Preached at Baldwin Presbyterian Church, December 12th 2010
A printable PDF file can be downloaded through this link.
Our reading today began with somebody on death row. Technically he is a political prisoner; the radical prophet whom we know as John the Baptist. He is sitting in darkness with his mind in overdrive. Throughout his life he had staked everything on the belief that Jesus, from Nazareth, was the promised liberator of his people. But now doubts are overwhelming. He sends a message to Jesus, asking a desperate question. "Are you the one?” Are you really the promised Messiah? Did I do the right thing placing all my hopes in you?
Jesus sends back messengers with these words; "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
Prisons are not just places made of stones, high walls and barbed wire. Many people though outwardly free are hemmed in by numerous things that keep them captive. Doubts. Fears. Addictions. Debts. Lifestyles. Shame. Grief. Regret. Sickness. People are still wondering, “Is Jesus really the One who can save us?”
John is told ‘The lame walk…’ ‘the lepers cleansed…’ The words are a quotation from the prophet Isaiah, Chapter 35. It’s part of a passage that is concerned with the restoration of Israel. It finishes with verse 10 “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
When John heard those words they resonated deep down inside of him He was being invited to look beyond his prison walls and see how God was working out God’s purposes through Jesus Christ. He was not forgotten. Jesus tells the crowds about John. “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist.”
Jesus words to John blew away his doubts. They gave him strength. He knew that he had not been mistaken in telling people that God’s promised One had come and was at work in their midst. What can these words mean to us as we head towards Christmas?
They call us to recognize that Jesus Christ,
born in Bethlehem’s stable,
truly is the Promised One of God!
Today we swim in a sea of ‘isms!’
- Rationalism, the belief that we can work it all out with our minds and through scientific deduction
- Skepticism, which doubts that is the case… indeed doubts anything is the case
- Pragmatism that suggests it doesn’t matter what we believe as long as it works for us.
- Materialism, “He who has the most toys wins”;
- Hedonism, “If it feels good do it”.
- Atheism, “There is no god”,
- Agnosticism; “We can’t know if there is a god”;
- Deism, “There is a God but don’t get excited because God has left the building”.
"Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."
I’ve seen people who were blind, not physically, but blind to where their life is going. I’ve seen them be embraced by the grace of God and find a whole new way of seeing.
I’ve witnessed people, not whose way of walking was disabled, but who in almost the whole of their life had become lame and crippled. I’ve witnessed them be influenced by the gospel message in such a way as they now walk through their lives with a fixed purpose and a solid stride.
I’ve encountered people whose testimony is that they were complete outcasts, (‘lepers’ so to speak) to their families and friends, had been cut off, and despised, usually through their own actions, but then the light of Christ has broken through to them and it’s cleansed them of their shame and they are on track to being whole again.
I’ve watched people who have ignored the Bible all their life, thinking it was just a bunch of outdated prejudicial mumbo-jumbo go through a crisis or some challenge to their way of being and in that situation they have turned to its ancient writings and found that God is speaking right into their situation in a way that has dramitically melted their hard hearts.
I have observed people who were on a road to nowhere but the emptiness of a cold, dark grave, being embraced by the life that is Jesus Christ and become such different people that you just can not believe they were ever in such bad shape.
John sat in a prison cell and asked “Jesus, are you really the one who can save us?” It’s a question people are still asking. I’m here to declare that Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem’s stable, truly is the promised one of God. I’ve seen the way His love changes lives today!
I’m here to say whatever we are going through, wherever our lives are right now, whatever we may be facing, God can be there for us. I’m here to say that “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”
And I invite you to place your life into Gods hands. To come with all your doubts and misapprehensions and hear some good news. Jesus Christ is the Savior! His love can be born into the midst of your life circumstances. I’ve seen the way God’s love can change people’s lives. And I’ve known the power of God’s Holy Spirit t changing my own.
Believe it.
Listen to the songs of the angels.
Jesus Christ is the Savior.
Amen!
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