In Those Days...On That Day

2nd Sunday in Advent – A                                                                       LW # 18, LSB #’s 513, 344
Text – Matthew 3:1
 
Now in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea.
 
IN THOSE DAYS…  ON THAT DAY
 
 
Today is December 7th, known to older generations as the Day of Infamy.  Everyone who was alive at the time remembers where they were  when they first heard the news.   For the next five years of their lives,  everything that happened revolved around the context  of the attack. 
A similar event was the assassination of JFK.  Five years later, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.   Thirty-three years later came 9-11.  With each event,  people remembered where they were  when they heard the news.  To some extent, things that happened in the following months revolved around the context of those tragic events. 
As Matthew writes his Gospel, what we call chapter three begins with the words, “Now in those days…”     It might occur to you  to ask, “What days?”  A problem arises because the Bible was not written with chapter & verse designations.  An Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, put the modern chapter divisions into place around A.D. 1227. 
Prior to that, we would have read, “And [Joseph] went & dwelt in a city that was called Nazareth, in order that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled  for [Jesus] will be called a Nazarene.  (Matthew 2:23)   Now in those days  John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea.”  (Matthew 3:1) 
Matthew’s narrative on the origin of Jesus skips  from the time of Jesus’ early childhood right to the time when He’s an adult.  The passage of all those years has no significance to salvation.  Beginning with the conception of Jesus, a new time has begun – ‘those days.’   Like everything Matthew wrote prior,  chapter 3 stresses  the fulfillment of the OT ‘in  those  days.’ 
The first 3.5 chapters of Matthew introduce the person & the significance of Christ.  In
them, five different times,  St. Matthew cites the OT  to show  that the coming of Jesus fulfilled those prophecies.  Those chapters are consistent & cohesive – the fullness of time has come,  & the plan of God is being unfolded.  How is that relevant today – you  & I   are still  in those days. 
As those days pass by,  eventually,  all the grey areas of our lives  will  be  erased.   Then, all God’s children will find themselves with Jesus in paradise.  Until then, each of us can lose our way,  & even if you or I do not lose our way,  we certainly know people  who are lost.  It’s not in our power  to save them,  but it is in our power to understand the days we are in. 
“Now in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the reign of heaven is at hand.’”  (Matthew 3:1-2)   John’s call to repentance was radical because it contradicted widespread religious belief at the time.  Certainly,  prostitutes & tax collectors needed to repent,  but not religious leaders, like Pharisees & Sadducees. 
This call of John implied they were not the people of God  they thought they were.  This offended them.  They were certain that being children of Abraham  automatically granted eternal life.  Such thinking took God entirely out of the equation for salvation.  They believed that eternal life came by bloodline  instead of by faith in Messiah as Lord & Savior. 
John was announcing the establishment on earth of the sovereign rule & authority of Yahweh.  This reign focuses on the salvation of His people, which Jesus accomplished in His life, death & resurrection.  The Gospel reading of today continues Matthew’s description of that reign coming into effect.  John was sent  to be the voice crying in the wilderness:
… “Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.”  (Matthew 3:3 ESV)   It was a time of political & religious distress in Israel.  The mild treatment bestowed on the Jews during the reign of Caesar Augustus was replaced by the harshness of Caeser Tiberius.  Pontius Pilate had replaced the high priest four times  until he found in Caiaphas a sufficiently  submissive instrument of Roman tyranny.  The high priests during this period were worthy of the treatment they received from the Romans.  A Jewish book – the Talmud – uses terrible language to describe the character of the office holders.  Private influence  effected how judges administered justice.  Morals were corrupted & judgment perverted. 
Annas was high priest for nine years & then deposed & succeeded by others  of whom the fourth was his son-in-law Caiaphas.  Due to the political & religious distress, when John said the reign of heaven is at hand,  the people heard it as  the reestablishment of David’s earthly kingdom of Israel.  They expected the full manifestation of that kingdom  at the time of Messiah. 
Unfortunately, that would only happen at the final advent of Jesus.  This first advent had an entirely different & unwelcome character – that of more sacrifice, suffering  & death.   Yes, Jesus would rise from that death, but the full manifestation of His kingdom  wouldn’t be for at least several thousand more years.  We are still waiting,  & learning   & growing  in our faith. 
However, by Jesus’ time,  it was already around 4000 years that God’s people had waited for the “in those days” to arrive.  The first prophecy of the coming Messiah was given to Adam & Eve way back in Genesis 3:15.  By the time ‘those days’ arrived, people were very confused about the role that Messiah would play in restoring the reign of God. 
Human ideas about the reign of God look like what Vladimir Putin is trying to do in Ukraine.  By Jesus’ time, the Jews had lived under the iron fist of Rome long enough to know what power looked like.  It crushed its enemies.  The Jews just assumed that Messiah would come to crush  their Roman overlords. 
After all, the Romans were Gentiles, in other words, children of the devil.  It was assumed the Gentiles had no chance of entering heaven.  Their lot  was certain to be destruction.  The Jews only had to wait  for Yahweh to open the door.   Then John comes along & tells everyone he’s the long-awaited ‘voice calling in the wilderness’ to prepare the way of the Lord.   Except,  he’s calling Jews to repentance.  He called the Pharisees & Sadducees “the brood of vipers!”  “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.  Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit  is cut down & thrown into the fire.”  (Matthew 3:10 ESV) 
Good fruit is repentance.  Israel, in the days of John, is a flock of lost sheep.  He’s calling them away from God’s final judgment to conversion & true faith in the Lord from whom they’ve wandered.  A case can easily be made for the people of our nation today.   Sadly, those who’ve wandered from God often take offense at being called back. 
Each day,  the Holy Spirit needs to turn us back to our Lord & Savior.  Turning back does not bring punishment, but forgiveness.  Repentance is good news.  Repentance is life.   In those days & in these days, the Spirit of God is at work  calling, gathering & enlightening us  with His mercy & grace.  Our will & understanding is twisted at best & corrupt at worst. 
As Matthew writes, he’s telling us that, in Jesus, Yahweh has come to rescue us from our greatest enemy,  our own sinful nature.  In that,  we already possess death.  Jesus offers us life that is pure & true – no more doubts,  no more fears,  no more anxiety.   The reign of heaven is near to us in these days,  in Christ Jesus,  to bring us peace & joy. 
In this life, the peace & joy are still intermingled with conflict & sadness.  On that Day, the last day of this age,  all conflict will cease  & every knee shall bow  at the name of Jesus.  (Philippians 2:10)  Through Jesus, God broke into human history, yet He is still patiently waiting for His children to turn back to Him.  On that Day, the patient waiting will end.  Amen. 
 
The clouds of judgment gather,  the time is growing late;  be sober & be watchful,  our judge is at the gate:  the judge who comes in mercy,  the judge who comes in might  to put an end to evil & diadem the right.        Arise, O true disciples;  let wrong give way to right,  & penitential shadow  to Jesus’ blessed light:  the light that has no evening,  that knows no moon or sun,  the light so new & golden,  the light that is but one.  Amen.  LSB 513:1-2.