Advent Agnus Dei

1 Peter 1:17-25, John 1:29-34
Advent 2 Midweek - December 7, 2016
Agnus Dei, Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi

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When God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, it was with little fanfare.  He chose a lowly birth.  He chose lowly people to reveal it to.  An angel gave them a sign and the shepherds followed the sign to the manger where he lay.  The sign was not much to see.  No sign is.  But the promise was wonderful.  It was the promise that compelled them to go and behold the sign.  It was the promise of a Savior who himself was the long awaited Christ, the very Lord God in the flesh.  This was good tidings of great joy to all people.   But all people did not behold him there – only they who had received the sign.  Only they found him and worshiped him and saw that thing which the angels had told them.  Only they, because only they received the sign. 

The angels sang: “Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”  This word for goodwill that the angels sang is the same word that the Father spoke when Jesus was baptized: “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.”  Goodwill, well-pleased, good-pleasure – it’s all the same word.  Jesus said that no one enters the kingdom of heaven unless he is born again.  By being baptized, Jesus provided for us a new birth that links us to his own holy birth.  Baptism gives us peace with God and the Father’s good-pleasure. 

As in the manger, the Glory of God in the highest was contained and hidden in a lowly stable, so also in his Baptism that same Glory was revealed, and the voice was heard, and the dove was seen.  There we have a revelation of the Holy Trinity.  Jesus said to his disciples: “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all things that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). 

In the Jordan, the Glory of God stood in the flesh.  God’s goodwill toward man was manifest there, because there he took all the disobedience of all sinners upon himself and made available his own obedience to all sinners through water and his word.  Those who are baptized are truly baptized into his death and resurrection.  This is what the angels were talking about when they sang of Glory in the highest and God’s goodwill toward men.  In Jesus’ Baptism, all his well-pleasingness was made known.  So in our Baptism, we also find our own well-pleasingness before God – the well-pleasingness which is ours by faith in him who pleased God in all things and whom it pleased God to give as a sacrifice to take away all our sin.  God’s peace on earth and goodwill toward sinners is bestowed where we are commanded to be born again, because there we are promised that we who trust in Jesus’ words truly have been born from above. 

Baptism is a lowly birth.  It does not look like much.  But for us who know the promise, for us who know that through it we are well-pleasing to God by faith in his Son, we follow the sign and see in it all that we need from our Savior.  This promise, like for the shepherds before us on Christmas Eve, is what compels us to find salvation where God tells us it is found.  It doesn’t look like much.  Jesus’ own birth didn’t look like much.  But God says it is everything.  Through our Baptism, we are the brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus.  In Bethlehem he joined the whole human race in order to join us in our sin, our guilt, our death, and our shame.  So also in Baptism he joins us to himself and shares with us his birth, his life, his death, and his glory. 

Can you imagine how or whether those famous and nameless shepherds ever heard about Jesus again?  I would imagine the shepherds did if they survived another thirty years.  So imagine the excitement – the wonderful connection they would have made – the insight into who this man was and how much he was concealing in his lowly form of a servant.  If the Lord God was found as a baby, how much more was he found as this grown man who healed diseases, cast out demons, and expounded on those good tidings of great joy to all people.  This man who was making a stir throughout Judea was the same Christ the Lord who was hardly noticed in the city of David – except by shepherds.  And now he was finally manifesting himself as the long awaited Shepherd of Israel.  He says to those who hear his voice and follow him: “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).  There’s that word again: good-pleasure – it’s the same word as goodwill and well-pleasing.  Here in this promise, Jesus manifests his glory and hearkens to what the angels sang at his birth.  Here he opens the kingdom of heaven to all his sheep.  He opens it and invites them in.  This is what it means to give them the kingdom.  As the heavens were opened when the Spirit descended and the Father spoke, so the heavens are opened for us where our Good Shepherd continues to teach us where peace with God is found.  The heavens do not open and close.  As the Spirit remained on Jesus, so he remains on us, and so the way to heaven remains wide open.  Jesus joins us to himself and leads us to green pastures. 

In that place where there was much grass, Jesus fed the people by multiplying loaves of bread.  He then told them that he was the Bread of Life.  He who eats of his flesh and drinks of his blood has eternal life.  By this he was referring to faith.  Eternal life is found only in the God who became flesh and blood.  To eat and drink is a strong way to express this.  The only way to embrace God and lay hold of his good-pleasure is to embrace his flesh-and-blood Son who gives himself into death for the life of the world.  This is what it means to be a lamb of Jesus, brought to pasture in a quiet meadow.  It is for those who have become his lambs in Holy Baptism to remain his lambs and behave as lambs by following where he leads – where he continually serves them. 

As Jesus was laid in a manger where animals ate, that’s where the shepherds first worshiped him.  So also we are to feed on his flesh and blood by continually hearing his word and believing it — that’s how we worship him.  He does not lead us into faraway meadows.  No, he places the best of the best that has ever sprung from the earth in a feeding trough for us, as in a manger for livestock.  He invites us to come and eat and fill ourselves where his gospel is preached by his command.  As the angel did on Christmas Eve, so Christ does today.  He gives a sign to you for where you will find the Lord of Glory serving you in mercy.  Here is your salvation.  It is where the Babe born in Bethlehem, which means House of Bread, feeds you with the words of eternal life.  He is your Bread of Life. 

And as a sign to you, he also gives his very Body as bread and his very Blood as wine.  Faith lays hold of this impossible statement.  Faith does not question it.  Faith says, “Let us go and receive this meal for the forgiveness of our sins, which the Lord has made known to us.”  Faith says, “What Jesus says is here for me is exactly what I need.  I a sinner need what the Body and Blood of God have purchased for me.  Jesus tells me to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of my sins.” 

Now imagine those shepherds again.  Can you imagine if they had heard about this Jesus years later?  Can you imagine if they were told – not by angels, but by the stories in town – that there was a man who spoke the word of God and that this might be the Christ?  Can you imagine if they responded by saying, “Been there; done that.  We already saw him.  Yeah, he’s the savior.  Glory to God in heaven, peace on earth, goodwill toward men.  Yeah, we know already.”?  Just think of how preposterous that would be!  Yet, such is the behavior of those who pretend to rely on their Baptism, but who give no thought as to what their Baptism gave them — like shepherds who saw Jesus in a manger, but show no interest years later when he feeds multitudes in the wilderness.  They have followed one sign, but by their clear disinterest in another sign they indicate that they do not properly understand the significance of the first – like they don’t need him anymore. 

In the same way that the shepherds – if they had behaved in such a way – would have shown that they didn’t really believe the angel’s announcement so long ago, so also, those who imagine that being baptized and confirmed is good enough and that hearing the voice of their Shepherd and receiving his body and blood in the Sacrament is superfluous only show their unbelief.  To reject Jesus where he is preaching is to reject Jesus where he was born.  To reject Jesus where he gives himself as food and drink for the forgiveness of our sins is to reject Jesus where he gives us new birth through water and the word. 

And besides all this, what great joy did these shepherds find in those good tidings of the angels?  What benefit was it to them that the Savior was born?  The same benefit for us.  The same benefit also that we have been born again.  Jesus promised that he is with us always.  He said, “Behold, I am with you always.”  For those who find that they have wandered like sheep, who have soiled themselves with sin, who find in their hearts and minds the very defiance and unwillingness that has led all humanity down the same path of destruction – for those who even after they have put on Christ in Holy Baptism still discern their need for this same Christ to save them and rescue them and lead them home to safety and peace and forgiveness – for us who, like the shepherds of old, have learned to rejoice in the birth of Jesus, this word is very precious: “Behold.” 

“Fear not, for behold [that means look!], I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”  So these same tidings of great joy are identified where St. John the Baptist said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  To all people!  The sin of the world!  Great joy is for all people because he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of all people.  How do you know whether Jesus was born for you?  Look at the flesh that God assumed.  Did he become a man?  Are you a man?  Are you a woman?  Are you human flesh and blood?  Then God came to redeem you.  How do you know whether Jesus died for you and took your sins away?  Do you dwell among a people of unclean lips?  Do you feel sin within and without?  Do you live in this world?  Then Jesus died for you. 

This is such beautifully simple logic.   And with this same simple logic, for over 1300 years, Christians have been preparing themselves to receive the Lord’s Supper.  In these words, “O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the word, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, grant us Thy peace,” we confess that what is offered to us from the altar is substantially no different than what lay in the manger, what hung on the cross, and what rose triumphant on Easter.  It is Christ our Lord who gives glory to God in the highest by reconciling us to God and giving us his eternal goodwill.  He who became true Man to shepherd us also became God’s Lamb to rescue us.  Behold.  Follow the sign.  Find him where he now promises always to be with you.  He who bore the world’s sin invites you to take part in his sacrifice for you so that you know your sins are forgiven too.  Amen.