Text: Luke 7:18-28
Beloved
in Christ, two weeks ago I mentioned that Christ not only came in the flesh two
thousand years and will return visibly sometime in the future, but He also
comes to us today, as His Word is read and preached. Thus, the most important
thing in the Christian church is hearing the Scriptures read and explained.
That is why our liturgy is steeped in the Scriptures; it is one passage from
the Bible after another. That is why we sing hymns that are rich in the
language and message of the Bible. It isn’t enough that a hymn mentions an idea
or two in the Scriptures, but that it expresses biblical content as fully as
possible. That is why we make sure that the sermons are based on the Bible and
convey its full riches. This is how Christ comes to us and dwells among us
today. And we want to make sure that nothing interferes with His coming.
But
preaching isn’t easy—for the one preaching or the people hearing. And we are
reminded of that fact in today’s Gospel. John the Baptist had discovered by
that point that preaching wasn’t as easy as he had thought. In fact, it looked
as if all that time he had spent preaching had been for naught. And so our Lord
had to encourage Him. But at the same time He had to have a little talk with
the people who had heard John preach. They had found it difficult to understand
what John was trying to do. And so Jesus had to explain to them what his
preaching had been all about. Preaching is tough, for all parties concerned.
But let us listen carefully to what our Lord has to say to preachers and to the
people preached to.
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| Pieter Brueghel the Younger, St. John the Baptist Preaching. As in many of Brueghel's paintings, the main action (John's preaching) takes up only a small portion of the canvas. Notice how many of the larger figures in the foreground are talking among themselves, some even with their backs toward John. |
From
John the Baptist we learn, first of all, that preaching is tough on preachers
and those who long to see good preaching. The real problem is that it seems
that preaching doesn’t succeed. Last week I mentioned the real topic of all
good preaching: repentance. Repentance is more than feeling sorry for our sins,
although it includes that. It is rethinking everything that we have been taught
by our sinful flesh and our selfish world. It means, of course, to stop looking
for excuses for sin or for ways to justify what is wrong and find fault with
what is good. But it also means to start putting our trust in God, recognizing
Him as our creator, who still takes an active role in preserving this world. It
means calling upon God in every trouble and thanking Him for His ever constant
help. It means relying upon Christ for our salvation instead of our own
righteousness. It means welcoming the work of the Holy Spirit, as He guides us
out of unbelief, enlightens us with the truth of His word, calls us to faith in
Christ, and helps us to grow in godliness.
If
preaching succeeds, then you would expect people to come out of wickedness and
unbelief and instead embrace God’s forgiveness and the life of trust in God and
holiness that follows. But we see people like John pour out his entire career
into preaching, only to see that little has changed. The Herods of this world
seem to be still in control. Sin has been rebuked, but no one has repented. The
cry to receive the forgiveness of sins has been mocked or ignored. Maybe there
was a brief moment, a flicker of hope. But soon the cold, dank walls of the dungeon
seem to have shut in the gospel.
Meanwhile,
preaching is equally tough on the hearers. “Who is this guy?” the crowd asked,
when they had heard John. “Why is he out here, standing in the wilderness and
flapping his jaw?” Today some people don’t even know why they go to hear a
sermon. As far as they are concerned, they might as well look at “a reed
shaking in the wind.” Neither John nor a reed have any meaning for
them. Other people come to hear preaching because they think that they will be
entertained. They went out to see John because he was known for wearing unusual
clothing, a shirt made out of camel’s hair and a belt of raw leather. But, of
course, more unusual—and more admirable—clothing could be found in a royal
court than in the wilderness.
Still
other people go to have a spiritual experience, but on their terms. There were
spiritual seekers back in John’s day, and Judaism had a full range of different
forms of spirituality that were popular. So it wasn’t unusual for people to go
off to the desert and try to “find themselves.” Well, our Lord granted that
John was a spiritual man, a prophet of God, but there was something deeper
going on. He was the one who, more than any other prophet before him, pointed
to Christ as the Savior of the world.
So
listening to the preaching of God’s Word is tough because it isn’t all about
being entertained or crafting a spirituality that suits our individual tastes.
Instead, it is all about getting us to see Christ—to see our sin that made Him
have to come and to see the mercy of God that impelled Him to come willingly. But
that is also what makes faithfully hearing the Word of God and the preaching of
it so rewarding. There are plenty of places to be entertained. It would take
you a few years to visit all the theaters, cinemas, music venues, museums, gin
joints, and the like in this city, even if you visited one every day. It would
probably take you over a year just to see all the shows that are offered in one
day on cable TV. And then there’s all the music on Pandora and Spotify, and all
the movies and TV shows to watch on Netflix and Hulu. Entertainment is not in
short supply. Something of eternal value is. And that is why hearing God’s Word
being preached is so valuable.
It
also satisfies us in a way that all our efforts at crafting our own
spirituality don’t. Few people realize that creating your own spirituality puts
an awful burden upon yourself. The Scriptures reveal a God who establishes
right and wrong and has given us the Ten Commandments. They also show where
eternal life and fellowship with God are to be found. More than that, they
proclaim that these things are gifts from Him. But those who reject that and
want to create their own spirituality put a tremendous burden upon themselves.
Not only do they have to keep the rules they invent, they have to play god and
create the whole system themselves. But a correct faith lets God be God.
Jesus
pointed out how blessed we are when we hear preachers like John the Baptist and
take their message to heart. He said, “I tell you, among those born of
women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God
is greater than he.” John was a great preacher, but he would die before
Christ would complete His work. All John could do was to point people to be
ready for Christ’s ministry, death, and resurrection. But John wouldn’t see
those things. Instead, he would spend the last months of his life in a jail and
would eventually be executed. Thus, ordinary people who heard his sermons would
see things fulfilled that John could only foretell.
John
would have been okay with that. After all, we pastors want people who hear
God’s Word to pay more attention to it than to us. But still our Lord had
something to say to preachers like John as well as to their hearers. We have
already heard our Lord say that there is something powerful in preaching. Now
let us consider what He had to say to John, and by extension to all pastors.
Our
Lord didn’t deny that preaching God’s Word sometimes lands pastors in trouble.
It always has. But He allowed John’s disciples to see all that He was doing.
People were healed, comforted, and given the good news of the gospel. Maybe
that didn’t seem to extend to where John was sitting, but God’s kingdom was
active, nonetheless. Some of the people who were coming to Jesus had heard John
preach. Maybe John hadn’t convinced people like Herod, but he had still had
some kind of effect on many people. A preacher has to know that a lot of the
work he does will not be visible to him. People may hear a sermon only once,
but it will stick with them. And the pastor will never know. The only hint we
get is when someone shows up at our church because another pastor had preached
well and made an impression, and so we assume the same is happening with us.
But preachers are like John the Baptist or Moses: we lead the people to where
they need to go, but we may not see them enter the Promised Land.
We
should also be encouraged to know that God’s kingdom is always growing
somewhere in the world. There is no promise that the church in all places at
all times will grow and expand. In fact, church history indicates the opposite.
But the church always sprouts up where you least expect it. The good news of
salvation in Christ Jesus is preached, the Holy Spirit works faith in the
hearts of those who heart it, and saints are gathered into the church. If you
do not see the church growing powerfully in your corner of the world, know that
it is doing so in other parts of the globe. And so we keep on “preaching
the Word, in season and out of season,” for we know that God will use
that Word in ways that we may not know right now. His Word never returns
empty-handed.
So,
yes, preaching is a big bother—both for the person who must do it and those who
have to listen to it. But there is eternal life in those words, and so we
should look for the blessing found there. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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