December 15, 2024 Text: Luke 7:18-28
Dear Friends in Christ,
Are you the One? You must be the One. I mean look at you. Dressed in your Sunday best. Studious. Here in God’s sanctuary. Ready with your full attention to listen to a less than 10-minute sermon. And look at what you did this week. You did your Portals of Prayer. You read your Bible once or twice. You even prayed more than just at a meal. You have to be the One. Oh, you don’t think you are.
Maybe, I’m the One. After all, I am standing in this pulpit with alb and stole. I am getting to do 11 sermons this month, which means you can get one about every third day. You know the background. Oldest child. Oldest grandchild. Captain of my sports teams. TV and calendars in college. Know some theology. Maybe, I am the One.
I know you . . . but more importantly I know me. There is no way we are the One. We are weak. Possibly didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. Sinning right and left. Cringing at our high school and college past. What lurks in the shadows? We cannot, I repeat, we cannot be the One.
Well, this is quite the quandary. Even you are not the One and I am not the One . . . well, let’s try to find out what the answer is . . .
“ARE YOU THE ONE?”
Let’s start our investigation by looking at the beginning of our text, “The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” (vs. 1-2)
John the Baptist’s question about Jesus’ identity, “Are you the one?” is crucial for every human being. Jesus points to his actions as proof of his identity. “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” (v. 22). These actions fulfilled Isaiah prophecies of God’s future deliverance in the Messiah.
Jesus’ identity fulfilled the promise of a saving deliverer – the seed of the woman from Genesis 3, the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the seed of David dying, rising, crushing Satan.
You and I are not the One who can save and thank God for that. But you have a beautifully blessed identity. God gives you your new and wonderful identity in the identity of Jesus. As Jesus says: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (v. 23)
You are who you are, Christ’s, in the gift of your Baptism. You know who you are, Christ’s by the gift of His living voice through His prophets and apostles. You taste who you are, Christ’s, in the gift of His true body and blood in His Supper. You live who you are, Christ’s, as the gift of eternal life in Him.
By faith in Jesus, trusting Him in His true identity, we receive our true identity as God’s forgiven children. You are the one – saved, redeemed, loved – because of the ultimate One – Christ the Lord.
Amen.
"But God demonstrated His love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
