“They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isa 35:10).

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Today is the Sunday of Joy… And why not?

The tree is up, the lights are twinkling,

the Lord is providing His gifts in abundance –

gifts we should take a moment to think about…

As I sat down to write this sermon, I did so with the fresh vision of children playing together yesterday morning in the communion of this church, coloring nativity scenes on the floor of the narthex,

decorating the tree and drinking hot chocolate,

making music, singing together, even doing a little dance to the Charlie Brown Christmas music… These truly are the gifts of God.

While the children were rejoicing in the gifts of childhood, their parents were decorating this tree together.

Others came and brought egg and sausage biscuits, served cookies and chocolate,

and sipped eggnog while the music of the season enveloped us from every part of the building.

These, too, are the gifts of God.

Then came the news of that bad lab result after one of you had worked so hard to get your illness under control.

My daughter then called to ask whether I thought her baby had who just fallen off the mattress onto the floor might have a concussion.

Soon after, as we used one of the funnels my dad had built to water Christmas trees,

I thought about his coffin sitting right here (point to aisle) –

right in the same place as that little-bitty casket of the 8-day old infant we buried about this time last year.

And it occurred to me, these losses, these trials are also gifts from God!

Now I know this puzzles many people, but you know the background, right?

You know that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23) – everlasting death –

a death of unending weeping and gnashing of teeth in the utter darkness that is so terrible, we cannot begin to imagine it.

What’s worse, like a deadly cancer that spreads without symptoms until it’s too late to be saved,

we would have no signs or symptoms of the horrific future that awaits us unless God gave us signs and symptoms of our condition.

This is why God gives us pain.

This is why God gives us toil.

This is why God gives us, even gifts us with physical death and all the sorrows and afflictions that come with the curse.

If you read your Treasury of Daily Prayer yesterday, you heard these words from Isaiah: “The LORD give[s] you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction…” (Isa 30:20).

GOD does that, that you may know your eternal peril and turn to Him for the forgiveness, life, and salvation He sacrificed His Son to give.

Of course, pain and affliction don’t feel like gifts, do they?

I mean, hot chocolate and glad tidings may feel like heaven on earth, but chemotherapy?

The death of those we love?

The endless toil and trouble and trials and heartaches that mark our lives in this fallen world?

These feel more like hell, right?

And there’s a reason for that!

You see, the trials and afflictions come from God, but hell on earth comes from the devil.

For it is the devil who focuses our attention inward on ourselves and frustrates us with our helplessness and inability to fix things.

It is the devil who intensifies the fear and anger within us when we can’t seem to overcome the pain and problems on our own.

It is the devil who turns us away from God and toward the world for help;

to princes who cannot save and to idols and technology that remain lifeless, leaving us lifeless in their wake.

This is why we hear the call to “Be strong and fear not!” (Isa 35:4) as a challenge to raise ourselves up by our own bootstraps –

to man-up and take the bull by the horns –

to “just believe,” “just have hope,” “just push through the suffering until that “better day” comes that everyone keeps promising.

Well guess what? “Being strong and fearing not” is NOT something you do…

It is something you receive from your Lord Jesus Christ when you go to Him—

which is exactly where John the Baptist points us this morning.

In our Gospel reading today, John is in a world of hurt.

He was chained in a dungeon, surrounded by Herod’s henchmen,

waiting to be put to death.

And while he may have been a faithful prophet and perhaps even the greatest man ever born of a woman, by now his hands were weak, his knees were shaking,

and the devil was working overtime to stir up his doubts and fears.

Now, as I said, this trial, this testing, this imprisonment was given to John by God, right?

But the questions, the doubts, the fears all came courtesy of the devil:

“Did God really say…?”

As St. John sat shackled in that darkness, the devil may well have asked, “Did God really say, ‘I will come with vengeance… I will come and save you’ (Isa 35:4)?

Did God really say, ‘I will set the prisoners free, open the eyes of the blind, and bring the wicked to ruin’ (Psa 146:7-9)?

Is this Jesus really the One who was to come and do all these things for you?”

In the same way, the devil comes to us in the prison of this fallen world.

As we lose our health and loved ones, face our own approaching deaths, and sit in the ash heap of our sin scratching our scabs,

the devil asks, “Did God really say, ‘You shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away’ (Isa 35:10)?”

How are we to deal with these questions?

Where will we find the strength to endure these miseries without fear and doubt?

“From where does our help come?”

The answer is given by St. John who points to the source of our deliverance:

For in the midst of his own doubts and terrors;

in the midst of his own struggles against the powers of death and hell,

John turned to Christ Himself, to the Word made flesh who gave him strength to endure.

As the devil hurled his flaming darts and accusations and doubts,

John sent to Jesus with that great Advent question,

“Are you the One who is to come” (Matt 11:3)?

To which Jesus answers a resounding yes that actually GIVES him the strength to carry on,

that actually GIVES the endurance that produces hope (Rom 5:3-4),

that actually GIVES the gladness and joy by which sorrow and sighing flee away.

For the Lord had promised that on the day of His deliverance, “the eyes of the blind would be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the lame man would leap like a deer” (Isa 35:5-6).

And now, Jesus has fulfilled all these things (Matt11:5)! How?

By His Word!

When Jesus wants something done, He speaks it:

He says to the blind man, “See!” and the blind man sees.

To the deaf He says, “Hear!” and the deaf hear.

To the man born lame He says, “Walk!” and the lame man walks.

To you who live in weakness under the attack of the devil, He says, “Be strong!” and you are made strong!

For in the same way He says, “Be forgiven!” and you are forgiven,

His Word DOES what it says –

which is why the command to “be strong” should never point to your own strength to overcome the devil and all your fears, pains, and doubts,

but always and only to the one who casts out your demons, who raises you up,

who gives you the strength to endure every trial and test by His gracious Word of promise.

Jesus’ promise to you and His faithfulness IS the source of your gladness and joy in every circumstance of your life – especially the bad ones!

Therefore, when God gives you His trials and tests –

when the painful ordeals and challenges arise that show you your sin and your utter helplessness to help yourself, acknowledge it! Confess it!

Then turn from yourself and repent!

Turn away from your sin, away from your idols, away from your princes, and above all, away from the devil and his lies,

and turn back to Christ whose Word gives you strength and delivers you to everlasting joy.

For He who gives you that water of affliction has died for you to give you the water of life.

He who gives you the bread of adversity has died for you to give you the Bread of Life that rescues you from sin, death, and the devil.

When the devil tries to create guilt or doubts in the midst of your pain, remember your baptism –

Make the sign of the cross and cast that demon straight back to hell where he belongs…He has no authority over you!

As you continue your journey through the dark prison of this fallen world, turn always to the Word who gives you strength for the journey.

Drink deeply from the Cup of Promise which He has poured out for you –

Take and eat… the very Bread of Life who bestows on YOU gladness and everlasting joy.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Preached by Pastor Holowach

Sermon Text: Matthew 11:2-15