2nd Sunday in Advent (C)
Luke 3:1-14
December 8, 2024
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The text that I have chosen for this morning’s sermon is the Gospel, which was read a few minutes ago.
There are many messages associated with this time of year: Joy to the World, Peace on Earth, Merry Christmas, and my least favorite, Happy Holidays. All these messages or whatever you want to call them have an underlying theme of joy. I know people are bustling about and joy isn’t found everywhere, and I know that there are many of you who are grieving and so there is no Christmas joy. My prayer for you is that the Lord will grant you the peace that only He can and that you can rejoice in the celebration of our Savior’s birth. Overall, the songs and the decorations make the joyous feeling of the Christmas season hard to ignore. So why, in the midst of such joy, do we have our text for today with John the Baptist proclaiming, “Repent”? This doesn’t fit with Christmas! Repentance is a gloomy thing, it’s admitting that you’ve done something wrong, it’s confessing a sin against God or your neighbor. Repentance fits with the season of Lent and Ash Wednesday when we think about how Jesus had to die for our sins, it seems to run counter to everything for which Christmas stands. But the truth is that repentance is just as important in Advent as it is Lent. We have blue paraments, but many congregations still use purple paraments which symbolize a penitential time. And repentance fits this time of year, despite our focus on joy, because Jesus didn’t come to earth just because He wanted to. He didn’t come so that we would worship a baby in a manger; He came to earth to die for our sins. .
John the Baptist preaches a message of true repentance. The word repentance comes from the word which means, “to turn”. So when we repent, we are turning back to God and away from our sin. To repent is to have a change of heart, a change of mind, a change of attitude, and a change of behavior. When we repent, when we have true repentance, when we’re truly prepared for the coming of Jesus,
In ancient days when a king was coming, people would precede him to ensure that the road was smooth and free of anything that would hinder his arrival. In the same way, as the King is coming to us, we prepare His way. Luke writes, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways.’” We drastically remove obstacles as we prepare for His arrival; we turn our back on our sin, we come down from the mountains of our spiritual pride, we straighten out the crookedness of our sinful attitudes and behavior. Jesus is coming as a baby, but He is also coming as the King of the Jews, the Prince of Peace, the Son of God.
True repentance is more than going through the motions, and it’s certainly very different than false repentance. In our text we see two different kinds of repentance. We see the repentance of the people who honestly wanted to know what to do to be saved and we see the false repentance of those who refused to admit or minimized their sinfulness. John says, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.” John calls some of those who came to see him snakes because they didn’t see their need for repentance. They were okay they thought because they were Jews, children of God, the chosen people. But as John the Baptist rightly says, “God could make children out of the rocks” but what He wants is true sorrow over sin. In the same way, by being baptized, we are children of God, we are the heirs who will receive all the promises of God. But we can’t rely on that and live any way that we want! To be a Christian, to be a disciple of Christ, means that we have true contrition, true sorrow over our sins, and a sincere desire to change.
Preparation for the coming Savior entails more than just repentance because we also prepare for Jesus through faith. Repentance never stands alone because it is always combined with faith in Jesus. People can be sorry, and they are all the time, but without faith in Christ, their repentance falls on deaf ears and there is no forgiveness. It’s through faith in Christ that God hears our cries of repentance and our contrition over our sin and then forgives us. Faith is necessary, but it’s not just a historical faith, a faith that says that Jesus lived. Rather, faith is saying that the Jesus lived for me, He came for me, and He died for me.
Jesus came to you and He came to die for you. Repentance and faith lead to the forgiveness of sins because Christmas doesn’t stand on its own, it is combined with Good Friday and Easter. As that great Christmas hymn says, “Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.” You won’t eternally or spiritually die because Jesus has paid the price and you now have a second birth – a birth as a child of God, a birth of faith in which you know that Jesus lived and died for you. This birth is yours through your baptism, when you were washed with the blood of the God-man Jesus and when the Holy Spirit came into your heart and gave you the faith you have. This is miraculous in and of itself. You don’t need to make yourself sorry for your sins and you can’t give yourself faith, rather all this is done for you by God. He has filled your heart with the Holy Spirit and that is why you repent of your sins and turn to God in faith. God has come to you in the baby Jesus and you are prepared to meet Him.
He has not just prepared you for His arrival, but through that same Holy Spirit, you are prepared to do good works and to show the fruits of your faith. John the Baptist says, “Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Strong words from the Baptizer. But it’s true. A tree that produces no fruit is not fulfilling its duty as a fruit tree, and a Christian that doesn’t produce good fruit is not fulfilling their duty as a Christian. The people asked John, “What then shall we do?” What the Baptist tells the people to do isn’t radical, it’s rather simple, love others. To which John replies that they should share with those in need, that they’re not to cheat one another, and that they be content with what they have. Simple commands for people just like us. To bear good fruit is simply to bear the fruit of repentance and faith, to live Christian lives. Those who refuse to bear fruit are cast on the pile to be burned, but those who have a living faith in Christ, you who have a living faith in Christ, will in the words of John the Baptist, “see the salvation of the Lord”, you will see your salvation because Christ has come for you.
Amen
Now the peace which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen