Signs of Joy - Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent (December 14, 2025)

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 35:1–10 | Luke 1:46b–55 | James 5:7–10 | ​Matthew 11:2–11

“When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’  Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see’” (Matthew 11:2-3).
 
Well, here we are, already celebrating the third Sunday of Advent, and reflecting on the theme of Joy as we anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ our Saviour King.
 
But right from the start, we’ve been thrown a bit of a curveball… we’ve been given a challenging story to wrestle with today as our Gospel reading confronts us with the suffering and disillusionment of one of Christ’s earliest advocates and faithful witnesses: John the Baptist. 
 
After playing a key role in the exciting beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry… baptizing the One he had wholeheartedly believed to be God’s Messiah in the Jordan River… John’s story had taken a much darker turn that was seriously starting to shake up his faith. As you may remember, John had been thrown into prison for speaking truth to power: publicly calling out King Herod’s unfaithfulness, and hypocrisy… and like so many of God’s prophets before him, John’s honesty earned him some enemies in high places.
 
But as John expected Jesus of Nazareth to be the Chosen One sent to set God’s people free… sent to overthrow tyrant kings like Herod… to judge all unjust rulers, and vindicate those who stood up for the truth, and walked with holiness and integrity… there should be no problem! If the Messiah had finally come, now was the time for God’s faithful ones to be rewarded… right?
 
And yet, there John was, locked away in prison… seemingly abandoned for fighting the good fight, while Jesus went about eating and drinking with outcasts and sinners. And so, John starts to wonder: did he miss something? Did he misread the signs, and misunderstand the Spirit? Jesus was not at all following the plan that John had in mind. Was Jesus really the Chosen Saviour King after all?
 
Matthew 11:2-3, “When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’”  
 
Have we ever felt like John did that day, when our own expectations and hopes are dashed?
 
Lots of people sign up for Christianity thinking that it will make our lives easier: suddenly offering us more clarity… more hope… and peace… and love… and joy. And yet, we still end up facing great difficulties… sicknesses, injuries, estrangements, isolation, and failures. And as a result, many of us struggle with our faith, wondering if we had missed something… and are tempted to see our painful experiences as signs that Jesus is not really there for us. That we are either on our own, or that we should look elsewhere for the help and the hope that we need.
 
And yet, as strange as it may seem, our Gospel passage today is an invitation to embrace joy, especially for those like John who find themselves in the midst of some really dark circumstances. Our passage today does not deny the reality of the difficulties that we all will face. Instead, it calls us to trust that our times of suffering are not a sign of our abandonment, and that they can be endured faithfully and even joyfully when seen in the light of God’s good Kingdom at work.
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In short: while the way of Jesus will not always be easy, even in the darkest times it still offers us real hope, and peace, and joy… as we start to see and share in what God has been up to all along.
 
Turning back to our Gospel passage, let’s take a moment to focus on one of John’s major concerns: that unjust and ungodly rulers seem to be calling the shots, while the innocent suffer at their hands. Now I know many of us here at St. Luke’s share John’s concerns… and that tyrants still seem to be running amok in our world. 
 
And just like John, we Christians throughout the centuries have looked to Jesus as the final Judge who will one day bring an end to all injustice and evil… coming again to sort out the living and the dead, as the Creeds call us each week to confess. And all throughout the Holy Scriptures, we see that justice and righteousness are clearly on the God’s agenda.  
 
But He also has far more in store that we tend to lose sight of when we insist that He adhere to our agendas… and closely follow the plans and timelines that we are expecting.

Matthew tells us that John was discouraged and started to doubt when he heard what Jesus was up to. But what was Jesus up to? Not yet toppling tyrants… He was instead giving the world a long-awaited taste of and a glimpse into what the joyful victory of the Kingdom of God is like!
 
Matthew 11:4-6, “Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
 
In His response, Jesus is pointing John to the fulfillment of God’s promises of salvation spoken of through the prophets, like we heard this morning in our first reading from Isaiah 35:5-6,
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.”
 
Far from failing to fulfill His calling as God’s Chosen Messiah, Jesus was doing far more than John had expected… enacting God’s salvation even before the tyrants of the world were overthrown. And Jesus chose to enact God’s salvation in the lives of ordinary, hungry, and hurting people… offering signs of the New Life of God’s New Creation… the beautiful future that Christ came to bring about from amid the ashes of our worlds selfishness and sin. 
 
And Jesus’ healing ministry among the poor, and the outcasts was not just a gift to those who experienced His healing touch first-hand… excluding all others, as if He didn’t care about all those who did not encounter Him face to face… or those, like John, who continued to suffer under the power of unjust tyrants. No, through His acts of mercy, and healing ministry, Jesus was hard at work pointing us all towards the coming victory of God’s Kingdom: the joyful release from all captivity… the ending of all divisions… the healing of all wounds… the forgiveness of all sins… and life in all its fullness. 
 
Christ’s whole time on earth… all that He says and does serves as a sign, a window into what God has in store… and it is so good! And no illness, no tragedy, or tyrant will be able to keep God’s good Kingdom from coming!
 
And it was for this reason… for this joyful future set before Him, that Jesus Himself endured the incredible suffering and pain of the cross… abandoned and betrayed by His friends… falsely accused and condemned by His own people... Jesus freely chose to take the failures and shame of the whole world on His shoulders… the Judge of all accepting the full price of justice on Himself in order to release us all from the power and hold of sin over us… setting us free by His cross so that we might share in the joys of His New Life. 
 
Jesus pursued joy… not just for Himself, but for us all… by remaining faithful to His Father even unto death… and was raised again on Easter morning as the firstborn and first-fruits of God’s New Creation. 
 
And just as Jesus was raised to this eternal joy, so will those of us who remain in Him. His glory becomes our glory… His victory becomes ours… and through faith, we begin to share in the joys of His New Life, even now. 

Jesus shows us that joy does not come from avoiding the darkness and pain of life in our broken world. It comes from believing that all darkness and pain will one day be healed and overcome for good by God. Joy is holding fast to this Good News, and letting it sink in, and take root within us… like a seed buried in the ground, but bursting through the soil to bring new life into being.
 
And this is where our second reading today, from the letter of James, comes into play, calling us to endure even our days of darkness patiently, trusting that in God’s time our joys will be complete.
 
James 5:7-10, “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”
 
As we await our Lord’s return, to set all things right, and bring us to His eternal joy, James calls us to patience… to remain faithful to Jesus by holding fast to the hope we have been given… even as we face days of discouragement, and our own great difficulties.
 
Our struggles and concerns may not be like John the Baptist’s… we might not get locked up, or lose our lives for standing up to unjust tyrants. But many of us have had to face other dark challenges, like serious health concerns… or tensions in our relationships… or seasons of not having the resources we need… or times of isolation… or destructive temptations… or a whole host of others trials. 
 
And these struggles are all important to God. He’s not ignoring us when we face them, or asking us to smile and pretend everything’s alright when it’s clearly not. But God does invite us to hold our concerns up to the light of what Jesus has done for us and our world… and to trust that in Christ, true freedom and real release from these struggles is on its way… calling us to hold onto Him in joyful anticipation that all of these struggles will one day be resolved and sorted out for good by our Saviour King. 

And while we wait, we are called to become living signs of joy for our world. I don’t mean walking around as if nothing upsets us, or that nothing is wrong… but living as those who are always in touch with the Good News of Jesus, even when everything around us seems to be shrouded in gloom… speaking and acting as those who know that the good Kingdom of God is on its way, and that despite all the troubles we and our world faces today, Jesus our Saviour King really is coming to the rescue, and nothing in all of Creation can stop His complete victory.
 
And so, with the help of the Holy Spirit, may we all become living signs of joy for one another, and for all those around us… offering a taste of God’s New Life at work in us even now… even when things seem their darkest... and patiently anticipating the joyful arrival of His good Kingdom by being Christ’s faithful witnesses in the world, His active hands and feet working to share His Good News with everyone, any way we can. Amen.