Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

This third Sunday in Advent is called "Gaudete," "Rejoice Ye!" the Latin word that begins the Introit of the day, "Rejoice in the Lord always." This Sunday has become known as a "Refreshment Sunday" in the midst of the penitential season of Advent. The other penitential season on the Church calendar is Lent, and it, too, has a "Refreshment Sunday" in its midst, "Leitare," which is another Latin word that gets translated to as into English as "Rejoice Ye!" For these two Sundays, the paraments are changed from purple to rose – Yes, Virginia, this is rose, by liturgical definition – and the rose reminds of the relief and solomn joy over the promise that Jesus brings us in His incarnation during Advent and in His suffering and death during Lent.

Both refreshment Sundays bid us to "Come to Jesus!" for in the manger you see your God and on the cross you see your Savior. Today, therefore we rejoice – Gaudete! – to "Come to Jesus."

I.

The Word of God for this Gaudete! – Rejoice Ye! Sunday begins in the Old Testament, with the prophet Isaiah, who speaks of your God—becoming—Man in this way: "He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom and gently lead those that are with young."

The picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is perhaps the most endearing picture that you have of your God and Savior, and it certainly invites you to rejoice, to breathe a sinner’s sigh of relief, and to trust yourself to Christ. It invites: "Come to Jesus!" and do so with joy and confidence. So it is that the prophet begins His description of the Shepherd of the Soul with his gentle words: "‘Comfort, comfort ye my people, says your God! Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, and that she has received from the Lord double for all her sins!" Yes, indeed, Isaiah invites you: "Come to Jesus!" in this Advent season of repentance, anticipation, and hope.

II.

Coming to Jesus also is a concern of John the Baptist in the Holy Gospel of the Day. God has assigned to Him the singular role as the fore-runner of Christ. Royalty, in ancient days, often came to a city with a herald in front of the procession whose role was to announce the arrive of the Royal. John the Baptist, has that role, which begins for him even before his birth, when Mary comes to his parents home, and he leaps for joy over the Savior, Jesus, in Mary’s womb. In this way, John announces to his own mother that God in flesh is here!

And in his adult ministry this "preparing the way" –and announcing the arrive -- of the great King of kings and the gentle Shepherd of the sheep. And, because of his work and his message, John ends up in Herod’s prison. Nevertheless, his work is continued by his own "school of the prophet," his disciples. When John hears about the Messianic miracles being done by Jesus, John sends two of his students to inquire about Jesus and to report back to him in prison.

Now, this event recorded in the Holy Gospel for Gaudete Sunday has been the occasion for the making of differing theories about what it means. Some would say that John is in despair and doubt about whether the Savior for whom he did his fore-running would ever arrive. So, hearing of Jesus, he sends his disciples out of his doubt.

The other theory is that John the Baptist knows that this is Jesus of Nazareth is the Savior whose arrival he has been announcing, and by sending his disciples to Jesus to ask the question, "Are you the one who is top come, or do we look for another? with the intention that these disciples of John become disciples of Jesus. In other words, he is introducing them to Jesus, just as he did for his mother many years before, from within her womb. That makes sense because it would be the culmination of what John has been doing for everyone who would hear him – pointing people to God-in-human-flesh, and inviting them," Come to Jesus!"

III.

Discovering the ultimate fact of the forgiveness of sins and of never-ending life in the eternal kingdom of Christ requires a fore-runner, not only in New Testament times but also even today. "Come to Jesus" is an invitation that has to be delivered or coming to Jesus doesn’t occur. You don’t come to Jesus because you are searching Him out.

Now, it is true that mankind thirsts for forgiveness of sins and for peace with God, hoping to stumble upon such a thing, or trying to create such a reality for oneself. Indeed, many even give up on ever quenching that thirst and kid themselves that such a thing doesn’t exist or that they don’t really need it if it does. But, in all of this spiritual rambling, here and there, no one happens upon Jesus. They are always and only brought to Jesus, by God the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, beginning with Law and bringing the relief and life of the Gospel. The Spirit of God knows those who are the Father’s elect from eternity, and so the Spirit brings to sinners, lost, forlorn, and condemned – the effective and powerful Word of the Law that exposes eternal death and the Word of the Gospel that brings sinners to new and eternal life.

This is the point where many a sermon, even among some Lutherans, will demand that you be evangelists and that you take the Word of unbelievers, and you will thus be burdened with an unending, and frankly impossible, task ending in failure, or worse in false security about your successes. God’s kingdom does not work that way, and this Sunday’s Holy Gospel is not rightly taught when it becomes launching pad for yet another admonition to go save people by bringing them to Jesus.

Step back, and take a careful look at what Jesus says to John’s disciples: Go back and answer John’s question – are you the One or do we look for another – by reporting to him what you hear and see. Put another way, Jesus is saying, "You have come, you have listened, you have heard – now take it all back to John, who asks, and give him his answer."

Indeed, the Word must come to sinners, for that is how the Holy Spirit works in giving spiritual rebirth to God’s elect. But it isn’t a matter of salesmanship – which is what most "evangelism training" amounts to in our circles. It is rather a matter of living out who you are in Christ, what you’ve been given, and as those that the Holy Ghost caused to "Come to Jesus," you serve God in your neighbors’ needs. You do this, and people will be drawn to ask, "What is this?" "Why do you do what you do?" Or, in John’s question, given to his disciples, "Is your Lord the One for whom we thirst, or do we look for another?" The working Word is always a response, never a presentation. It is always a matter of "one beggar telling another beggar – who asks – where to get bread!" And it is how the Holy Ghost brought you, by whatever human agency or circumstance that He employed, to "Come to Jesus!"