Date: First Advent Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Text: Matthew 3:13-17
Title: God the Father speaks of God the Son
with whom I am well pleased.’"
Advent always presents me with a challenge:
1. Find a way to present the subject about our Lord Jesus, to help prepare us for Christmas.
2. Not to repeat any of my previous Advent Wednesday themes.
3. Since we have three Wednesdays, come up with a topic that fits this group of three.
I sort of happened onto this year’s idea to preach three sermons on the times when God the Father spoke about God the Son, Jesus Christ. I always remembered the two prominent times when the Father spoke about His Son: today’s reading, when Jesus was baptized, and next week’s reading, at Jesus’ transfiguration. I had forgotten there was a third time that God the Father spoke, which we will cover the third Wednesday. I was reminded when I was looking up something unrelated, back in October, and I thought: this fits my three criteria: here is a group of three, on a topic I had not covered during a previous Advent, and it certainly is a good subject for the season, as it is all about Jesus.
As for God speaking, we find that all over the Bible, which begins with God speaking the world into being. God speaks personally with Adam and Eve, and even to Satan. God speaks to Noah. He speaks to Moses, and to prophets and kings, all through the centuries.
But, God the who is doing the talking? God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When the Old Testament quotes God, is the whole Trinity talking, at the same time? Is one particular person of the Trinity speaking—the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? Is there any way to know?
Does the New Testament help us to answer the question? In the New Testament, does the whole Trinity talk, as One? No, in the New Testament, each speaks for Himself. As I said, the Father is recorded, specifically, to have spoken three times. The Holy Spirit is directly quoted only a couple of times. But, the Son, Jesus, is quoted loads of times.
Before I became a minister, I always assumed that, in the Old Testament, when God spoke, it was God the Father doing the talking. Doesn’t it make sense that, before the Son was born into the world in the person of Jesus, the Father would have been the spokesman, leading the way?
Actually, no, it doesn’t. One of the fun things I experienced, going through seminary, was to find answers to questions from all over the Bible. The one that has meant the most to me was learning how the world is going to end, what is going to happen on the Last Day to those who are dead and those who are still living, and what the exact process is going to be. I love that I can go directly to the passages, put them into order, and know what is going to happen. This strengthens my faith and comforts me.
To help answer my question, regarding who it is, in the Old Testament, doing the talking, I had to learn the New Testament. Basically, I had to learn about Jesus. And, what did I learn? Jesus tells us that everything He does, He does to please His Father, to reveal His Father, to fulfill His Father’s will. He says that, when we see and hear Him, we see and hear His Father. We are taught that Jesus, being God the Son, was an active participant in creating everything that was created. On top of this, we are taught that, not only was everything created by God the Son, but everything was created for God the Son.
Let’s put together the pieces. Jesus, being God the Son, is the co-Creator of all things. Even more, all things were created for Him—as I like to say, this world is God the Father’s gift to His Son. And, in coming into the world, in the flesh of the people He created in His image, a prime part of Jesus’ work was to reveal His Father and teach us about His Father.
If God the Father had this world made—had you, and me, and all humans made—as a gift for His Son, it only makes sense that it was God the Son who took on human flesh for the purpose of revealing God the Father and, ultimately, to live the life of love toward God, in heart and soul and strength, which we could not live, and then to pay for our sins with the sacrifice of His flesh.
Even more, if this world belongs to God the Son, then why would He begin His work of saving the world four thousand years after He created it, when He was born of the virgin Mary? Why would He sit back and remain silent while He Father did all of the talking, making all of the promises, leading the people back to God?
Ah, there’s a thought to help get an answer. After Adam and Eve sinned, what has God been doing? He’s been constantly leading us sinners back to Himself. But, who’s been doing the leading? If we only had the Old Testament, we wouldn’t have the answer. But, having the New Testament, we have the answer, and the answer always leads us back to Jesus.
Jesus’ work, after He was baptized and began His three year public ministry, was to reveal His Father; that is, in everything Jesus did, He showed the world what kind of heart His Father has, and what His Father expects, and what His Father promises and will accomplish. His work was to lead people back to His Father. And now, getting that to sink in, we recognize that it’s the same work that He has been doing ever since Adam and Eve fell into sin.
This is good for us to realize, for Jesus is the Savior, not only for us, who came after He was born into our flesh, but for those who came before His earthly life. Jesus is Adam’s Savior. Jesus is Noah’s Savior. Jesus is Moses’ Savior. Whether it’s after He had His own belly button, after He had to nurse at the breast of a woman whom He created, after He had to learn to walk and talk and spell and read and study His own Bible, or it was in the four thousand years before He had His own birth certificate, God the Son—Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ of God—performed the hard work of the Savior of the world.
And, that makes His Father most pleased!
Since this is the Son’s world, normally, the Son speaks for the Father. But now, after it had been thirty years since God the Son had become the Son of Mary, Jesus is ready to take the final steps of these thousands of years of planning. He is ready to reveal Himself; to perform miracles which will show that He is Emmanuel—God with us in human flesh—to proclaim the kingdom of God by leading us into all of His Father’s righteousness, and then to do it for us: pay the judgment price which we cannot begin to pay, the giving of holy flesh and blood for the debt of sin owed to His Father.
This makes the Father so pleased that He finally speaks. Thus, when Jesus is baptized, His Father speaks from heaven for all those present to hear, and to be recorded for us, so that we can know what a monumental event we have before us: the One who, at His humble birth, was first revealed to shepherds by angels singing His glory, and then was revealed to the magi by the Epiphany star over Bethlehem, is now being revealed to all for the purpose of revealing His Father.
So that you, two thousand years after Him, could know the Father, too. So that you could know who you are: originally made in His image, lost to the sin of your human father, Adam, and reclaimed by the One to whom you belong: God the Son, your Savior, Jesus.
As you look forward to the birth of Jesus, rejoice that you have been reborn in Jesus, when He baptized you with everything that He did in your flesh, paying for your sins. As you look forward to His humble beginnings in Bethlehem, reflect that Bethlehem means house of bread, and remember that Jesus invites you to eat His bread, in His House, at His table, in His Holy Communion.
Jesus is the Father’s Son, and the Father is pleased, indeed, for His Son revealed His Father’s heart and will and promises, and you have received His heart of forgiveness, His will to save you, and His promise to give you eternal life. Amen.