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Text: Matt 11:2-11
(Isa 40:1-11, 1 Cor 4:1-5)
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Today is one of two days in the church year where you look through, as we say in English, “rose-colored glasses.” This is the third week in Advent, and we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath. This Sunday is called by its Latin name: “Gaudete,” meaning “Rejoice.” It is the first word in the opening Psalm known as the Introit. “Rejoice in the Lord always, again will I say, rejoice” we sang in the antiphon.
Advent is a time when we reflect on our sins and upon the cause of our sinfulness, but we also reflect on how we are forgiven, meaning, our eyes and ears are turned to our King Jesus and His coming to save us.
And this time of year, you may hear an old English Christmas carol that is not in our hymnal, called “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” The chorus speaks of “tidings of comfort and joy.” The author clearly understood why we break out the rose-colored vestments on this day. For “comfort and joy” go together, and are reflected in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah (as well as our closing hymn), saying, “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God.”
The word “comfort” does require a little thought, dear friends. For when we 21st century Americans hear the word “comfort,” we hear it differently than what Isaiah means. We think of comfort in terms of car seats, the temperature in the house, how our shoes feel, or how our living-room furniture feels. We live like kings compared to most of the world, or even compared to how our great-grandparents lived. This kind of comfort is what Jesus speaks of when He mocks King Herod, “a man dressed in soft clothing” who lives in a king’s house. And that is not what people came to see when they sought out John the Baptist. They sought the comfort not of a pillow or Egyptian cotton sheets – but rather the comfort of the Word of God.
The prophet Isaiah explains “comfort” in delivering the prophecy as to how the prophet and preacher should speak: “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord double for her sins.”
Isaiah spoke this Word of the Lord when the people had just lost everything. Their country had been conquered. Their capital city had been destroyed. Their temple had been leveled. They and their children had been captured and enslaved and sent to Babylon, ruled by foreigners of a different religion and language. And now the prophet speaks of comfort and joy. And they can only receive this Word of God by faith. For there is no worldly comfort in Babylon. There is no soft clothing, and no king’s house for the Israelites, who were being punished for their sin of idolatry and unfaithfulness to the God of their comfort. They took their comfort for granted. And now the prophet preaches comfort.
Their comfort is promised, and it is delivered: by the Word of forgiveness: “tidings of comfort and joy.” But not as this world gives, dear friends. For “the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever.” The Word of our God is Jesus. And the Word is also the Scriptures. And the Word is also preaching. For the Word of God is comfort: comfort and joy. Jesus even speaks of the Holy Spirit as “the Comforter.” The Holy Spirit is the one who gives all of us exiles and sinners comfort by means of the Word, and who commands preachers to “comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.
Jesus offers this same comfort to John the Baptist. He is in a dungeon. It is not a comfortable place. It is not a king’s house. And John didn’t wear “soft clothing” even when he was free. John will be put to death by those wicked ones who were made uncomfortable by God’s Word. John sends messengers to Jesus seeking comfort, “Are you the one?” John doesn’t ask his cousin, “Can you do a miracle and break me out of here?” John doesn’t ask for blankets or legal representation to get him more comfortable prison conditions. John the Baptist is seeking comfort in the Word of God: the word spoken, and the Word Made Flesh. John is seeking “tidings of comfort and joy.”
Jesus does not send John’s messengers back with chocolates or an order for his release. Jesus has comfort far greater: the tidings that He is the one: the one prophesied by Isaiah, promised to the patriarchs, and first mentioned at the Garden of Eden as a prophecy of destruction to the devil himself. Jesus points John’s disciples to what is happening: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” For John knows the Scriptures. John knows Genesis and the rest of Moses. John knows the Psalms. John knows the prophets. John is being reminded of the Word of God and its fulfillment in Christ. For these are the “tidings of comfort and joy” sung by Christmas carolers. Jesus gives the greatest comfort of all to St. John: Himself and His Word, His promise, His grace, His forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Even in exile in Babylon, as slaves without a country, the people of God find comfort, yes, even joy, in the Word of God. Even in a dungeon, John finds comfort, yes, even joy in the Word Made Flesh who fulfills the Word of God. Even in our own day and age, in our own struggles with sin, death, and the devil, even as we are increasingly under the occupation of those who worship Satan and who wish to exile and imprison us Christians in our own country, we find comfort, comfort and joy, in the Word: the Word of Scripture, the Word proclaimed, the Word Made Flesh.
For the comfort spoken of by Isaiah has been fulfilled, dear friends: your “warfare has ended,” your “iniquity is pardoned.” And it really doesn’t matter if we wear soft clothing or rags, and we are comforted by God in His Word whether we live in king’s houses or shacks. It doesn’t matter if statues of Satan are placed in our rulers’ houses, and our own brother and sister Christians are sent to prison for refusing to bake cakes or take pictures. Our comfort is in the Word and in its fulfillment. Our wicked rulers can imprison us, but they cannot take away our comfort and our joy.
For no matter how much comfort they take in their own wealth, their own soft clothing, their own king’s houses, their statues of Satan, their repressive laws, their vile culture, their hatred of God and of His Word, and of His people – everything that they cherish withers and fades and passes away. “But the Word of our God will stand forever.”
God’s people regard us preachers of these “tidings of comfort and joy” as “stewards of the mysteries of God.” The steward does just what the Lord orders them to do through Isaiah: “Comfort, comfort My people…. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.”
Dear friends, Jesus comforts us with His Word, and just as He comforts His cousin John by “tidings of comfort and joy,” He promises us, His brothers and sisters: “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
So yes, we wear rose-colored glasses, provided by our Lord Himself by His Word, even in the worst of circumstances. For our vision is tinted by “tidings of comfort and joy.” Your warfare is ended. Your iniquity is pardoned. For “the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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