Jesu Juva
“The Doctor Is In”
Text: Luke 3:1-20; Malachi 3:1-7b; Philippians 1:2-11
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
I remember the first time I broke my collar bone . . . and the doctor brought the x-ray into the room to show me how badly it was broken. But I couldn’t see it. I just looked at the x-ray and said, “So?” Then he pointed out to me what I was looking at, where the break was, and then I could see it! Then my “So?” went to “Ohhh!”
Well, the doctor is in the house today. Dr. John the Baptist. To point out to us the threatening perils of our sins. That’s a phrase we used in the prayers last week (Collect for Advent 1): the threatening perils of our sins. Because like me cluelessly looking at my x-ray, we often don’t see it. We may not see the sin in us, and how badly we are broken. And if we do, it may not look that threatening or perilous at all. In fact, we see people who sin getting ahead. We see people lie and cheat and steal, the news shows us people rioting and looting and destroying - we see people breaking the law, and nothing happens to them. So what’s the big deal?
And it’s not just adults - children quickly and early on in life realize this when they can lie and get away with whatever they did wrong. And after a while . . . seeing this, doing this, living like this, we look at ourselves and say “So?” We no longer see it. The brokenness. The peril of being like this.
That’s why we need Dr. John today. To show us our spiritual x-ray and say: See? This is not good. You may be able to get away with being imperfect in an imperfect world, or being sinful in a sinful world, where not every sin is punished, where sinners often get ahead, and where many sins are, in fact, praised - but what are you going to do when you face a perfect God? When every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire? When you then see how threatening and perilous sin really is? How broken you really are?
So God sent Dr. John to warn us and to call us to repentance. To stir up our hearts, as we prayed today (Collect for Advent 2), that we might see our sin, and that it is not nothing; that it is not just something wrong in us like a broken bone, not just a little problem in us - but a big one. One that if left undiagnosed and untreated leads to spiritual death. Or to use the words of Dr. John himself, that when the Last Day comes and it is time to separate the healthy from the unhealthy, the repentant from the unrepentant, the believers from the unbelievers, [the Lord’s] winnowing fork [will be] in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat [the good and healthy] into his barn, but the chaff [the sinful and unhealthy] he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
So while we may not like going to the doctor and hearing there’s something wrong with us, we need the doctor. It is good for us.
So when you came to Dr. John’s office, also known as the Jordan River, you heard the bad news of your diagnosis, that you had the terminal disease of sin, but also that there was a treatment for it, a cure. That repenting of your sin, acknowledging your sickness and brokenness, there was baptism for the forgiveness of your sins. And Dr. John applied this treatment to many - great crowds were coming to him from all over (Mark 1:5). It is the treatment, the cure, you, too, have received - not from Dr. John, but from the one coming after him, the one mightier than he, the great physician who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. So your sins are forgiven and you have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to continue His healthful and saving work in you.
Because what often happens, once we are cured of a sickness or disease, is that there is a tendency to go back to the same bad behaviours that caused the problem in the first place! Bad habits die hard. So the doctor tells you to stop overeating, stop smoking, eat right, exercise, take care of yourself. Don’t go back to your old ways or you’re going to wind up back in the same perilous predicament.
And that’s what Dr. John told the folks in his office as well, when they asked him, What then shall we do? He told them, stop doing what you did before! Share with those in need, he told the people. Stop your “everyone for himself” thinking, your unloving attitude. Those are perilous sins that will endanger your spiritual health. And to the tax collectors he said, Stop collecting more than you should. Stop with the greed and taking advantage of others. Those are perilous sins. And to the soldiers he said, Stop using your power improperly, to extort money or make people do stuff for you just because you can. As if it’s all about you. That’s perilous. All those things are going to put you right back where you were - sick and in spiritual jeopardy.
So what would Dr. John say to you today if you stepped into his office? What would he tell you to stop? What bad and sinful habits die hard in your life? Is it an unloving attitude? Greed? Selfishness? Always putting yourself first, that it’s all about you? Is it resentment or bitterness or anger or revenge? Is it coveting or jealousy or lust? Or in this Christmas season, is it looking for peace and joy in good feelings or sentimental songs rather than in Jesus and His forgiveness? Is it putting family and friends before God? Or thinking worldly gifts more important that God’s gifts? Loving the things of this world and life more than the one who gives them? What would Dr. John say about your spiritual health?
Well, you know what he would say. So do I. That’s why we’re here. Not because we’re healthy, but because we’re not. Because we need the healing medicine of our Lord’s Word and Sacrament again. That - to put it in the words we heard today - our crooked ways be made straight. Our valleys of despair be filled with hope and joy. Our mountains of sin be made low. And the rough and rebellious places in our hearts be smoothed out again. By Jesus, our great physician. That the threatening perils of our sins be overcome by His forgiveness and Spirit and we be saved by His mighty deliverance. That as the prophet Malachi said today, that He cleanse us and purify us now, so that when He comes again, when that Last Day comes, we be wheat, not chaff, and be gathered to Him, not cast out.
But that mighty deliverance didn’t start out looking so mighty. A baby born and placed in a manger. Dr. John locked up in prison for telling the truth about King Herod’s sickness. And then most un-mightiest looking of all, when our great physician was hung up on the cross. There’s the threatening peril of our sins! What sin does and what sin can do to us. Sickening us so much that we put to death the one who has come to help.
But if we look at the x-ray . . . not one of His bones was broken (Psalm 34:20). There was no spiritual sickness in Jesus, no sin, no brokeness. He was cast out and considered chaff by the world and worldly powers, but His Father knew better. He had no sickness unto death or to cause death to hold Him, so it couldn’t. And so this one who came in weakness and meekness, saved us with the mighty deliverance of His resurrection, and the promise that if death could not hold Him, then it will also not hold those who belong to Him, who are forgiven by Him, who are baptized into Him.
So as Paul told the Philippians today: Grace to you and peace (!) from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the gift we now have in Jesus. Grace and peace. The grace of healing and the peace of certainty that the threatening peril of our sins has been dealt with by Christ Jesus. That with Him and His medicine, we are healthy again. We are wheat, not chaff. For, as Paul went on to say, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That is, that what was begun in us in Baptism Jesus will bring to completion on the Last Day. Our death and resurrection spiritually with Jesus in Baptism will be our death and resurrection with Him physically, too. And we will be gathered to Him, not cast out.
And maybe you’ve heard that when you’re sick, you’re supposed to starve a cold and feed a fever. Or maybe it’s the other way around - I can never remember! But this I know - with our spiritual sickness, with our sin, definitely feed your soul with the Body and Blood of Jesus! For there is the forgiveness, there is the strengthening, there is the life, there is the salvation you need. Not only for our healing but for our lives - that we not go back to the same old bad habits, but bear the good fruit that God desires. That again, as Paul told the Philippians, we be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. The fruit of His righteousness living and growing in us.
So while we may not like going to the doctor, thankfully God has sent the doctor to us. Dr. John, to both show us our sin and show us our Saviour. That we see our brokenness and receive the healing we need. The healing that came when the baby in the manger went to the tree of the cross, and then the rescue we need when our crucified Saviour rose from the dead and ascended into heaven comes again in glory to rescue us.
And that’s what Christmas is all about. Not just that Jesus came, but why He came. For you.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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