“Where, Wear, Beware!”
Original sermon given on the Second Sunday in Advent, Sunday, December 7, 2025 written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“Where, Wear, Beware!”
Matthew 3.1-12
In the name of the Living God and the Christ who is coming soon. Amen.
If you’re not familiar with the gospel readings of Advent, when you first come across this guy John, you might feel some combination of confused, scared, or just plain grossed out. If you’ve lived your whole life hearing about him every year, you might expect John to show up but not enjoy him too much. It rather feels like we can’t get to Christmas until we get through crazy ol’ John, bellowing along the Jordan.
John is the Lord Jesus’ cousin, you might recall. He was a miracle baby too. Mary’s relatives, Zachariah and Elizabeth, were old and barren, but before the Angel Gabriel appears unto the virgin Mary, he shows up for them and prophecies the miracle birth of John for them. John would be the forerunner of Jesus. The angel tells them, “And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn [the hearts of people back to God]” (Luke 1.16,17). John’s work would be preparation for the arrival of the Messiah.
In this way, John the Baptizer stands straddling the Old Testament and the New. He’s the last of the Old Testament Prophets and the first of the apostles in a way. And like every other prophet in the Bible, you have to pay close attention to both the “where” and the “wear” — that is, with God’s prophets, it’s never simply random where they’re preaching or what they’re wearing. Their whole lives and actions become living prophetic words that God uses to teach, rebuke, and call back to himself. In some ways, where they’re from, what they wear, and the strange things they do are even more important than the words they say.
Such is the case with the where and the wear of John. He appears in the wilderness of Judea, announcing the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God. Geographically, this was the area down from the Judean plateau where Jerusalem stood, extending to the Jordan River to the east, and the Dead Sea in the south. But typologically (that is, prophetically), “the wilderness” had a deeper, spiritual significance. John is “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him,” a quotation from the prophet Isaiah. Eight centuries before Jesus, Isaiah prophesied about God’s return to deliver his people from their captivity in Babylon. God would come and rescue them from where? From across the wilderness he would come, breaking into their darkness and slavery to free them, restore them, and bring them home. Isaiah’s call for preparation was a call to make ready for the new rule and reign of God — their rescue would come to them from the wilderness.
So that’s the where — John’s in the wilderness, not just because it’s solitary with few distractions, but more importantly because that’s from where God’s redemption arrives. And when God shows up, you better be ready; when you hear him coming, it’s time to get moving.
But then there’s the wear — what is this guy John wearing? He’s got clothes made of camel’s hair with a leather sash around his waist. In the first place, this is rather practical. You can’t imagine him climbing rocks in the wilderness in a three-piece silk suit. He’s wearing an outfit, fit for the rough wilderness, to match his diet found in the wilderness. It’s also a sign of John’s simplicity and humility — what else does he really need, when he’s on a mission from God? He’s got God’s word and truth to sustain him. But most importantly, John’s “wilderness wear” connects him directly to another prophet, the prophet Elijah, who wore such things and ate such things. The Jews believed the prophet Elijah would come first to usher in the reign of the Messiah. Jesus himself would later connect the work of John with the work of Elijah in Matthew 11. John’s dress and diet show his role, like Elijah: the one sent by God to prepare the way.
John’s message is a call to true repentance. Since we’ve got his “where?” and what he “wears,” we also heed his message of “Beware!” If God’s redemption is coming from the wilderness, if the messiah’s rule and reign is at hand, the time of preparation, of repentance, is now. John’s call is for a complete change of heart and mind — a turning away from sin and turning back to God. It is no mere mouth service; no dead, unthinking, unfeeling ritual; no clever claim of ethnicity, or heritage, or worldly power or prestige, but only a “fundamental transformation” of the whole self, reoriented solely upon the will and work of God.
His rebuke of the Pharisees and Sadducees, John’s “Beware!” to them should make us wary too. To produce fruits of repentance means change not just of lip, but of life; not just in appreances, but in disposition. You can’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk, all the way into the wilderness, if necessary. It doesn’t matter who you are, how pious or religious you appear, how educated or influential you might be, the sacrifices acceptable to God “are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart [he] will not despise” (Psalm 51.17).
We look to the “where” and the “wear” of John’s messiah cousin, Jesus, too. Where does Jesus call from? The manger, for he is a king of a different kind. What does he wear? He wears our sin and suffering on the cross as his garments in exchange for us.
This Jesus is coming soon — first as the babe of Bethlehem, to be born in a barn for us. Then as ruler and judge over all things. This morning too he comes, under the humble forms of bread and wine.
He comes to deliver, redeem, renew, forgive. He comes to call us back to himself. He comes to shatter every false god enthroned in our hearts. He comes to purge from us the piles of distractions this time of year, that we might see him clearly, hear him solely, love him truly.
Come soon, Lord Jesus. Amen.
