“Dear John”
Original sermon given on December 15, 2024, written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“Dear John”Luke 3.7-18
Luke 3.7-18
In the name of the Living God and his risen Christ. Amen.
The beginning couple of chapters in Luke’s gospel are beautiful! We get the wondrous accounts of miraculous births, appearances of angels, and prophecies fulfilled. We hear salvation songs such as Mary’s Magnificat, Zachariah’s Benedictus, the angels’ Gloria, and the aged Simeon singing that he can now depart in peace, having held in his arms the promised Messiah.
But then here in Luke chapter 3, the camel-haired John the Baptizer shows up and kind of ruins the mood. He starts out okay, his voice crying out from the wilderness: “Prepare the Way of the Lord!” But what he means by that has the potential to rather ruin your Christmas: making the crooked straight is a call to change, to repentance.
The first words he preaches tell you what his sermon’s all about: “You brood of vipers!” Yikes! I haven’t tried that as an intro in any of my sermons… yet. “Snake Offspring” is the original. And John questions their sincerity for even being there in the first place: “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Luke 3.7)
Yep, there’s no way around it: John lays into them and into us, especially calling out religious hypocrisy. When he says, “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3.8), he means don’t just “talk the talk” but also “walk the walk” … on Christ’s paths. Repentance, from this prophet’s reckoning, does not equal going through the motions. It is no dead ritual nor mere mouth service. It is a real change in heart and mind and action.
Nor does John allow us to lay claim to any earthly identity to get us through the “wrath that is to come.” For them, along the Jordan River in Judea, it was an ethnic or cultural or genetic claim which they presumed would get them through: “We have Abraham as our father. We’re the chosen people. We’ve got the history and legacy here!”
But John will have none of it. God can “raise up Children of Abraham” from dead, cold stones. That is, it ain’t hard to just give lip service or to happen to have the right genes. Rather, John’s call of preparation for the coming Messiah is a call to change, to the deepest introspection, the closest examination, the hardest work of repentance.
All this strikes pretty hard at me — at least the Old Adam in me who doesn’t want to hear it. Sometimes, we might feel that we have to kind of break up with John the Baptist, so to speak! You know, maybe write him a tactful “Dear John” letter:
Dear John,
We have to talk. I mean, it’s not you, it’s me. Maybe we could take a break for a while, you know, get past all the fun of Christmas and then we can reexamine our relationship in the New Year. Or maybe we can try and just be friends for a while? I mean, you’re an interesting person — lots of conviction, funny diet, and a little rough around the edges — camel’s hair and all. Maybe we could work through all this, but it’s not working for me right now. I guess this is all to say that “I’m not all in” at this point. Thanks for the great hymns and all. I’ll text you in the new year, and maybe we can grab coffee or something — you take yours with locusts and wild honey, right?”
The point is, that we can’t “break up with John.” We need to be “all in” with his call of repentance. We can’t get to the baby Jesus until we get through John the Baptizer and his call to live lives of honestly, charity, purity, integrity, and contentment.
When the crowds go “all in” with John, they ask him what they should do, John responds with simplicity and specificity. Do the right thing, even if it’s hard — even if it costs you. Use God’s word, not this world’s crooked ways to guide your life. John’s exhortation is to live the life of a Christian in the various callings into which God has placed you — the roles, relationships, and responsibilities given.
John’s sermon concludes with quite the dramatic flourish, doesn’t it? He speaks of Christ holding a “winnowing fork” — a rake-like tool used to separate chaff from wheat. John warns of unquenchable fire — a reference to the all-consuming furnace where the chaff is burned. I have to say, I have always found it awkward saying “This is the gospel of the Lord” after reading this lesson. “Praise to you O Christ” sort of sticks in the throat afterwards. This is the gospel, the “good news” of the Lord?
Well, yes, it is. First in the broad sense that all of God’s word is “good news” — both the Law and the Gospel, to use Lutheran terminology. Calling out sin, calling us back to God, back to his word, calling us to his right paths, though convicting, is good news in the broadest sense. It is good news because it’s true.
It is also good news because if the Lord is calling us out, it means that he hasn’t abandoned us yet in our sin. He’s still seeking us, urging us, drawing us, pleading with us to hear his voice. It’s not God’s call to return to him that should scare us the most. It’s when he stops calling altogether that we should be terrified.
The call to repentance is also good news for us because our Lord knows that all the crooked ways which we wander are not helpful for us — these are the false gods which will only disappoint us and will ultimately destroy us. What loving Father wouldn’t call the children he loves away from danger?
Finally, John the Baptizer’s harsh words are good news because they ultimately point us to Christ and his work. John convicts us, cuts us down, lays the axe of the Law hard at the root of the tree in order to prepare us to receive the gospel of Christ.
This gospel is that Jesus, the Christ Child, was “all in” on us. He came to save sinners — precisely the unrighteous, the unholy, those wandering down crooked ways. John’s convicting words are a like a mirror which shows us who we truly are, so that we might know who Christ truly is — God with us to save us from our sins.
This Jesus was so “all in” on us that he would be born into our human flesh, live a perfect life for us, die a horrible death for us, and rise again on the third day because not even the grave could keep him from us. Our salvation — the gift of heaven — is assured because (and only because) he gives us his righteous life as a gift, through faith in his name. This truly the best “good news.”
Jesus is “all in” on us this morning too. He gives himself again for us — his very body and blood in this sacred fellowship meal. Here, this morning, all is exposed. Every thought and deed and disposition laid bare before him. Every sinful root torn up, yet he pours into us his lifeblood, won for us on the cross.
“Dear John… thanks for pointing me to Jesus. Help me pray, with the church of all time, ‘Come soon, Lord Jesus.’”
Amen.