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In the name of Jesus, amen.
To brothers and sisters in Christ, with Jesus of Nazareth standing right before him, I can see Pontius Pilate immediately snapping back with the words, “What is truth? What is truth?” Our Lord Jesus had just answered the previous question where he was asked, “So, you are a king?” For Jesus had said, “You say that I’m a king; for this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
This is what we see in this morning’s readings, which actually permeate all through the Holy Scriptures. It is the word colliding with the world about what is truth and who defines it. There are only two possible answers to the question concerning life and death, everything between and beyond, and one is true and the other is a lie. There is the absolute truth which is of God, and the other is defined and determined by man for self. This is the word colliding with the world.
In the Old Testament lesson, we see God calling Amos. He was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. His home was Tekoa, a small town just south of Bethlehem. And now, in our text, God sends Amos to the northern kingdom to bear witness to the truth. As Amos says, there is God’s plumb line. The hearers in that place, in their wickedness of their false worship, hardened hearts, and their injustice for others, were not in line with God. They were not in line with God’s Word. You can sort of say they were off kilter. They were in line with the ways of the world, in their beliefs and in their practices.
Now in chapter 5, through his messenger Amos, God is calling the people to seek the Lord and live. Through these words, God was giving them the ability to return and to cling, to reveal the truth of his commands and his promises that have been proclaimed through the generations through the forefathers. In the present state of the absence of true faith in life, Amos speaks judgment to the people and he includes their attitudes toward him and toward others who speak the truth. He writes, “They hate him who reproves in the gate. They abhor him who speaks the truth. Therefore you trampled on the poor and extracted taxes on grain from him. You have built houses of human stone, but you shall not dwell in them. And you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them.”
Amos’ message had reached the ears of the leadership of the religious and the secular authorities: Amaziah the high priest and Jeroboam the second, the king. They were not pleased with him, for Amos had spoken words such as “Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel must go into exile away from the land.” Amaziah told Amos to return to Judah. In other words, “Go home. And when you go home, take your words with you.” They rejected the prophecies, God’s word through the mouthpiece of Amos. They denied the word of truth, the opportunity to take root in their midst, for they had chosen to dwell in a self-determined ungodly life which they called their own truth, which was not truth at all. It was a lie.
But Amos stood firm. Even though there was no worldly benefit for him speaking this word of truth in this place, his vocation was caring for animals and he worked in the orchards. But God called him to go north and he gave him the words to speak to the people. Finally, Amos foretold what would happen to Jeroboam in his kingdom. Because they had rejected God and his word of truth, he will bring destruction upon Israel.
In their hearing, God made a promise through his messenger Amos: there will be, in the future, after his judgment upon this people, a remnant, a small portion from the people in exile, and he will bring them back into the land that he had given to their forefathers. What happens to Amos? Nothing is recorded in the Scriptures. One of the traditions is that Amaziah killed him and Amos’ body was taken and buried in Judah.
Now we turn to the gospel. We see another story of the Word clashing with the world. God called John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, to stand in the wilderness of Judea near the Jordan River to bear witness of the truth of God’s Word revealed to him. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The wait is over. The promised Messiah is in their midst to defeat their enemies and to usher in his kingdom. John addressed their unbelief.
John addressed their false worship. John addressed their wicked lifestyles, and the scriptures say that the people were coming from Jerusalem and from all Judea and all the regions about the Jordan, and they were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River confessing their sins. John was even calling out groups like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, saying, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”
In his preaching, he was even identifying specific sins, like the sins of King Herod and his wife Herodias. They were both married to other people, and they met each other in Rome, and this encounter led them to leaving their spouses without divorcing and eloping together. And now, on top of this, Herod was the brother of Herodias’s first husband. It was all public knowledge. So John publicly speaks to the adulterous affair as sinful before God, and this admonition landed him in prison.
John was bearing witness of the truth of God’s Word for the world, for all people to hear, confess, believe, and be saved. John stood firm. There was no worldly benefit for him to speak this word of truth in this place. He had ample opportunity as he appeared before Herod to speak, opportunities to revise the message, deleting sections of the word proclaimed. He had opportunities to reinterpret it with terms carrying different meanings that would be non-offensive. In doing so, he could possibly deter the wrath of his captors, but he did not. They were not his words; he was only God’s mouthpiece. Through this word, God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, even Herod, even Herodias.
But because of Herodias’ hatred for John, for him calling what she believed to be right for her wrong in the eyes of God, she devised a plan that is before us this morning. Like Amaziah, she believed that if she could silence the messenger, she could be free from the upcoming judgment. But this is God’s Word for the world, and it is truth.
This is the law and the gospel. With this clashing of the Word with the world, speaking both the law and the gospel, I would like for us to look at it from two perspectives. The first one is most familiar to us, and that is being on the receiving end. The Word of God confronting us, be it the Word in us, our reading and studying the Word, or the Word being proclaimed to us by the pastor from the pulpit, in the classroom, or in private, or the Word spoken through a fellow believer. The law delivers the truth, exposing that our old corrupted nature is still hanging around, and it exposes that we are influenced by this sin-filled world, and it exposes that the devil is always prowling around, ready to entice, deceive, and destroy.
We are sinners, unable to make things right with God through our own merits. We sin in thought, word, and deed by what we do and by what we don’t do. But the gospel is also ringing in our ears. This is the gospel and it teaches us what God has done and is still doing in Christ Jesus for our salvation. So we confess, and in confession, there are two parts. With the contrite heart, sorry for our sins, we confess them, be it in general or in specific, both. The second is that we receive absolution. That is the forgiveness of our sins, and where there is forgiveness, there is salvation and eternal life.
Now the second perspective is being the one who bears witness of the truth of God’s Word in the world. As a bearer of the Word, you will find yourself clashing with the world. As Jesus prays to his Father in what is known as the high priestly prayer in reference to his disciples, he said, “I have given them the word. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.” He also said at another time in another place to those gathered around him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
As new creations in Christ, you possess something that the world cannot comprehend. In our various vocations in this world, the light of Christ shines in you and through you. Paul writes to the church in Corinth, “For the word of the cross is folly.” Folly means it’s foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. As you bear witness of the truth of God’s Word, delivering both the law and the gospel through your daily lives, it will clash with the world and their definition of truth.
When you find yourself in a situation, speak the truth of God’s Word boldly and in love. With the help of the Holy Spirit, be steadfast. Remember Jesus said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.” We are His, and He is ours.
We know this. And we know this: that He is the Word that clashed with the world when He, the Creator, entered his creation, taking on flesh and becoming a man—true God and true man in the person of Jesus. He came with the mission He came to provide the way of salvation from sin, death, and the power of the devil, and the only way was the offering of a perfect substitutional sacrifice in our stead for our sins.
During his three-year ministry, Jesus preached the law, exposing the sin of people while proclaiming the gospel that he is the fulfillment of the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world. And those who cling to his words and works of truth, for them, by faith, will be saved. The climax of his mission is to hang on the cross and to die in your place and to pay the cost for your sins. Through his bloodshed, you have forgiveness of your sins and salvation and eternal life.
On the third day, he rose from the dead, and those who are his own will also rise on the last day to everlasting life. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
So it is truth. Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords. He said, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness of the truth.” He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him because God has given you this gift of faith, you truly know, you truly know the truth. You know the peace that passes all understanding, which keeps your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
