As we come to confess our sins on
this third Sunday of Advent, I’d like us to think about some words from our
Gospel reading today where it says about John the Baptist: This is the
testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not
the Christ.”
One of the wonderful things that
we believe as Christians is that Jesus Christ is our Lord, that he is the Son
of God, and that he is truly God himself, and that he is given as Lord over all
things to the church. Every time we gather as a church together, Jesus promises
to be here. He says: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the
midst of them.
John the Baptist, in our reading,
knows that we are not Jesus. But what about us? Do we think we are Jesus? Do we
elevate ourselves to be God? Do we carry on as if we, or our gifts, or our
talents, or our abilities, or our contributions are the thing which is going to
save the church? Do we think that the world and even the church is just run by
chance, and not by God’s counsel? Do we think that Jesus is not involved in the
life of our church, and that he doesn’t listen to our prayers? Do we despair
over things, as if Jesus is not seated at the right hand of God, ruling over
all things?
Right from the beginning, Satan
tempted Adam and Eve to eat from the tree in the garden of Eden, because he
said it would make them like God. But we’re not God—and when we try to be God,
or try to do Jesus’ saving work for him, we make ourselves into little false
gods, idols like little stone statues. And so we should hear John the Baptist’s
message: Repent. For the kingdom of heaven in near. Yes, Jesus—you are
right, and I am wrong. You know how to best rule the world, and how best to
rule the church. You have provided everything we need, and you have withheld
everything we don’t need.
And now, we also come to receive
the thing we need so much more than anything else: the forgiveness of sins.
Nobody apart from Jesus is able to give this gift. Nobody else has died for it,
and nobody else sends to us the gift of the Holy Spirit. But now, as we hear
the words of the forgiveness of sins in the absolution today, Jesus actually
gives this wonderful gift to us, because he has died and risen from the dead,
and he is the only Jesus. So let’s come before him, the one who’s sandals we
are not worthy to untie, and receive forgiveness from him, and let him wash our
feet clean, just as he did with his own disciples on the night before he died.
Let’s pray…
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