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Grace, mercy, and peace be upon 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.
So allow your life to have uncertainty or allow your life not to have the comfort zone it once had. And the question arises then in your mind, as it does in mine, what is God’s purpose for me? But leave us in our comfort zone. We don’t ever think about God’s purpose for me. Put us in an uncomfortable situation, which God loves to do to grow our faith. We’re left wondering, what is God’s purpose for me? As if comfortability is a result of us doing all these things for God. And it’s kind of like the reward that comes. If we do those things well, he blesses us with comfortability. If we don’t, then he puts us in an uncertain and uncomfortable situation. That’s not true.
But you and I know, though it’s not true, it’s very hard to stop the thoughts flowing in our minds that think such things. Hmm. John, the baptizer, is concerned about what God’s purpose is for him. It’s not as if John was this holy man who had no fear, as he sat in that dank prison cell. Why else would he call his disciples to himself? Except he wanted also to be assured from Jesus’ lips that he really is the one. This is his cousin we’re talking about. And yet he wonders it because life for him has changed. He’s suffering for the faith. He’s suffering for the calling that God has placed him in.
So he sends his disciples to Jesus to ask him these questions. Are you the one who is coming? Or should we wait on another? Jesus showed them miracles at that time. It says at that hour, and he did these miracles. And then he reminded them of the miracles that he had done in the past and how all of these miracles that he had done—healing the sick, healing the lame, giving sight to the blind and deaf or hearing to the deaf and raising the dead—all of those things that he did were symbols or pictures of him fulfilling the Old Testament.
In essence, he was saying, if you want to know about me and what my purpose is for you, then look at how I have defined myself and how I have been defined by my loving Father through all of the prophets of old. Because even though these people’s lives had changed—they who were blind now see, they who were deaf now hear, they who were dead now raised from the dead—though their life changed in this life, it wasn’t about this life that mattered.
God’s purpose is for your spiritual life to save your soul. Because the people whose eyes now see would have to close them in death. The people whose ears could hear would now have to hear death when they died. And the people who were raised from the dead may have lived a little bit longer, but they still had to die. What mattered was God’s spiritual healing. That was what mattered. That’s God’s purpose for you.
But let our life in this world be uncomfortable, and let it be challenged, and we wonder what God’s purpose is for us. And we wonder, if we do thus and so, will this result? And we also wonder, is this result because I didn’t do thus and so? John had to have thought in his heart and in his mind, did I say it too strongly? Was I too harsh about Herodias and Herod when I preached against them? Should I have done it maybe more privately? Should I have been more diplomatic?
Just like you do whenever you preach. Suffer for the faith. You question whether you did it correctly. Or if you didn’t suffer for the faith, do you pat yourself on the back and say, I did it correctly because I’m not having to deal with the aftershock of having shared the faith? As if there is only one way to do it, which will always give you a way out of suffering. John was living with that very statement. Blessed are those who will not be offended by me, Jesus said.
That was the last word he sent those disciples back to John to tell him as he waited for his head to be removed from his body, even though he didn’t know it was going to be at that time. When you and I are tempted by not wanting to offend, be offensive to other people. You know, it’s interesting. There are some people we don’t care whether we offend. That’s not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about the people that we do care whether we offend because we don’t want to rock the boat and live with the consequences of truth.
What is God’s purpose for you when he thrusts you into suffering for the faith? It’s the same purpose as when he gives you smooth sailing for the faith. There is no change in purpose. The change is in you and me and our perception, not in God’s purpose for us. Jesus did not come to be an earthly ruler, to right all the wrongs in your life, to fix all of the tattered edges that you and I have. Now, that’s shocking, but it’s true. Jesus did not come to bring about vengeance upon all who oppress you.
In fact, he may leave you being oppressed just as he left his cousin John in that oppressive prison to die a martyr’s death. He did not come to execute judgment on all who have thrust themselves upon you because he also didn’t come to smite you who have thrust yourselves upon other people with your sin and my sin. So Jesus made this interesting statement. He said, to what shall I compare this generation? And what are they like?
Now, that’s a pretty interesting question because we can ask ourselves the same question. To what then shall we compare this generation? And what are they like? It’s important for us to know because we’re a part of it. Whether we wish to or not, we’re a part of it. We’re cut from the same sinful fabric as all else in this culture and generation. And it does not matter what culture we grew up in, nor what race we are, nor what economic ability we have, or societal blessings and benefits. None of that matters. For we’re all cut from the same cloth of sinful nature.
This is really about what are we like? And we’re just like John’s contemporaries to whom Jesus said these words. Because every generation wants to put Jesus in their box. And when he doesn’t dance to their tune or mourn to their encouragement, they wash their hands of Jesus. If you want to see wrath executed, if you want to see justice done, if you want to see oppression halted, that’s what you look at right there.
Jesus’s purpose for you is to completely receive in himself all of God’s wrath, vengeance, anger, and justice. And it’s not resting on your shoulders. That’s how he reveals himself. And then he adds that in living out this faith as my child, you will live the same life that I lived. That’s it. He was rejected. Do we think we can posture ourselves and not be rejected? He was ridiculed. Do you think we can somehow move ourselves to not be ridiculed by the people we love dearly and don’t want to cause them heartache?
Again, we’re not really concerned about the people who we don’t care whether they’re mad at us or not. We’re talking about the people who we have a deep relationship that we don’t want to offend or upset because of truth. So when Jesus says they’re like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, that’s talking about the world. The world wishes to try to define Jesus and all who follow Jesus.
The world loves to say the church, it’s supposed to be made up of perfect people. The church is full of hypocrisy. What do you think about yourself? Do we define ourselves according to what we would like to be defined? Or do we define ourselves as how he has defined us first and foremost? The ones for whom he has released us from captivity. You are the ones for whom he has given you adoption. You who are not his children by nature, but by adoption.
He’s defined for you who he is and how he has come for you. And it was those people—those tax, not tax collectors, but the Pharisees and others—who tried to define Jesus according to their view and not according to what he defined him as. In fact, if you want to look at what the church really is, the church is made up of people who are the social outcasts.
Oh, we can say we want to be the social outcasts because we like that rebellious American independent spirit. As long as it doesn’t cause heartache in our life, we don’t mind being the outcasts. Let it cause heartache in our life or our family’s life, and then it’s not so much fun to be different. This was what John was facing. This is what all of God’s children face in their life.
Then Jesus makes a most fascinating statement at the very end. Wisdom is justified by all her children. Who is wisdom? Jesus is wisdom. Solomon describes Jesus as wisdom in the first eight chapters or nine chapters of the book of Proverbs. Their wisdom cries out, come and eat my wares, wisdom says. Come and drink my drink and eat my food and become wise. That’s what wisdom cries out.
Jesus cried that out. But the world looks at Jesus’ wisdom and says, stupidity. And your flesh does the same thing as mine does, posturing itself to avoid any and all conflict for the sake of wanting to do the right thing. Sometimes, painfully, the right thing always will incur rejection and scoffing and ridicule. And doing the right thing also may mean death, unjust death. But that’s what he did for you, remember?
Remember? You will never have to face that death nor that total rejection. That’s his purpose for you. His purpose for you is to get you to trust in and believe that. And in believing that, you justify him. That’s what the text said. Wisdom is justified by her children. If wisdom is Jesus, you are his children by faith. You actually justify him.
Better to think of it in this way. You are the proof to the pudding. Because what kind of people follow Jesus? Oh yeah, tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes. That’s the church, isn’t it? And what does the church look like? We may think we like to think of ourselves as being different than the rest of society. Oh, by and large, by what you see we are, but not by what’s inside of here or what’s inside of here. We’re just like the rest of society. The only difference is, God has called us to faith and we come back like poor beggars knowing we can’t survive without him imparting to us our food and drink that we may be sustained in this life.
Your presence here justifies him because you show the world in spite of what the world thinks of you, you are God’s child. And as you stand up for the faith in various places and situations, you justify your Lord Jesus though you don’t look like it and even act like it. Because if he is truly wisdom and he is justified by his children, that’s got to mean something.
It is a text to be wrestled with indeed. But it all goes back to him, doesn’t it? Where it always has and will. He who justifies you is justified by you. Remarkable indeed. You are his proof that his power is effective. It doesn’t look like it. It’s hidden. Just like that’s hidden. And yet we know that’s God, the almighty creator of heaven and earth. And yet he looks stricken, smitten, and afflicted.
You are his proof, just as he is the Father’s proof. In the name of the one Jesus who comes for you and me. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
