"Live What You Are!" (Sermon on Matthew 5:13-20) | February 8, 2026

Sermon Text: Matthew 5:13-20
Date: February 8, 2026
Event: The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Year A

Matthew 5:13-20 (EHV)

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its flavor, how will it become salty again? Then it is no good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. 14You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. 15People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket. No, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16In the same way let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

17“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy them but to fulfill them. 18Amen I tell you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter, or even part of a letter, will in any way pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled. 19So whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20Indeed I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and experts in the law, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Live What You Are!

How often do you learn something about yourself that you didn’t know? Maybe you tried a new hobby and found you have a great aptitude for it. Maybe you read a type of book that you normally would avoid and found out that you really enjoy that genre. Maybe you are going through a really difficult time and surviving in a way you never dreamed you could. Maybe the reverse is true—you found that something you thought you could handle just fine was way more difficult than you thought—perhaps even beyond your ability.

But any of that information is good to have. Knowing who you are, discovering your strengths and challenges, and exploring new interests and curiosities are ways to grow and change, helping you venture into areas you had never explored, and perhaps fulfill more of what you want or can do.

In our Gospel for this morning, Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount, which we began last week. As he is teaching his disciples, he lets them know who they are. Again, today’s Epiphany revelations are perhaps more about who we are than who Jesus is, but we are who we are because Jesus has made us that way. Jesus compares believers to salt, light, a prominent, visible city, and a lamp in a dark house. All of those have a connected theme: they provide help in a situation that is otherwise bleak: light in darkness, preservation where food may otherwise spoil, and a clear place of refuge in an otherwise hostile environment.

To get the full extent of what Jesus is getting at, it’s helpful for us to review what we were before he made us what we are. Before Jesus, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, or to use Jesus’ picture in our Gospel, we were like salt that has lost its flavor. Now, the cooks among us may be wondering, “How can salt lose its flavor?” And it’s true, the container of table salt in your pantry isn’t going to not taste salty no matter how long it sits there unused. But, in Jesus’ day, they did not have the purity of salt that we are familiar with. To increase the volume of their salt supply, merchants sometimes mixed it with other materials, such as sand or even dirt. Water might be used to thin things out a bit and spread the salt more evenly among other materials. You can imagine that the more the salt was diluted, the less effective it would be at preserving or even pleasantly flavoring food. And since there was no real way to extract the salt from the mixture, once it hit the point of no return on usefulness, it would be worthless for anything salt-related. Instead, as Jesus said, you might as well just throw it out on the walking path because it has no use for your food, and it would be a danger to any soil where crops grow.

Spiritually speaking, that’s what we were: useless, tainted salt good for nothing but to be trampled on by people. The messed-up salt couldn’t make itself better, and no one else could either. In the same way, you and I couldn’t change our spiritual condition, nor could anyone else. Jesus said that only those who were better than the Pharisees and the experts in the law could enter eternal life through their works. Given that these religious leaders were viewed as the most upright people alive, Jesus point is that no one, not even those praised for their piety and good works, was able to change their spiritual condition. On our own, we were unsalty salt—and, actually, even less useful.

But this is God’s work: changing us from what we were to what we are. We had been this worthless salt, but Jesus changed that. When Jesus lived his life in our place, when he died on the cross to pay for our sins, and when the Holy Spirit worked faith in our hearts to trust in Jesus as our Savior, there we were changed from worthless salt to pure salt, from what God hated to exactly what God wanted. Jesus has made us perfect; now we are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

It’s fascinating that Jesus calls us by one of the titles that he had used for himself. In John chapters 8 and 9, Jesus refers to himself as the Light of the World. But here in Matthew, he calls us the light of the world. Jesus has made us the light; he has made us as himself in this dark world.

What does it mean to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world? The world is blessed by your presence. You bring a preservative quality to this world, as salt does to food. You bring light to this otherwise dark place. You show that there is safety and refuge outside of ourselves. Because you, dear Christian, point to Christ. You are the salt, light, and refuge of the earth when you bring the gospel to people who don’t yet know it or who have taken it for granted.

But in order to bring those blessings to the world around you, you need to actually act. You can’t be a lamp lit and then placed under a basket—what a waste and pointless thing to do! No, to be these things that God has made you to be, you need to act, you need to share, you need to live your lives in a way that reflects Jesus’ love to the world around you.

How can you be salt and light? How can you live what you are? It’s in how you treat people. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. When you see someone in need, or even simply claiming they are in need, help them.

This is not the way the world naturally operates, or at least not for the same reasons. The world would largely recommend that you keep to yourself, take care of you, and ignore others. The world would have you think that your problems are too great to ever be concerned about anyone else. The world pushes you inward to focus on yourself at the exclusion of everyone else.

But Jesus did not say you were your own personal salt and light. No, he’s made you to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are here for others, we are here to let our light shine and to be a blessing for other people because that’s what Jesus has done for us. We can, in very tiny ways, be little Jesuses to other people in this life, reflecting just a little bit of his selfless love in how we speak and act.

But the amazing thing here is that God doesn’t just let that bright and salty work be for the moment; God attaches a greater, grander plan and blessing to it beyond merely addressing some immediate needs. Jesus says, “In the same way let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” By acting like this, you will be as different among the people around us as a light bulb is to the rest of a dark room. But the goal is not personal glory, praise, or recognition. No, the goal is that others will glorify God, that through you, people will see not just how to live but the reason you live that way. The goal is that they will not just see the reflection of Jesus love or a faint reflection of his care, but that through you, they will see Jesus as he is, their Savior as well as yours.

You look different, noticeably different, when you live as you are. When you don’t ignore the guy outside the grocery store looking for handouts, but see if you can grab him a sandwich inside, you look different. When you spend those extra minutes (or hours) with someone going through a very difficult time, you look different. When you speak and act in a way that communicates you care for all people, not just people who you know personally or who live the way you think people should live, you look different. You will look as different as someone turning on all the lights in a dark room—it is unavoidable! And all of that looking different is going to make people notice and ask, “Why?”

And there’s your moment, either directly or indirectly, you can make clear that you do this not to get a pat on the back, not to be praised in this world, but because Jesus has already made you an heir of eternal life. You can share the blessing of Jesus’ forgiveness, the certainty of his love, and the promise of perfection in heaven. Ultimately, living as you are is not just about bringing blessings to people in the immediate term but, God-willing, in the eternal term as well. The smaller things can lead to the bigger. Good works can lead others to praise God, not for you, but for his forgiveness.

So, my dear Christians, live as you are, as Jesus has made you. Actively love all people and share that love in little ways and big ways, and ultimately in sharing Jesus, our Savior. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"Jesus Fulfills All Righteousness" (Sermon on Matthew 3:13-17) | January 11, 2026

Text: Matthew 3:13-17
Date: January 11, 2026
Event: The Baptism of Our Lord (First Sunday after the Epiphany), Year A

Matthew 3:13-17 (EHV)

Then Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized by John at the Jordan. 14But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”

15But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, because it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John let him. 16After Jesus was baptized, he immediately went up out of the water. Suddenly, the heavens were opened for him! He saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove and landing on him, 17and a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with him.”

Jesus Fulfills All Righteousness

Have you ever started a project and then lost all the drive and motivation to finish it? Maybe you get that first coat of paint on the walls, but that necessary second coat just sort of feels like a bridge too far. Maybe you’re set on finally cleaning out the garage and getting to the point where you’ve filled up the driveway with random junk, but then sorting it and putting away the things that are staying just seems kind of impossible. Maybe you got the laundry all done, but it sits in the basket, wrinkling and never hitting the dresser or the closet.

Whether this happens to you rarely or multiple times a day, we all know what it is to leave a project half done, to almost make more of a mess with our effort to clean, or make problems worse with an effort to repair. Thankfully, that was not true with Jesus’ work. He didn’t leave things half-done or get part way through before losing interest and motivation. No, Jesus saw things through to the end—the bitter end—and as a result, sweetness waits for us for eternity.

Today, we see Jesus clearly starting that necessary work that he will complete for us, and it begins on the shores of the Jordan River as Jesus came to his relative and promised-way-preparer, John the Baptist. We have quite a time jump this morning from our Gospels over the last few weeks. Since the middle of December, we’ve been pretty firmly in that 2-3 year window of the announcement of Jesus’ upcoming birth, through his birth, and finally last week, in our celebration of the festival of Epiphany, we saw the nations of the world recognizing and coming to worship their Savior in the example of the Wise Men.

But all of this is still firmly in the camp of Old Testament patterns. Despite the fact that Jesus has arrived, the Savior has been born, we’re still entrenched in the Old Testament perspective of waiting and watching. Because, despite angels speaking to maidens and shepherds and Wise Men following stars, Jesus’ work hadn’t fully started yet. And that changes today.

Jesus’ baptism may seem a bit strange to us—it seemed a bit strange to John as well: “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?” We clearly and appropriately put baptism in the category of something we need as sinners. In our baptisms, God washes away our sins and creates or strengthens faith in our hearts. Even though John’s baptism is different from the one we are familiar with and have gone through, it was still a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But, crucially, Jesus had no sins to be forgiven. So, why is Jesus going to John to be baptized?

There are many things we could discuss on this subject, but I believe that chief among them is the truth that Jesus’ work is to take our place. On Christmas Eve, we heard the famous words of the apostle Paul from Galatians 4: When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons (Galatians 4:4-5). Jesus’ mission was to take our place under the law. Jesus was to be what we could not be: the one person to live a perfect life under God’s expectations and commands. Part of that substitutionary work, then, is taking our place even under the baptism that he did not appear to need. Jesus’ response is vague yet also aims to set John’s concerns to rest, “Let it be so now, because it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Jesus’ baptism will also serve a wide range of other purposes. This will be the moment of confirmation for John the Baptist that his relative, Jesus, is, in fact, the long-promised Messiah. Next week, as we hear him point the crowds to Jesus as God’s Lamb who takes away the world’s sins, we will also hear him point to this event, and specifically the Holy Spirit’s alighting on Jesus in the form of a dove, as the sign God promised to confirm these things.

This sign was a confirmation to John, in part, because God told him it would be. But it was also confirmation because these events are what God had promised would happen. We heard part of those promises in the prophet’s words in our First Reading: Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I am placing my Spirit on him. He will announce a just verdict for the nations (Isaiah 42:1). The Messiah would be anointed with power and the Holy Spirit, and that’s exactly what is happening here at Jesus’ baptism.

Kings and prophets in the Old Testament would be anointed with oil as a sign that they were set apart for a special task, and here at Jesus’ baptism, that is also happening. Although Jesus underwent the same baptism as the crowds who came to John, his baptism was unique. No one else had the Holy Spirit descending on them, and certainly no one had the voice of the Father booming from heaven.

The Father’s words that echo around the Jordan really help focus us. He comments on Jesus here, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with him.” Here is, perhaps, the first public confirmation of Jesus’ true lineage. He is not the son of Joseph nor the result of Mary being assaulted or unfaithful. No, Jesus is the Son of God.

But even more to the point, Jesus is not just the Son of God, but the Son whom the Father loves, with whom he is well pleased. There’s only one way for God to be well pleased with something, and that’s if it is perfect. We see a similar concept at creation: as God created the world, he called it “good” and “very good” (cf. Genesis 1:4, 10, 31, etc.) because it was flawless. There was no corruption of sin in the world at that time, and there is no corruption of sin in Jesus. Thus, he is the loved Son of God who makes the Father happy.

This is vital to our understanding of Jesus’ work. He has to be perfect to be of any benefit to us. As we said a few moments ago, Jesus’ work is substitutionary. He’s not showing us how to live; he’s living for us. He’s not a moral guide and grand teacher; he’s the Lamb of God who will be sacrificed in our place. This is Jesus’ commission from the Father, “Be perfect for them.”

Throughout this Epiphany season, we will continue to see more about who Jesus is and what he has come to do, and it all starts in earnest here. We won’t revisit Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness this year, but that follows immediately after his baptism. While not at all the only time he fends off temptation, it is perhaps the clearest example of it in all of Scripture. No matter what Satan throws at him, Jesus will continue to be the perfect Son of his Father.

That perfection is vital for you and me. I don’t have to tell you that none of us has been perfect. We’re not even two weeks into this year, and all of us could probably put together an embarrassingly lengthy list of ways we have failed to be the people God expects us to be. We have sinned against him, we have sinned against other people, we have sinned against ourselves. We’ve had misplaced priorities that make other things and people our gods while excluding the true God.

Jesus did none of that, and he hands his perfection to you and to me as a free gift. Even though you and I have failed over and over again, because of that gift from Jesus, our records only show Jesus’ perfection—his complete lack of sin and his flawless track record of good works. He took our place in every way so that we could live with him in the perfection of eternal life.

Jesus’ baptism is the public beginning of that work, fulfilling all righteousness by being baptized in our place, being anointed for the work of rescuing us from every sin. He fulfills all righteousness in our place and does everything we need so that, despite our sin, we have been restored to a flawless relationship with God.

May today be a reminder that Jesus did, in fact, fulfill all righteousness. But he did so not to show us how, but because we could not. He did it not to shame us for failures, but to rescue us from our sins. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, and now, through faith, we are counted righteous as well. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"Seek Him Out" (Sermon on Matthew 2:1-12) | January 4, 2026

Sermon Text: Matthew 2:1-12
Date: January 4, 2026
Event: The Epiphany of Our Lord (Observed), Year A

Matthew 2:1-12 (EHV)

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, when Herod was king, Wise Men from the east came to Jerusalem. They asked, 2“Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3When King Herod heard this, he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4He gathered together all the people’s chief priests and experts in the law. He asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, because this was written through the prophet:

6You, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are certainly not least among the rulers of Judah: because out of you will come a ruler, who will shepherd my people, Israel.”

7Then Herod secretly summoned the Wise Men and found out from them exactly when the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report to me, so that I may also go and worship him.”

9After listening to the king, they went on their way. Then the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them, until it stood still over the place where the child was. 10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with overwhelming joy. 11After they went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother, they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12Since they had been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.

Seek Him Out

Have you ever been on a scavenger hunt? Or maybe someone set up (or you set up for someone else) a trail of clues to follow to get to a big surprise. It can be fun, but it also can be a bit nerve-racking if you don’t know what’s at the end of the trail or if you’re not really confident about where to look to find the next item or clue on the list.

In some ways, you might see the Wise Men’s journey to find and worship the young Savior as kind of like a scavenger hunt. They had some indication of what had happened. In a way that isn’t clear to us, they knew that the appearance of a special star in the sky told them the Messiah had arrived. But they weren’t really sure where to find him or who to talk to about it, and yet in the confidence that God gave through faith, they sought him out.

While we don’t have as many unknowns in seeking out our Savior as the Wise Men did, we do well to follow their example in this young, new year. As we make our way through the days and weeks ahead, we do well to make the spiritual journey to seek out our Savior at his crib, during his ministry, to his cross, and then at his empty tomb. May God give us guidance in the days ahead just as he led the Wise Men to the young Jesus!

Despite what our nativity scenes might show, the Wise Men were not there at the stable while the newborn Jesus slept in the manger in his swaddling cloths. Likely for a variety of reasons, Mary and Joseph chose to settle down a bit in Bethlehem after Jesus was born. Once the Wise Men arrive in Bethlehem, Matthew tells us they find Jesus in a house, not a stable or an inn. Likewise, the word used to describe Jesus (translated here as “child”) is closer to our word “toddler” than to “newborn.” That, paired with Herod’s despicable actions that take place after our reading, we might assume that Jesus is somewhere around two years old at the time of the Wise Men’s visit.

But, we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. At the beginning of Matthew chapter 2, we meet up with the Wise Men as they come into Jerusalem. They saw a star that indicated that the King of the Jews, the promised eternal descendant of David, had been born. Immediately, this raises a ton of questions in our minds. What was this star? How did they know that this star indicated this specific birth? How did they have all of this information but not Micah’s clear prophecy that he would be born in David’s city of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)? We’re going to have to leave most of those open questions as God doesn’t clarify for us, but what we can say for sure is that these gentile men knew the promised Savior was going to come from the Jewish people and in some way God let them know it had happened, so they sought him out to worship him and give thanks to God for his mercy.

In some way, these men knew the eternal King had been born, and they went to the most logical place to find this young King of the Jewish people, the royal palace in the capital city of Jerusalem. But, of course, he wasn’t there. They did get the nudge they needed; the chief priests and experts in the law knew the promise made in Micah well, and so the Wise Men were directed about 5½ miles away from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to find the child, and the star God used to guide them initally confirmed they were on the right track, even somehow indicating the exact place where Jesus was. There, they were able to see him, worship him, and share the gifts they had brought with him.

This whole account is a fascinating reminder of who God lets in on the early stages of his plan of salvation. That first Christmas night, it wasn’t the priests and scribes who heard about the Savior’s birth, but angels spoke to lowly shepherds. And even now, some time later, Rome’s appointed rulers for the area and the religious leaders still have no idea that the Messiah has been born. Instead, the Wise Men, these non-Jewish foreigners, are dropping this bombshell on them as they innocently ask for directions. “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this, he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him.

God continues not to reveal himself to the high and mighty, to those of worldly prominence. In fact, the way he reveals himself today is in some ways even more humble and lowly than it was then. No angel hosts appearing to shepherds; no star appearing in the sky bringing people from far away; no religious leaders or prophets with a direct line to God’s will and purposes. No, the way Jesus is revealed to us today is in his Word. Even as we have spiritual leaders in our congregations—pastors and lay leaders—as well as administrators, teachers, and professors in our synod and schools, still the source of all of their guidance and information is the same as it is for everyone: the pages of Scripture.

On Christmas Day, we heard John’s observation that Jesus was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognize him. He came to what was his own, yet his own people did not accept him (John 1:10-11). This was specifically true early in Jesus’ life, as no one would have guessed that this little child was God who took on our human nature, but it was more broadly true during his ministry, and it’s still true today. People don’t recognize Jesus as their Creator and Savior because it doesn’t seem right, it doesn’t feel right. If someone is going to admit that there’s a God out there at all, they’re probably going to settle in their comfort zone and assume that whatever issues there might be between them and God, they need to fix them and make things right.

That’s what feels right, but it is far from accurate. The reality is that no matter what we do, we can’t make things right with God. We can’t patch up our past sins and then have him be happy with us. We need Jesus to intervene; we need Jesus to do everything for us to save us.

This flies in the face of what we naturally think and feel. When he wrong his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul commented on how wrong and demented this Jesus-for-us reality feels to us: An unspiritual person does not accept the truths taught by God’s Spirit, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually evaluated (1 Corinthians 2:14). Without the work of the Holy Spirit within us, we will never see the gospel as anything but, at best, utter foolishness.

Thankfully for us, the singular source we have to learn about what God has done for us—his Word—is also the tool the Holy Spirit uses to create and sustain faith in our hearts. So in the very moment that we are digging into God’s truths, the Holy Spirit is working to change these things from foolishness to the assurance of our salvation. By the Spirit’s work in our hearts, we see and trust Jesus’ life and death in our place as the only way we receive the forgiveness of our sins.

Let us follow the pattern of the Wise Men and seek Jesus out. To do that, we don’t need to make some long, harrowing pilgrimage. It’s not even about a total reset of your spiritual mindset. It’s all about going to where he reveals himself.

As we are still in the early hours of this year, perhaps it’s useful for us to reevaluate how we are doing at seeking him out. Are we as connected to God’s Word as we could be and want to be? Are there places we could make changes to better seek out our Savior? Are there Bible study opportunities at church that we could be making better use of? Could we be opening our Bibles or devotional books more at home?

This may sound ridiculous coming from your pastor, but I stand here this morning as someone who has really struggled with this through his life, up to and including today. Oh, I will commit myself to personal (not professional!) time in God’s Word, and it will go well for a while. Then, as I let so many good habits in my life do, it begins to fade, and I get distracted by other things, and suddenly, my personal seeking of Jesus is pretty low on the priority ladder. So then, I need to regroup and do it again. But that’s ok.

In these matters, we need to not let “perfect” become the enemy of “good.” Two days a week is better than zero days a week, even if the goal is seven; five minutes is better than zero minutes, even if the goal is twenty. The Wise Men weren’t perfect either—they sought Jesus in the wrong city! But they pressed on, they followed the guidance of God’s Word and eventually the star, and they found the treasure of their hearts.

Today, you will receive an email from me with several tools and suggestions to help you pursue this goal of seeking Jesus out. We are blessed to live at a time with such ready access to so many resources—not the least of which is God’s Word in many and varied translations accessible from almost any screen we are near—that when we wrestle with this, it’s not for lack of options or plans. Sometimes, it’s because we are overwhelmed or we just haven’t really found the right option that clicks for us here today.

So, let’s press on in seeking him out. Let’s dig into his Word, where we are reminded of the horrid reality of our sins and also the work that Jesus did to rescue us. Let’s join the Wise Men in making the journey to find him where he allows himself to be found. There we can bow down, offer our gifts, and worship the God who loves us and has saved us.

Merry Christmas and Happy Epiphany! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"Are You Sure?" (Sermon on Matthew 11:2-11) | December 14, 2025

Sermon Text: Matthew 11:2-11
Date: December 14, 2025
Event: The Third Sunday in Advent, Year A

Matthew 11:2-11 (EHV)

While John was in prison, he heard about the things Christ was doing. He sent two of his disciples 3to ask him, “Are you the Coming One or should we wait for someone else?”

4Jesus answered them, “Go, report to John what you hear and see: 5The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is preached to the poor. 6Blessed is the one who does not take offense at me.”

7As these two were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the crowds about John. “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? No, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9So what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you! And he is much more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ 11Amen I tell you: Among those born of women there has not appeared anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Are You Sure?

Have you ever been incredibly certain of a reality in your life or a fact about the world around you, only to have that truth shot down in an instant? Maybe it was something pretty low stakes like learning someone doesn’t like some kind of food that you thought they loved. Maybe it was being certain that something was true, until a teacher in school pointed you to sources that questioned that reality of that. Maybe it was something much more troubling, such as someone keeping a secret from you that changed how you saw them or how you felt you could trust them.

Whether it was a teacher in school, or reading something in a book, or learning something new about a family member or friend that totally shattered what you thought you knew, you are probably familiar with that rug-pull feeling. You start to question if you know anything about that person, situation, or subject. And so, you might go back to that person or do more reading on that subject with the question, “Are you sure…?”

I believe that’s the situation we have here with John the Baptist this morning. We meet up with John and Jesus toward the end of John’s life. He is in prison for the most ridiculous reason—he had the audacity to tell King Herod that it was a sin to be sleeping with his brother’s wife. In fact, he’ll be killed for an even stupider reason: because Herod promised his lover’s daughter anything she wanted when she danced provocatively at a dinner party. The girl asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter. Herod didn’t want to look weak in front of his guests, so he ordered that John be executed.

Now, if we take a step back here and look at this in the broader context of God’s plan of salvation, can you empathize with where John’s mind could have been while he sat in that prison cell? We know that John was long-promised forerunner of the Savior. Second to Jesus, no one had a more important role in this work. John, as the last Old Testament prophet, didn’t simply say, “The Savior is coming!” but was able to say, “The Savior is here! And there he is! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” At Jesus’ baptism, John saw the confirming sign of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove while the voice of the Father spoke from heaven.

Does it make sense, then, that John might not have thought that this is how his time on earth would come to an end, rotting in a prison cell for speaking God’s Word truly and accurately? John, of course, knew that Jesus had to become greater and John himself had to become less, but do you think perhaps he didn’t expect the bottom of his lot to drop out so drastically and completely? Do you think as he sat there he perhaps wondered if he, somehow, had made a mistake or had been misled? While John was in prison, he heard about the things Christ was doing. He sent two of his disciples to ask him, “Are you the Coming One or should we wait for someone else?”

Perhaps it wasn’t John who was struggling. Perhaps John was fine with all of this; maybe it was his disciples who were really wrestling with the situation their dear teacher was in, and so in sending them to question Jesus, John was really sending them to hear from Jesus himself what was happening. But whether it was John who was struggling or his disciples (or both), the point remains the same: they seek out Jesus for direction and confirmation that their hope was not misplaced.

Our Advent preparations are a lot of waiting and watching. Our whole focus last weekend was waiting for the Lord to do what he’s going to do. But are you sure about what you’re waiting for? Does the evidence back up what you’re hoping to happen? Or, does it often feel like you’re John the Baptist sitting in prison, wondering and perhaps even fretting that you’ve been misled?

For example, does your health reflect what you expect a believer in Jesus to experience? Do you think you should have more financial resources than you do? Do you feel like what God allows in your family and other personal relationships does not sync with his promised love and care? Do you have doubts and real concerns about what Jesus is doing or will be doing for you?

The proper approach to those questions is not what we might naturally do—stewing in frustration and convincing ourselves that God is unfaithful or has just forgotten about us. No, we should do what John did, what his disciples did, and go to the source and ask. Jesus, are you really the one that we should be waiting on? Should we expect someone or something else?

Jesus is clear elsewhere what we can expect to experience in this life. The love of most growing cold, hardships and burdens, crosses to bear both as Christians and just as sinners living in a sinful world. The idea that the believer should have an easy, healthy, wealthy, and emotionally happy life is a fiction we’ve created for ourselves because we want it to be true. That’s not at all what God has promised.

But if God loves us, why would he let these hardships come on us? If God loves us, why would he withhold blessings from us? If God loves us, why are things in life not just better?

What was Jesus’ answer to John’s disciples? “Go, report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is preached to the poor.” We heard many of those promises and signs in our First Reading from Isaiah about the Messiah’s arrival, and many of these are what Jesus summarizes and paraphrases here. He’s essentially saying to John, “You know what was promised, what was going to happen when the one who was promised comes. These very things are being fulfilled. Even if it doesn’t feel like it from your perspective, or things aren’t going the way you hoped or even expected, what was promised is occurring. Take heart.”

Jesus also gives this encouragement to John and his disciples, “Blessed is the one who does not take offense at me.” Jesus’ statement there could even be more strongly translated, “Blessed is the one who is not led to sin because of me.” Jesus knows that being a Christian, following him, truly living as he would have us live, is going to be difficult. Things aren’t going to go the way we want. At times, we may feel like John the Baptist at the height of his ministry, respected by the people and privileged to point out the Messiah. At other times, we may feel much more like John here, rotting in prison for doing the right thing. We may lose friends because of our faith. We may have health problems because of (or in spite of) the life choices we’ve made.

What do we make of Jesus’ encouragement then? Stay the course. Follow me. Hold tightly to the forgiveness I freely give to you. When we’re struggling to see Jesus’ work in our own lives, it’s probably because we’re looking in the wrong place. If we’re looking at ourselves, at our circumstances, then we’re going to miss it. But as Jesus redirected John and his disciples away from their present circumstances and back to himself, so Jesus redirects us away from the navel-gazing that we’re all so good at and instead directs us back to him. Rather than focusing on what I’m going through or how I feel, I want my primary focus to be on what Jesus has done.

And this is what Jesus is getting at when he says whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than [John]. He’s not talking about rank or privilege. He’s talking about blessing. Among natural-born people, John had the greatest privilege of anyone because he got to announce that the Savior had arrived. Yet, that honor is far less than the honor of being a part of God’s kingdom by faith, the honor of being a believer and having our sins forgiven. So even John’s greatness comes not from his role as the preparer of the way of the Messiah, but because he is a dearly loved and forgiven child of God, as are you.

Jesus’ goal isn’t to make things wonderful here—though he certainly will take care of us! No, Jesus’ goal is to ensure that we are eternally safe with him. That’s clear even in the stinger on the list that Jesus sends back to John, the gospel is preached to the poor. Those in need of God’s love and forgiveness have it. It is available to all—even you and me—as Jesus freely gives it in his Word through his work in our place.

Are you sure? Are you sure this Jesus is all that he’s said he is, that he has promised to be? By the Spirit’s work in your heart and mine, we can confidently say, “Yes! We are sure!” The pain and trials of this life won’t even be worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us in eternity. Until that day, my brothers and sisters, wait patiently for the Lord. His timetable and the circumstances around us may bring doubts to our minds and hearts. But hold firm to the one who saved you; hold firm to the one who loves you.

Hear our prayers, dear Jesus, and come with the good news of your mighty deliverance. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.