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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. Every year at the second Sunday of Advent, there is introduced to you and to me a remarkable character named John the Baptizer. Now it’s important to know some basic information about John the Baptizer. He is the cousin of Jesus because his mother, Elizabeth, and our Lord’s mother, Mary, they themselves were cousins. John the Baptizer was also the last Old Testament prophet. For all of the Old Testament prophets pointed toward the Messiah who is to come. John the Baptizer pointed to Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, who is to come, and came during John’s lifetime.
John, as you see in our text, is imprisoned. He is put in prison by the king named Herod because he thought it to be quite all right to marry his brother’s wife, named Herodias. So John preached against their plan, profaning the sanctity of marriage. And for his faithfulness to the gospel, for his faithfulness to truth, was John in prison. Herod and Herodias remained impenitent to what John proclaimed. But John’s proclamation against their profaning marriage and in John’s proclamation of upholding marriage is John’s proclamation to you this morning.
But it is not about your earthly marriage that he speaks. He speaks to every single one of you, whether you wear a wedding band or not, because you are married to Christ, who is the bridegroom of the church, and the church is his bride. John is preaching about marriage enrichment. Marriage enrichment between you, the bride of Christ, and your Lord, your bridegroom.
Now in this text, John makes a very interesting proclamation when he says that Jesus has sandals of which he is unworthy to even untie. And the question that can be raised is, what do sandals have to do with marriage? In the Old Testament, there was a woman named Ruth, who was the daughter-in-law of Naomi. And Ruth’s husband had died, and they had returned to Israel. In returning to Israel, Naomi urged Ruth to connect up with Boaz. Boaz could be her husband. But in order for Boaz to be her husband, the redeemer of Ruth had to deny his responsibility to redeem her. Right?
This exchange was a very interesting exchange in the city gate. At the city gate, in front of the elders of the city, this man who chose not to redeem Ruth had to take off his sandal in front of all and give his sandal to Boaz, pointing to Boaz as being the one who would redeem Ruth and buy her and make her his wife. So this man took off his sandal in front of all and gave it to Boaz, and Boaz became the redeemer of Ruth, the one who was bought back, the one who was made wife. John was making it very clear to all he was not even worthy to untie the sandal of Christ because he could not redeem you or me. Only Christ could take off his sandal and give it to himself to redeem you. And that is what our Lord did.
For our Lord was brought before us all, and he was baptized with the baptism in which you would never be baptized. And that baptism was the baptism into hell and death, separation from God. And there was not water in which Christ was baptized. Christ was baptized into his own blood. That he might redeem you and buy you back and make you his bride. In front of all the world to see, you are his chosen. And he did not buy you with gold or silver as Luther penned in the meaning to the second article of the Apostles’ Creed. You were bought back with his holy precious blood in which he was baptized for you.
And you were bought back by his innocent suffering and death, that you would never have to die that death, that you would be his own, and we can add, bride, wife, by your baptism. Truly, this is a marriage and a match made in heaven between you and your bridegroom Christ Jesus.
John preached against Herod and Herodias for profaning the marriage vow. John preaches to you to repent for your profaning of the marriage between you and your bridegroom Jesus. Repent. It is interesting when John is proclaiming this, who responds to the preaching and who tunes the preaching out. In our text, John vehemently, with great vitriol, completely crushes the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes in the crowd because they do not see themselves as being unfaithful to their bridegroom Jesus.
And the question that John proclaims to you is not whether or not you have, but whether you will repent of being unfaithful to your bridegroom Jesus. The Sadducees and the Pharisees see themselves as above reproach, not being guilty of such infidelity. And yet, it’s not the Pharisees and the Sadducees. It is not Herod or Herodias who repent. There are those within the crowd that do. The first group are parts of the crowd, but not all the crowd. Only the repentant people within that crowd repent, and they cry out to John with these words, “What then shall we do?”
For if you don’t think that you’ve been unfaithful to your bridegroom Jesus, those words do not cross your lips. The second group are the tax collectors. Not all the tax collectors, mind you, only the repentant tax collectors who cry out to John with the same words, “What then shall we do?” For they know they have been unfaithful to their bridegroom, Jesus. The third are the soldiers, but not all the soldiers, only the repentant soldiers cry out, “And we? And we? What then shall we do?”
These words are the words of repentant hearts. Repent. When Peter preached the magnificent sermon on Pentecost, the people responded with the same exact words, “What then shall we do?” And Peter responded with the truth of the gospel, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The very gift given to you at your baptism when you were baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection for you, your very bridegroom.
Turn from those things that divert your faithfulness from your husband and your Redeemer. Only you know those things from which you need to turn. The things about which you worry, the things about which are acid in your mind and cause cynicism to abound, and grumpiness and griping to abound and negativity, frustration at God, or worse yet, with another believer. Turn from those things that draw you away from His arms, that wish to embrace you and hold you fast.
Turn from those voices that call you away from this place where you lay with Him in His bed and receive Himself who comes to you in His word and in His sacrament. Do not go away from Him. He wishes to receive you. Turn not from those things that attract your attention to something that is fleeting in beauty rather than to His eternal beauty. His beauty of his broken body for his bride. His beauty of the forgiveness which flows from his side of water and blood. His beauty of words that woo you back into his arms. That call you to return and quit clinging to yourself and to the things that you think are good about you.
And let him tell you what is good because of him who is your bridegroom. It is He who makes you who you are. It is He who beautifies you and calls you His beloved. Trust in and find comfort in you being knit into His flesh and blood in the communion of saints. Trust in and find comfort in the great gloriousness of the forgiveness of your sins, which is why He holds you dear, to give you them. Amen.
Which you won’t find out there. It will always be judgmental. It will always be, “Have you done enough?” It will always be, “Are you worthy?” Trust in and find comfort in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, the glorious reward for being His bride. You have it now. The fulfillment of it will be upon your death when you close your eyes in Christ.
Your glorious dress will be given to you, white and holy, pure and virginal. These are the things that matter. These are the things he keeps calling you back to. And remember Ruth? Ruth is very interesting because Ruth was not a Jew, was she? Ruth was a foreigner, just like you. She was not from good lineage. She was from a pious home. She was a foreigner just like you. And Boaz redeemed her, and from them came David and Christ.
So you have been redeemed and grafted into Christ and made His bride. God be praised for such a marriage, a match made in heaven and in heaven alone manifested there. This is marriage enrichment. This is part of our Advent journey, continually growing in that marriage with Christ. In the name of Jesus, amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
