B Cycle – 3^rd Sunday of Advent 23

Is. 61:1-2a, 10-11

From the beginning of our spiritual journey, we have learned God’s plan for our restoration was to send Jesus to die for our sins. It is easy for us to acknowledge that truth, but it is much harder for us to accept.  We believe Jesus died for our sins. Yet as we confess our sins and receive absolution, we continue to feel guilty and as if more is required of us.   Shouldn’t a feeling of freedom come with forgiveness?  Why do we still feel as if forgiveness has not happened?  We should feel free.  Reconciliation should be as if we were in prison and suddenly the doors were opened for us to walk away and leave the prison behind. 

We should be like the woman at the well. After contact with Jesus, she could not contain herself and ran into the village and told everyone what Jesus had done for her.  We should experience what the centurion experienced as he watched Jesus take His last breath and then proclaimed Jesus was the Christ.  Encountering Jesus should be the fulfillment of our desire to feel restored and free of sin and guilt. After all God did tell us He would remove the “guilt of our sin” (Ps.32:5).  Why is it so hard for us to accept what we have been taught – Jesus died as the sacrifice for the sin we have committed. 

Think back to the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, He enters the temple and reads the words His Father had given to the prophet Isaiah. Words that would detail exactly what the Messiah would accomplish for all generations to come.  According to Isiah, the Messiah would announce glad tidings to the poor. Not those in poverty but to those whose spirit was impoverished.  Those who looked for relief but received none. Those who were seeking God but fail to experience God.  Those who wanted proof God knew and cared what they are going through.  Are we the one’s God was speaking to? Are we the people who are needing proof that God is with us? 

Jesus continued to read from the prophet saying the Messiah would heal the broken hearted. Those who have lost any hope that they will ever be joyful again.  The broken hearted are those who have been wounded by people and institutions they trusted.  Wounded by those with whom they shared their secrets; people who should have protected them and assisted them. The sad truth is each of us is wounded by people we trusted because each person we encounter is a flawed human being.  Unfortunately, the actions of others are often committed because they are wounded people themselves.  God is promising us the Messiah is the only one who can make us whole.

Yet, we fail to trust so we attempt to overcome our wounds by sheer will power and by hiding our deepest need from everyone including Jesus.  Something we learned from Adam and Eve.  Yet Jesus tells us, in Him we will find peace.  In Him we will find healing and in Him we will experience joy.  Come to me and you will find rest, Jesus tells us.  Because that is His mission, to gather all of us into the kingdom of God. 

The only way to receive what Jesus is offering us is for us to believe in His promises.  To do that we need to overcome our lack of trust that keeps us from allowing grace to touch those places where we have been wounded by others.  We need to acknowledge we have tried to overcome those wounds and it is not working.  We need to acknowledge; we need a savior and relinquish control of our spiritual growth.  We have strived to become holy without ever allowing Jesus to show us the way to holiness is by embracing His sacrifice. We need to admit we have been guided by a false understanding of what God desires from us. 

Jesus is not only going to heal us, but He is also going to “free us.” God said the Messiah would come to set the captives free, release the prisoners.  The truth is, we may never have thought about what holds us captive or what “prison” holds us captive.  But if you take a moment, you will discover there are things that imprison you.  If you have been wounded by someone you love, then the prison you fail to see is the one that prevents them from ever hurting you again.  That wall is called “unforgiveness.” Unforgiveness builds a wall around your heart and those walls keep the love of God out as well as the people who wounded you. 

If what holds you captive is an addiction: drugs, sex, or pornography those are easy to acknowledge.  But what about gossip, lying, cheating, jealousy, or envy?  What about sheer laziness causing us to fail to use the God given talents we have received. What about self-centered traits that promote self rather than have someone else elevated.   

Jesus came to free us from patterns of behavior that are obviously destructive. He also came to keep us from behaviors which do not seem to be harmful but are not helping us encounter Christ.   What God desired is for us to embrace what Christ did for us and allow Christ to clothe us with “righteousness.”  Salvation is ours, not because we earned it or deserve it but because it has been Goo’s desire for us from the beginning of creation. 

As we approach this mid-point in Advent, have we made any attempt to open our hearts to allow Jesus to set us free?  It is not a question of have we done our prayers, or done something with our families, or helped the poor.  But it does make us question if we have opened our hearts to allow Jesus in.  Have we asked Jesus to come into our lives and show us what is possible if we just admit we need what He is offering.   

Have we prayed for insights to bring into the confessional and ask for Jesus to enfold us and heal us.  Change us so that we would experience the freedom of forgiveness and mercy offered us by a loving God?  Have we said a simple prayer inviting Jesus to touch those places we have kept hidden from ourselves? 

Now is that time so that we may embrace Jesus and allow Him to fulfill His mission to set us free and heal us.