On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cries – Third Sunday in Advent

On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
announces that the Lord is nigh;
awake and hearken, for he brings
glad tidings of the King of kings.
 

Advent is a season of preparation. Oftentimes, we see it as a time of preparing the People of God for His return. However, we are called to always be ready, though this season is not wasted by having a “wake up call” for oneself to always be prepared, whether in season or out of season. (2 Timothy 4:2).  

Advent is truly about announcing the kingdom coming and the coming of the King to those outside the Church. Though, far too often, we need to be recatechized this time of the year and reminded that the King whose kingdom that has no end has a time and a place reserved by the Father when He shall return in bodily form to judge the quick and the dead. Yet we enter into this Third Sunday in Advent, and we need to cleanse ourselves and get to the business of announcing the cleansing available to all those outside the Church for their sins. 

Then cleansed be every breast from sin;
make straight the way for God within,
and let each heart prepare a home
where such a mighty guest may come.
 

The cleansed breast we sing for and the call of John the Baptist to make our own hearts straight ties perfectly with our collect of the day. Christ is coming and the question we must ask of ourselves and those outside the Church is this: have you prepared a home in your heart for Christ? He will take it all up. There is no guestroom, nor home, nor heart large enough for your King. When He arrives in your life, He will demand all your heart, all your fidelity, all your faith, and all of you. 

Therefore, we cry out to the Father for grace, yes, precious yet ever-abundant grace, so “that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.” It is poetic that we pray that our ministers and stewards of the mysteries of the Holy Gospel and the Divinely instituted Sacraments might do their vocations and do them well as this week we enter into Ember Week. Ember Week is a time of year when we pray for God to raise up godly men befitted for ministering His Word and Sacraments who will be effective in their work “by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.” This is the same ministry John the Baptist did for God’s People, and it is the ministry of all those in vocational ministry. 

For thou art our salvation, Lord,
our refuge, and our great reward;
without thy grace we waste away
like flowers that wither and decay.
 

The second half of our collect explains why we pray for ministers and stewards with godly and impactful ministries, namely because we the Church desire “at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.” 

We are like the flowers in the field who shall “wither and decay” unless we cling to “our refuge, and our great reward” that is, “our salvation” the Lord. It is “without thy grace we waste away” and on this side of the Age to Come, we find God’s grace in the preached Word and faithful and right delivery of His Holy Sacraments in the Church by His ministers. 

To heal the sick stretch out thine hand,
and bid the fallen sinner stand;
shine forth, and let thy light restore
earth’s own true loveliness once more.
 

The call of Christian ministers is a call to the cure of souls. It is a healing ministry, because the call and ministry are directly from the Great Physician who calls out the sick to “stretch out thine hand” and to others Christ “bid the fallen sinner stand.” Each of us is given a ministry, even if it is not into the ordained ministry. Each of us was called to stand after falling in our sins condemned. Each of us is called into a holy Advent so that through the Holy Ghost when “the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:5, Epistle Lesson). 

Let us join our voices in our hymn of praise and cry out to God to “shine forth, and let thy light restore earth’s own true loveliness once more.” Let us take this day and this week to pray for “the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God” that God may call existing ministers to repentance, raise up new ministers, and that each “man be found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:1–2, Epistle Lesson). 

All praise, eternal Son, to thee,
whose advent doth thy people free;
whom with the Father we adore
and Holy Spirit evermore. 

It should not surprise us sons and daughters of the Church to see John the Baptist host his ministry at the Jordan. Too many think that John was disrespecting the Temple worship, but this is not true. John knew the Temple was devoid of God’s presence – He had not filled it up after the return from exile and the rebuilding of the Temple. But now, yes now, John knew that God in the flesh was coming. God was coming to visit His Holy Temple by, in, and within His Holy Temple made without hands – His incarnate body. Therefore, John preaches His coming and awaits faithfully for Immanuel to appear. And suddenly indeed Jesus appears and to fulfill all things, this new Joshua, the true Joshua, is baptized in the Jordan just as the first Joshua and God’s people were baptized at the parting of the Jordan and crossing over into the promised land. (Joshua 3:13). So too, our true and great Joshua, Jesus the Christ then entered powerfully into the Promised Land to call His ministers and stewards to offer spiritual worship, to call His people to repentance, to drive out and dispossess the demons judged from the land, and to die for Jews and Gentiles alike. 

Is it any wonder, that John the Baptist, who knew “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30) is the same John who when imprisoned pointed his two disciples to the only One who could save them: Jesus the true Joshua. John’s sending of his disciples should remind all ministers and stewards of God’s mysteries that our ministries are not our own. We have no ministry named for ourselves, our ministry is the single ministry of Jesus Christ, reflected in His body, the Church. Therefore, unless we too are pointing our disciples, our parishioners, and our own families away from us and towards Christ, we have failed. 

The call is to die to ourselves and to take up our cross and follow the Lord. Therefore, let us die this Advent and become God’s “messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee.” (Matthew 11:10, Gospel Lesson). The second Advent of the Lord has enrolled His entire Church – you and I – to be John the Baptist to those within our lives. We are to point those within the Church and without to “those things which ye do hear and see” from Jesus. (Matthew 11:4, Gospel Lesson). Namely, we are called as witnesses that Joshua (Jesus the Christ) is triumphing mightily over our foes of sin, death, and the devil. For “the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Matthew 11:5, Gospel lesson). 

Shall there be those who are offended by Christ? Absolutely, and I might add, especially in this day and age. But “blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” (Matthew 11:6, Gospel lesson). We are called not to the offended (let the Gentiles rage), but to the unoffended who are drawn into Christ and blessed in Jesus’ victory over their sin, their death, and their enslaver, the devil. 

Like John the Baptist, we cry out in this life and on this side of Eden to our Savior, beckoning Him to come and set us free. Free us from the oppressive Enemy of this world who falsely rules it and oppresses us. Behold, in the clouds descending and just across the Jordan, we see our mighty Joshua ready for battle and ready to set His winnowing fork across the land to take His precious harvest to His new home “over yonder” beyond the Jordan and into the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem that descends to earth. 

The gates of hell stand before us. Raise up O God, mighty ministers to lead thy people into your Victory. Ride before us and crush the Enemy who occupies your creation. Your Church is with thee and You have promised these gates are no match for You and Your kingdom. Therefore O Lord, equip us and “put on [us] the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life” and make us bold to proclaim your Gospel. Amen.