Advent 2/ Feast of St. Nicholas
Today the Church remembers one of her great bishops and one who is very well known and yet who is unknown—St. Nicholas. Today is not only the 2nd Sunday in Advent, it is also the Feast Day of St. Nicholas. Christians in Russia, Greece and Sicily look upon him as their patron saint. In England alone, 400 churches are named after him. He is also considered the patron saint of sailors and children. In the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland children put out their shoes the night before St. Nicholas’s feast day hoping to receive presents. In many parts of Europe today—St. Nicholas’s feast day—is the day that gifts are exchanged. In our country, of course, St. Nicholas has morphed into Santa Claus. In Lutheranism, the remembrance of St. Nicholas goes back to the earliest days. And even in our own Missouri Synod, our first synodically published agenda and hymnbooks included his feast day and appointed readings for it. Somehow, when we switched over to English, St. Nicholas was dropped. The Gospel our fathers appointed for St. Nicholas’s feast day is from St. Luke 12: Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. So why this Gospel? The answer lies in the life of St. Nicholas and why gifts are given on his feast day.
Tradition reports that Nicholas was born in the late Third Century in what is now Turkey. It is reported that he was religious from childhood; he was devoted to good works; he was generous to the poor; and that he died peacefully. When his parents died and left him a large inheritance, he was a young man. Nicholas used that inheritance to help the poor. One of his most famous accounts of helping the poor is probably why his feast day is so often marked by gift giving and by the Gospel reading from St. Luke: Nicholas found out about a poor man who could not provide the usual dowry for his 3 daughters. Knowing that this might force them into prostitution, St. Nicholas came to the rescue. One night he took a bag of gold, flung it through the window of the poor man’s house and hurried away. When he had heard that the first daughter was married, Nicholas did the same thing for the second daughter. When she was married, Nicholas tried doing the same thing for the third daughter—but this time the father was awake and waiting for Nicholas and caught him in the act! How appropriate then is the Gospel: Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning…Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.
St. Nicholas was a Bishop in the city of Myra in Lycia in what is modern day Turkey. By the 6th century there was a church named after him in the large city of Constantinople. Kind, humble, generous St. Nicholas is also known for something else. When the Council of Nicaea met in 325 AD, from which we ultimately get our present day Nicene Creed, was dealing with the heresy of Arianism—a heresy that taught that Jesus is not the one, true eternal God, that Jesus is not one substance with the Father—Arius, the teacher/ promoter of this heresy got up to speak. St. Nicholas then got up and punched him. So precious and so dear was the true faith to St. Nicholas that he could not stand idly by while Jesus was being blasphemed and the true doctrine contradicted.
This really goes to the heart and core of today’s Gospel, the very first words of St. Mark’s Gospel. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Here St. Mark, together with all Christians—foremost among us, St. Nicholas—stands in holy awe before Jesus and confesses Him the Son of God. That’s what makes us Christians—that Spirit-worked knowledge of who Jesus is and faith in Him as our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell. St. Nicholas had that faith and confessed it in deeds and words. That’s why we remember him today.
Again, St. Mark begins his gospel very simply: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He doesn’t give much background like St. Matthew gives Jesus’ genealogy; St. Luke tells about Sts. Zacharias and Elisabeth, the parents of St. John the Baptiser; St. John in his beautiful prologue goes back into eternity: In the beginning was the Word…. But St. Mark? –The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. At first glance maybe it seems that St. Mark doesn’t want to waste any time and wants to get right at it because he has a message for all people of all time. And so he jumps right into the events that begin Jesus’ public ministry, skipping over all the lovely Christmas and infancy accounts.
But as we reflect a bit on these first words, there may actually be a very profound thought here that is so easily passed over. Notice: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God is not a sentence. As it goes on, it literally reads: just as it is written in the prophet Isaiah… What do we see here—not only is Jesus now the subject The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God but just as it is written in the prophet—that is, Jesus was also the subject of the prophets; Jesus and His saving work was what all of the Old Testament was about—and Jesus and His saving work is what all of the New Testament is about. In other words, Jesus is the message of all of Holy Scripture; it is all about Him: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That Gospel/ good news is centered in only One: Jesus Christ.
Our text: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is how it is written in the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am sending My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare the way for You. A voice of one calling out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight.” This is a prophecy of St. John the Baptizer, that he would come and prepare the way for Jesus Christ, the Son of God. See how Old and New Testament come and fit together in Jesus? St. John the Baptizer is really the summarizing figure of the OT. He was in one sense truly an OT person because he lived and died before Jesus carried out His saving work. Like all the OT saints, St. John could only look forward to Jesus’ work. But unlike the OT saints, St. John could actually physically point to Jesus with his finger and say: Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! How all the OT saints certainly longed to be in the shoes of the Baptiser and actually see with their eyes the long promised Savior they believed in! Jesus tells the Jews [John 8.56]: Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day—he saw it with the eyes of faith.
The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is a glorious continuity between Old and New Testament. It’s not as if there is one God/ one set of rules/ one teaching/ one salvation of the Old Testament and another of the New. No! Jesus is the center and focus. And now we see St. John expressing that continuity—an OT saint but one who sees, proclaims and touches that Savior. So the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God goes all the way back through the OT to all of God’s promises to and work for His OT people. It was all the most glorious way God promised and prepared everything for the coming of the world’s Savior. And now, in grace, He has Jesus, the Savior come and has St. John the Baptizer point Him out to us. This is a very Advent theme, as Advent places us in the shoes of the OT saints as we await and prepare for at Christmas the celebration of Jesus’ first coming and wait for Him to return in glory. Just like the OT saints waited centuries/ millennia for Jesus to come, so too we must wait for His long awaited and promised return at His/ the right time.
The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is the radical call of the Baptiser and it is the radical call of the Church today. It is God’s call to you and me as we confront Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come! Do we take it seriously just who Jesus is? What do we do with Him/ His claims that as the Christ, the Son of God, He is the only way of salvation? That only in Him is there the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. With Jesus it’s either/ or. Either we accept Him, His claims and His gifts and blessings or we reject Him/ them. Either He is the Lord, the Christ, the Son of God, or He is a liar/ lunatic or evil. Jesus with His coming / claims is the great divide. How do our lives reflect our response to His claims? Do we live lives that are in accord with His holy will? Or do our lives reflect the thoughts, attitudes, actions of the world around us? Do our lives reflect that the Jesus we hear in Scripture and confess as our Savior is really the Son of God and our Lord? Is Jesus and His word and will number one in our lives? If Jesus really is the Christ, the Son of God—this radical call of the Gospel—then let us use this Advent season as a time to examine our hearts and lives, recognize our sin, sorrow over them and to return to Christ and His grace that He offers us in His word and Sacrament. And by the power of the Holy Spirit strive to live a life of faith and good works.
Why do we need this Advent reminder? Our text: John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him. John appeared in the wilderness—not only was it the prophecy that he is the voice… calling out in the wilderness, but the wilderness is a picture of spiritual emptiness—dryness. It was a picture of the spiritual condition of the people; it is a picture of our spiritual condition without faith in Christ/ without the life giving water of baptism and Spirit worked faith. They were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. As the people in John’s day publicly acknowledged/ confessed their sin and needed forgiveness and that God was giving there in John’s baptism, let us recognize and confess our sin, daily returning to our own baptism and with the hand of faith reclaiming the blessings of forgiveness of sin, life, peace with God and salvation that God has placed in the waters of holy Baptism.
This radical claim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God is also a call to humility. Our text: John was clothed in camel’s hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. He preached, “One more powerful that I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals! I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Here is the humility of John. He recognized himself as the humble servant of the Messiah. His very appearance and dress brought attention to his message of repentance. Here was a strict preacher of law calling people to recognize and repent of their sin. There was humility from John as he ordered his whole way of life to his message, to his role of preparing the way for Jesus. He didn’t do this for himself; he didn’t get anything out of it; there was no worldly gain for him in being the forerunner. Everything served his life of service to the Lord. That is the radical call of the Gospel that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This Advent may we reflect on how we may humbly order our lives so that all we do is for the glory of our Lord and we and our will/ way fade into the background.
Yes, Jesus is the message of all of Scripture; it’s all about Him. But precisely because Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, when we hear the Gospel/ the Good News about Jesus, it makes a radical claim on us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we recognize, in faith, who Jesus is. And as we know Him rightly as the Christ, the Son of God, may we humble ourselves before, confess our sins and receive from Him His gifts of forgiveness of sin and eternal life. INJ Amen.