John the Baptizer, locked up in Herod's dungeon sends His disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the One who is to come? Or should we be looking for someone else?” Maybe John has some doubts? He preached about the guy who was coming to cast the unrepentant into the fires and yet here he is, locked up by an evil king. So is Jesus the real deal? What's the answer? The answer is, “What is He doing?” The sick are healed, the dead are raised and the poor have the Gospel preached to them. Does that mean He's the Christ? See how Jesus points John to His works which fulfill the Scriptures. In other words, the answer to John's question is: What is Jesus doing? And is He doing the things the Bible says the Savior will be doing. Jesus' answer reminds John and us that His kingdom isn't about the things we'd make a kingdom out of. We'd like power and glory and fame and money and all that. Jesus' kingdom is about those who can't help themselves. It's about the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dead and those who need forgiveness. That, above all, the forgiveness of sins, is what the Lord is bringing as the Savior. The Old Testament said He would. Do these things. He does them and so He is indeed the Christ, the Coming One. Be at peace, John, Jesus is indeed the One, as you faithfully preached.
How about today? There are so many religions and faiths and philosophies. We are surrounded by a world that doesn't know anything about Christ and doesn't want to. We may well wonder as John did, “Is Jesus the One? Seriously? Where is He? What is He doing? What good has He done?” How do we answer that? We answer it with what we have seen and heard through the eyewitnesses of Jesus. He was born of the Virgin, baptized for sinners, tempted in the wilderness. He walked on water and He preached that we should trust in Him. He was arrested, tried, beaten and crucified. He died on the cross of Calvary. He rose from the dead the third day. Again, all things the Scriptures said would happen. One of the most important ways we know that Jesus is the true Savior is that He fulfilled the prophecies made of him hundreds of years before. The world and its history are full of prophets and wise guys and all that. But it is only Jesus Christ who was killed in the most horrible way and yet was alive again three days later! How do we know Jesus is the One among all those religions? Because He was dead and is alive just as the Scriptures taught beforehand and just as the Scriptures give witness to. And by dying and rising He has done what no other prophet has done.
What about today? In His church? When we struggle to pay our bills and wonder why we don't have more people here. What then? Is this really the right faith? The right religion? The right Jesus? Well, what do you see and hear? Sinners are baptized and absolved. Christ crucified is preached. Those hungry and thirsty for righteousness have the Body and Blood of Christ given to them. For the answer to his question, Jesus points John to the Scriptures. For our answers we go to the Scriptures. What does Jesus' Word say? “Therefore go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Go and preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in my name. Whosoever's sins you forgive, they are forgiven.” Is that what this church is about? Is that what's going on here? Look around. Listen up. Everything in this church is about Christ crucified and risen forgiving our sins by His Word and Sacraments. That's Christ at work doing what He says He would be doing. If those are the things Christ said are His works in His church and those are the things going on, then never worry that Christ is here among us doing what He promised to do.
What about you? When someone asks whether you are a Christian, when the opportunity to give witness to your faith comes up, who and what do you talk about? Give them the answer that John was given: what has Jesus done and is He doing for you. Tell them, “Well, I am baptized. My pastor forgives my sins. I hear Christ crucified preached every time I'm in church. Christ feeds me with His Body and Blood.” Those are the gifts which make and keep you a Christian, a child of God. When it comes to your religion, don't talk about you. Just as Christ didn't promote Himself but rather pointed to the Word and His fulfillment of it. Not that He didn't know Who He was but He wants all things done by and according to His Word. So for us. We don't rely on the testimony of ourselves but of the Word and what Christ says and gives in His Word. Then we're on solid ground, as John was, for He had the Word of God to give His answer and proof.
But the answer to all these questions is not one that will satisfy most people. To point to the Word of God and see Jesus as the One who fulfills it is not what people want to hear. “Blessed is he who is not offended by Me,” says Jesus. There were many in Jesus' day who denied the Word and refused to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah. There are many today who have one religion or another but deny the true God, instead seeking gods and philosophies that are all about them. There are many in the church who measure things by the works of men rather than by what Christ is doing in His Word. There are many who profess to be Christians who based their claim upon something they've done: how good they are or what decision they made or how faithful they try to be. Even we are not immune from the doubts that wonder whether Jesus is it. Repent, brothers and sisters and look again at how Jesus fulfills the Scriptures. Look at how He directs us to the Word for the answer. Look how the Word points to Him and what He has done for us by His cross and empty tomb. Look how the Word directs us to what He still does for us by water, Word, Body and Blood. There are many who are offended by Jesus because He isn't the god they want. But He is the only God who saves. He is the only God who became man and died and rose for sinners. He is the only God who preserves His holy church even in this evil world until He comes again. All that Christ does for us the Word teaches and it is our comfort amidst all trouble.
When Jesus first appeared at the Jordan River, it was John the Baptizer who pointed Him out saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” That's why Jesus came. That's what Jesus did. That forgiveness is what He delivers to us now. Whenever we doubt, whenever we wonder, let us look to what Christ has done and still does. His works, according to God's Word declare Him to be the True Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God who saves sinners. It is He who has brought us into His kingdom by grace. John the Baptizer died before he could see the fulfillment of his preaching, Jesus' death and resurrection. But you have had that death and resurrection preached to you from the Word of the eyewitnesses. But we, like John, are saved the same way: by the works of the One who was to come, who came and who will come again, even Jesus Christ our Lord. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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