make a royal highway for the Lord to enter your life and set up his throne in your heart.
You know you aren’t well. You feel tired, lethargic, lazy. You finally suck it up and go to the doctor. She tells you to lose 40 pounds, exercise daily, eat healthy, and get eight hours of sleep each night.
You would like surgery or a pill or … something else … anything else. Nope. She tells you to change your life.
John says the same thing to you today – Repent! That’s your prescription. No pill. No surgery. Nothing quick or easy. Repentance is long, hard work. You don’t like to hear John’s message. None of us do. It means changing our life, our diet, our sleep, our exercise, our daily routine. It means confronting our sins, asking for forgiveness, living in Christ’s forgiveness. It means prayer, reading God’s Word, and gathering with God’s people around Word and Sacrament.
All the sins that John the Baptizer has laid bare – all those filthy, ugly, shameful, damning sins – what are you going to do with them? All those sins that John has exposed that are ruining your physical and spiritual health. What are you going to do with them? Repent of them!
Repent and return to the Lord who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in mercy (Psalm 145:8).
Repent and believe the good news (Mark 1:15).
Repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, then times of refreshing may come from the Lord (Acts 3:19).
Repent and the Lord will relent and not bring on you the judgment you deserve (Jeremiah 31:19).
Repent for the Lord does not seek your death but your life.
Repent for the grace of God is greater than the trespass of people.
Repent and turn around for the Father is waiting to welcome home his prodigal sons and daughters.
Repent and return so the angels in heaven may throw a party.
Repent for the Lord has redeemed you, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won you to be his own, destined to live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness.
Repent and the Lord will retore you so you may serve him (Jeremiah 15:19).
Repent and produce the fruits of faith in keeping with repentance.
All this talk of repentance makes us uncomfortable. Good! God’s Son became uncomfortable as a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in a feeding trough for cattle. The smooth, well-worn wood of the manger was replaced with the rough, well-used wood of the cross. The Father’s only begotten Son received his Father’s wrath so that we might be saved from the fires of Judgment Day. The song of the angels singing, “Glory to God in the highest” was replaced by the angry mob shouting, “Crucify him!” His mother’s milk was replaced with vinegar. His swaddling clothes were stripped away so he hung naked on the cross. He poured out his lifeblood on the altar of the cross to make us holy and able to walk on God’s holy ground in approaching his judgment throne.
Jesus brings the Kingdom of heaven near.
This world often feels like the spiritual wilderness. It is a dry, arid place. When you are in the wilderness you need water. By the grace of God, the Lord provides that water … in Baptism. With your repentance, John would immediately point to the water of Baptism. After all, he was John the Baptizer. St. Peter would add that with repentance comes the refreshing waters of Baptism (Acts 2:38). Within those refreshing waters you receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
You feel refreshed after you jump in the shower and feel the hot water wash all the filth and stress away after a hard day’s work. Every time you repent, your Baptismal waters wash over you again, cleansing you, washing you, refreshing you. The dryness of your sin and the hardness of your heart are soaked in your baptismal waters. And it doesn’t matter how long ago your Baptism was – if it was 90 years ago or just this morning. You come to the waters of life and begin to live. No longer hiding; no longer pretending – but living in the reality of sins forgiven.
John would remind you that you are privileged to have received the greater Baptism from the greater One. You have been baptized into the death of Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. Having been baptized, you are clothed with Jesus, with his seamless robe of righteousness. Not the camel hair of the wilderness, but a garment of perfection that covers all your sin and shame and wraps you in wedding clothes for an endless wedding party of the Lamb in his kingdom.
Your wilderness food is not locusts and wild honey, but living Bread that is Christ’s body. Wine from heaven is your drink for it is the lifeblood of Christ. Just as manna kept the Israelites until the day they stepped foot in the promised land of Canaan, so Jesus’ Body and Blood are your Manna from Heaven, keeping you until the day you set foot in the Promised Land of resurrection and life.
You are called out of the wilderness of this world into the presence of God in the garden when the worship service begins. You may hear the voice of your pastor, but they are the words and power of Christ. You repent of your sins. The voice of Christ announces his forgiveness purchased on Calvary’s cross. He refreshes you through his Word read at the lectern, through his Psalms and hymns sung in the pews, through his body and blood received at the altar. We are in the presence of God, as we are given a foretaste of Paradise.
Listen to John. He’s on the road crew. He’s manning the bulldozer here in Caledonia, in Racine, and in your life. Listen to him as he lays bare your sins. Make the path straight for Jesus to come with his grace, mercy, and forgiveness. His Kingdom of heaven is near. Prepare the royal highway. Amen.
Now may the God of hope fill you with complete joy and peace as you continue to believe, so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (Romans 15:13)