Funny-Looking Angel

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This time of year seems to bring out all kinds of stories about strange-looking characters. There is the kid's story that now seems like a classic, the Elf on a Shelf. Now, someone has come up with a Jewish counterpart – the Mensch on a Bench. St. Nicholas Day was yesterday, so children around the world have have a round of presents delivered, if they were good little boys and girls. In some countries, St. Nick is a rather bizarre, wizened character. And, if the children were not good, on 5 December Krampus came around to do all manner of mischief and mayhem. We still have Santa Lucia Day coming next week, when those of Italian or Scandinavian extraction celebrate the eyeless young maiden who comes with a wreath of candles on her head.

Legend and history is not the only source for funny-looking characters. Today's Gospel lesson introduces us to John the Baptist, the Forerunner of our Lord. Mark introduces him by quoting from the prophet Malachi, who says, literally, “Behold, I send My angel before your face, who will prepare Your way.” John is a funny-looking angel.

No doubt, you are used to seeing angels depicted in popular art as either chubby little naked babies with feathery white wings, perhaps holding Cupid's bow, or imposing statuesque figures in churchly-looking robes who come to strike terror into the hearts of those to whom they appear. Certainly, the imagination is not primed to think of an angel as one who was “clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.”

But that is John. He was the rough-and-tumble preacher in the wilderness, content to be merely the voice crying out to the people of God. But his ministry is no less valid than that of the Archangel Gabriel, who announced John's birth to his father Zechariah. He spoke the same Word of the Lord that Gabriel did, and pointed to the same Messiah.

John is just another in a long string of examples of how God comes to proclaim His Word in strange and un-looked-for ways. The people of Israel of old did not seek the Word of the Lord from the mouth of Isaiah, or Malachi, or any of the other prophets. And they certainly were not looking for the Second Elijah to come, even though John fit the bill.

But even more important than John's odd appearance is the message he was sent to proclaim. He was sent to be “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.'” He was called to be the one to gather the people of Israel and prepare them to meet their Lord, who was coming nigh.

And how was John to prepare the people for their Lord? “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” John was preparing the people of Israel to meet their Lord by baptizing them! How crazy is that? Prepare for the coming of the Lord by being baptized? As if Baptism actually does something in the life of the baptized? How strange!

John was preparing the way of the Lord by preparing the people to receive their Lord. And he prepared the people to receive their Lord by piercing their hearts so that they would confess their sins and acknowledge their Lord and God. For what good is it if a herald sounds the call that the Lord is coming, if you neither know nor want a Lord? Which is precisely the situation of the people of Israel when John appeared in the wilderness – self-directed self-absorbed, and self-concerned. They had no idea about a Lord or God.

This is a fitting way to prepare the way of the Lord, now in this Advent season. Are you prepared for the coming of the Lord? Sure, the world considers this in terms of whether you have made the list, checked it twice, and found out who is naughty or nice – not that it matters, since everyone gets a gift anyhow.

But the way of the Lord is not prepared with gifts and wrapping paper, nor with tinsel and bows. The way of the Lord is prepared with repentance and contrition. The way of the Lord is prepared with sorrow for sins, and with confession of those sins. The way of the Lord is rough, but it makes the rough places plain.

John called the people to repentance, and they came confessing their sins. That is, they came speaking out the same things that John preached about them. Which is, they spoke out the same things that the Word of the Lord said about them. They spoke into the open what the Law said about them and their deeds. And what does the Lord say about you?

He says that He is the Lord, and you are to have no other gods. But what about the angry, jealous little god pounding away in your chest? The human heart is an idol-factory, as Luther said. You are full of new and inventive ways to get what you want, to come out on top, to make you number one in your world. You would not fear, love, or trust in anything but yourself, if it were left to you. Do you confess this to be true?

He says that you ought not take His Name in vain, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. Do you take up the Lord's Name when trouble comes upon you? Do you remember to give thanks and praise Him for all His benefits to you? More likely, you thank your own industriousness for your good fortune, or luck. You look to your wealth, your power, or perhaps your government to take care of you in times of trouble, rather than God. Do you confess this to be true?

And we could continue down the line. You know the Ten Commandments. You know the Law of God, which you have been taught from your youth. You know that you have failed to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, and that you are incapable of doing so even if you tried. The only thing to say is “yes, it is true” when God says as much about you.

John's proclamation served to call the people to repentance. It served to drive them toward confession of their sins, as they were baptized for the forgiveness of those same sins. But it did not end with repentance; it did not stall out in confession.

Rather, John is the one who begins the fulfillment of the command issued to Isaiah: “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.” John is sent not only to afflict the comfortable, but to comfort the afflicted.

For the Baptism John preaches is not some show or spectacle. It is not some public act of confession that goes unanswered. It is a Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. And in this forgiveness of sins is found the comfort that the Lord commands to be preached in His Name. Furthermore, this forgiveness of sins is not only reserved for those to whom John preached. It is given wherever and whenever the waters of Baptism are poured in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This forgiveness of sins comes wherever and whenever the Lord comes to His people.

For the forgiveness of sins is won not by your contrition. If it were, you would be lost. The forgiveness of sins is not won by your works. If it were, you better keep working. The forgiveness of sins is won by one thing – the death of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross on Calvary. This is the end of the warfare; it is finished.

The rough places are made plain. The valleys are filled and the heights leveled. The uneven ground is smoothed and firmed. The way for God to come is made straight. Not by your good planning, or your good intentions, or your good feelings. The way for God to come to you is made straight and plain by your confessing your need for Him to come to you, and your inability to level or straighten or firm the way. The way is made straight by His coming in the flesh, dying in the flesh, and rising in the flesh, so that all flesh may see it together.

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall indeed see it together. But not in the flash of brilliance that the world expects. The glory of the Lord is revealed in the voice crying in the wilderness. The glory of the Lord is revealed in the waters poured on the heads of those who confess their need for forgiveness. The glory of the Lord is revealed in the death of His Son, the very Lamb of God. The glory of the Lord is revealed in His Body and Blood, given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins. These things, and not the theatrics of the world, reveal the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. For this is how the Lord God comes with might – the might that conquers sin, death, and the devil for you.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.