December 14th, 2019

The gospel text for the Third Sunday in Advent makes a big jump to the eleventh chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, but the focus continues to be on the person of John the Baptist, the ‘forerunner’ of Jesus. Really all three texts talk about the coming of the Lord.

That the epistle text for this Sunday is from the Epistle of James [5:7-11] is extremely rare. There are only a very few times in the three-year series that we have a text from this epistle. And this text is very near the end of the epistle, and this is also very interesting.

Dr. Luther wrote that this epistle was an epistle of straw, meaning that it was not as important as the Epistle to the Romans. But straw is still important! And Jesus is still within the text, although sometimes he is hard to see. He has a couple of obvious mentions at the beginning of the epistle, but Jesus gets more attention as the text nears the end—although this is not so obvious. The first verse of our text is a clear reference to Jesus: ‘Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.’ And this emphasis on the Lord’s second coming is repeated.

Now because of the large number of commands within this epistle, this emphasis on Jesus is missed. Some people have also missed the importance of the author. The author of this epistle is, of course, James. But this is almost assuredly the James who was the half-brother of Jesus. And he was considered to be the leader of the early church in Jerusalem. He is also recorded as the one who put forward the four commands in Acts 15(:13-21).

At other times I have made connections between these four commands and the four gospel accounts. The four gospel accounts fit together as four different ways in which Jesus showed his authority and glory by dying for you. They also fit together as four different ways in which Jesus was the obedient one for you, by him taking care of these four commands.

When you have a command or an imperative in the scriptures, there are a lot of other things that go with it. What does this law tell us about God? Who is supposed to keep it? Just because it is a law, that does not mean that it is a law that was meant only for you to keep. The results of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 were this: hearts are cleansed by faith (verse 9b; this is a special type of circumcision), and we believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus (verse 11).

Yes, there are laws within this epistle, but they are not the only things within this book. I did not check these figures, but I read somewhere that there are fifty-four imperatives within these one hundred and eight verses. That averages to exactly one imperative for every two verses.

If you pass by the imperatives for a moment, there are some important statements within this text. Some of them are as follows: ‘…the coming of the Lord is at hand’ (verse 8b) and ‘…the Judge is standing at the door’ (verse 9b).

Admittedly those two statements are both connected to an imperative. And they are also both connected to the theme of the Lord’s coming. It is interesting that Jesus as the ‘Judge’ is mentioned previously in 4:12, and this is very significant verse, since it connects the Judge to ‘he who is able to save’. That is a beautiful picture and fits well with our use of the term ‘justification’.

There is one more statement within the Sunday text that is quite long and not closely connected to an imperative.

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful (ESV; verse 11).

Now there is obviously a lot there. A good starting place would be to review what is actually found in the book of Job. In the same way as there is a progression in this text of James, there is a progression in the book of Job. He hears, but he finally sees. At Job 42:5, he says, ‘I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you….’
The text in James, though, does not say that Job sees. It says to the readers or listeners that THEY have heard and that THEY have seen.  And what I think is very interesting is that the text, in a very literal way, says this: ‘You have seen the end of the Lord.’ That phrase, as it stands, makes me think of the crucifixion.

What is also very interesting is that it looks like James almost makes up a new word to describe that end. The word that is translated as ‘compassion’ in the verse is an unusual word in the Greek. James put together two well-known words (as Jesus did that in the Lord’s Prayer with the word that we translate as ‘daily’). James attaches a prefix which means ‘many’, ‘large’, or ‘great’ to the word which very literally means inward parts or intestines. (Obviously, the writer is not saying that the Lord is a large intestine!) James is saying that our Lord has a great and large amount of compassion.

It is interesting, though, that in ancient times the intestines and not the heart are considered to be the seat of emotions. This should tell us something about our emotions, that they are certainly not sinless. They should not be the focus, although they are important; they are gifts of God—just like your intestines are! But they should definitely NOT be top priority. And the Lord’s emotions are certainly much more important than ours.​

When commands (or emotions) are the focus, the focus can end up on us. When the Lord is the focus, that makes for a much better ending … literally.