Third Sunday of Advent (1881)

Matthew 11:2-10 Christ shall be the Savior of all mankind according to God's intention. In reality, however, not all people, but only a part of the same are saved. Reason: so many are offended at Christ. This sad fact is prophesied in the Old Testament.1 This occurred as Christ had appeared in the flesh.2 This will continue in the world and among false Christians until the Last Day. Let us see to it that we are not offended at Christ; 1. what it means to be offended at Christ. John the Baptist sends two of his disciples to Christ with the question: "Are you?" etc. This was not because John himself would have had doubts about whether Jesus was the promised Messiah3, but in order to relieve his disciples from doubt. These had not yet recognized the promised Messiah in Jesus because they were offended at Christ.4 Namely a. they cannot reconcile the external lowliness of the person of Jesus with the prophesied glory of the Messiah5; b. Christ's whole demeanor and Christ's whole environment does not meet your idea of the expected Messianic kingdom. Luther: "They thought that the great king, whom John extolled so highly, namely, that the latchet of whose shoe he was not worthy to unloose, would enter in such splendor that everything would be gold and costly ornaments, and immediately the streets would be spread with pearls and silks. As they lifted up their eyes so high and looked for such splendor, Christ turns their look downward and holds before them the blind, lame, deaf, dumb, poor and everything that conflicts with such splendor"6; c. the teaching will not be received by them that man is justified by faith alone. 7 Application: Demonstrate how even now the world is offended in Christ. It says: " God's Son shall be one crucified from the Jews? - Where are the obvious manifestations of power from which one could see that the Savior of Christians lives and is almighty God? - How can the doctrine be right, according to which an abominable sinner, when he merely repents and believes in Christ, immediately is spoken justified and saved?" etc. But even Christians who still

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Isaiah 8:14-15; 52:14-15. Matthew 13:57; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 1 Peter 2:7-8. 3 Cf. Matthew 11:7ff., Matthew 11:3 "we"; John 1:29-37. Luther: "In the first place, it is certain that John asked it for the sake of his disciples, as they did not yet hold Christ to be the one He really was" (Church Postil for Advent 3). 4 Matthew 11:2-5, cf. 11:6. 5 Matthew 11:3, cf. 4-5 (regarding evidence of the miracles of Christ). 6 Church Postil, ET 1:1:102. 7 Matthew 11:3, cf. Matthew 9:14; Luke 5:33.

bear the world in their flesh are still inclined to be offended at Christ.8 Fleshly reason always remains an annoyance, in particular in cohesion with Christ's humiliation in the days of His flesh. Even among us the kingdom of God sometimes does not come with enough external signs: it will seem strange to us that Christians are under so much contempt, sin, weakness, and many crosses. Even "by grace alone through faith alone" will be offensive to us again and again; 2. how dangerous it is to be offended at Christ; a. that this is very dangerous, is evident . from the fact that John still endeavors in prison to lift the offense that his disciples took to Christ9; . from that fact that Christ Himself sought to lift the offense both with the disciples of John10 as well as with the people11 (by emphatic reference to the Baptist's steadfast and world-denying witness of Him); b. in what the danger consists. Loss of salvation.12 Whoever is offended at Christ does not accept Him as Savior or again falls away, if he had already come to faith.13 No salvation without faith in Christ.14 Let us therefore be on our guard by God's grace; 3. how one is able to remain preserved from being offended at Christ; a. we must not make our own thoughts about Christ's person, kingdom, and doctrine, as the disciples of John and most of the Jews, but b. realize that we are blind in these things and have to judge in the same solely according to the Word of Christ and His apostles. Then we see with spiritual eyes even here more and more under the external lowliness the highness, under the external weakness the Almighty power, in the Gospel, which is an offense to the Jews and is a folly to the Greeks, a power of God that only and solely can save us. Franz Pieper

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Colossians 2:9. Matthew 11:2-3. 10 Matthew 11:4-6. 11 Matthew 11:7ff. 12 Matthew 11:6. 13 Matthew 13:57; John 6:61, 66. 14 Acts 4:12; Mark 16:16.