The Elijah Who Is to Come

A Sermon on Matthew 3:1-12 for the Second Sunday in Advent, Series A, 2022

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The very last line of the whole Old Testament. Written after the exile into Babylon, after Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem. About four hundred and fifty years before Christ was born. We read it a couple weeks ago for our Old Testament lesson:, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” That’s where the God stops speaking to His people through the prophets. That’s where He has them wait for the right time for the Savior to be born. But who is Elijah?

Four hundred years earlier, “Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria….” In the second year of his reign, Ahaziah fell through a lattice and lay sick in his bed. He sent to find out from Baal, the god of Ekron to see if he would live. But those messengers returned to him, saying that a man stopped them and gave them this message in return, “Go back to the king who sent you and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, is it because there is no God in Israel  that you seek Baal?’” The king asked what kind of man this was. They answered him, “”We wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather around his waist.” “Elijah!” 

The king sent out fifty soldiers to bring Elijah to him, but the soldiers were all killed by fire raining down out of heaven. So Ahaziah sent another fifty. They too died by fire. The captain of the third company of fifty begged Elijah not to kill them, And Elijah then went to the king. Told the king that by the Word of the Lord, he would die in his bed, and the king died right then and there. There was no prophet in Israel like Elijah.

Elijah had to contend with famine, death, idolatry, and threats to his life. The Lord sent him to live three years with a widow at Zarephath who only had enough flour and oil left for one final loaf of bread before starving to death. The Lord raised the widow’s son from death through Elijah. The Lord challenged all the prophets of Baal in Israel because of Queen Jezebel, and won. Only to be hunted into the wilderness, left to die once again. Time and time again, Ahab was visited by Elijah. And the Lord condemned the evil of Israel’s kings through him until the day the Lord took Elijah up in the whirlwind. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” And given the life of Elijah, the Lord intended every Word He spoke. 

“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” …Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.” Elijah! He had returned, and the message was the same. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Those sharp words. That reckless boldness. God sent His final prophet to turn His people back towards Him, and away from the false gods. Only this time the idol isn’t Baal. The idol is that peace with the world was in their own hands. All they had to do was keep quiet. All they had to do was keep everything under control. All they had to do was have no more Messiahs, no more people claiming to be Christ show up. And the Romans would leave them be. But the result is the same.

In this context, there is a famine of the Word. There is the death of faith. There is the idolatry of self-created peace. And John certainly had threats on his life. The same situation Elijah faced was here again. And the Lord sent a second Elijah to made ready the path for His Messiah. Just like Elijah, the Lord also sent John into the wilderness, And there, God strengthened His prophet. John ended the famine of the Word by preaching in that wilderness. John brought those of dead faith back to life through the baptism of repentance. John tore down the idolatry of self-created peace by pointing forward to the coming Savior. All with a tenacity that confounded the Pharisees, as Elijah did to the prophets of Ball before. And a boldness that landed John in hot water with the King of Israel, Herod. Just as Elijah had done before with kings as well.

But none was because of John himself. Just as none of Elijah’s boldness and power was his own either. It was the Lord who spoke through His Elijahs. It was the Lord who worked His power through them. It was the Lord who made the paths straight in order that He would walk down them Himself. It was the Lord who made them bold to call kings and entire countries into repentance. And it’s the same Lord who calls you and me into repentance today. 

Elijah and John are still doing their jobs. Do not presume to say to yourself that you have no need to repent because of who you are. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We do have sin! And not just one or two here and there. As we examine our lives, examine our hearts, the more we find that the sin in there keeps multiplying out of control. And the more we try to keep it bottled up, the faster it leaks out, like a fist tightly clenching sand. We must live lives of repentance, not moments. 

Because when we do not repent of our sins, the message that Elijah and John have from the Lord is one of condemnation only. Even now the axe is laid at the root of the tree. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. And our sin cannot bear good fruit. Our own works cannot bear good fruit. Presuming that our own righteousness is good enough cannot bear good fruit. We must bear the fruit that Jesus give us. And the first fruit Jesus gives us to bear is repentance. It is regret for our sin, and the need to have it taken away. 

And we receive this gift of repentance along side the gift that gives us what repentance is looking for: Forgiveness. Elijah and John’s message is sharp. It cuts deep. It wounds our pride. It kills the idea that we are good by ourselves. But that is to make room for a Savior to enter into our lives and save us from all of our sins. Elijah and John point to Jesus, and say, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” 

And that is exactly what Jesus does. That is why we have crosses in all our churches. And crosses all over in our church. A big one up there. Little ones on the entrance to your pews. Embossed on every hymnal. And what is a cross? It is a method of executing criminals in the most painful, inhumane way imaginable. The cross is what our God died upon. This is where we murdered Him. And it is the exact same place where He has sacrificed Himself on our behalf to pay for all of our sins. It is the place where He has won for us forgiveness. That’s where Elijah and John bring us. That’s where Jesus did the greatest work in all creation. That’s where we are saved. And Jesus did it for you.

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Turn all your sins over to Jesus for Him to carry. Hold tightly to the gifts that He has delivered directly to you at His cross. Put not your faith in this world. Be not afraid of disaster, or death, or a world that hates you. Because for you stands the one who has overcome the world. Who has overcome death itself. Who has overcome the devil and all the lies. Who has overcome even your sin. Turn to Jesus. Hold tightly to Jesus. For His promises are sure indeed. And as great a place as Elijah and John have in history, that place is not as great as the place that our Lord has for you in eternal life. Thanks be to God.