“Cousin John Emphatically declared That He Was Not the Christ!”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Dear fellow Advent anticipators of the coming Messiah, grace,
mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. [Amen.]
Hark, the herald’s voice is crying
In the desert far and near,
Calling sinners to repentance,
Since the Kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
Let the valleys rise to meet Him
And the hills bow down to greet Him.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
347:3)
Gospel
Reading..........................................................................................
St. John 1:19-20
19This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from
Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20He confessed, and did not deny, but
confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
Prologue: Probably the most natural and common way of dealing
with being accused of saying or doing something wrong is denial. Beginning
with our first parents Adam and Eve we have inherited that natural tendency
to immediately deny the wrongdoing for which we’re being blamed no matter
whether or not the accusation is true.
Another type of denial, however, is that which responds to
confused or mistaken identity as found in today’s Gospel narrative. It
relates the account of Jewish priests and Levites seeking to determine who
John the Baptizer really was. Among the identities about which they quizzed
him was the promised Messiah. In an effort to categorically eliminate that
option and at the same time point them to the true Messiah, …
“Cousin John Emphatically declared That He Was Not the Christ!”
Well, here we are just one week from another annual formal
celebration of the incarnate birth of our Lord and Savior, the promised
Messiah, Jesus Christ. It’s a time for both reflection and projection. We
do well to look back on our whole life in general and this present
pre-Christmas season of Advent in particular. What we discover (or are
reminded of) in general is that we’re sinful and woefully deserving of God’s
just and righteous punishment—both temporal and eternal. What we discover
(or are reminded of in this present pre-Christmas season of Advent) in
particular is the merciful and gracious reality of the past, present, and
future arrivals of almighty God’s Messiah.
At the same time, we look forward with excited expectation. We do
so eagerly anticipating another Christmas celebration of God having
fulfilled His many promises to send the Messiah to atone for the sins of all
people of all time. We do so knowing, believing, and rejoicing that Christ
clothed Himself with our human flesh by entering this sinful world through
the Virgin Mary’s birth canal as the Spirit-conceived holy Babe born in
Bethlehem 2,000+ years ago; that Christ comes to us daily with the Good News
of forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life contained in God’s Holy
Word, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion; and that Christ
will come again on the Last Day to usher all past, present, and future
Believers in Him into eternal glory with Himself in heaven.
Messengers have been in the midst of both the general and present
contexts. They included both Old and New Testament prophets whom God
enlisted, equipped, and sent. Among the many well-known Old Testament
prophets were familiar identities such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,
Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and, well, many
many more both well-known and lesser-known men of God’s own choosing. They
fulfilled what was foretold by Moses in today’s Old Testament Reading: “The
Lord [Yahweh] your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among
you, from your brothers … . And the Lord [Yahweh] said to me … “I will
raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will
put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command
him.” (Deut 18:15a, 17a, 18 ESV)
But when it comes to the New Testament there’s only one such
prophet, one who was also referred to in that Old Testament prophecy. That
man is none other than the son of Zachariah and Elizabeth and the cousin of
Jesus, namely, he who is most-commonly known as John the Baptist. In order
to become better acquainted with him, let’s examine …
I. Cousin John’s True Identity. (21-23)
21And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22So they said to him, “Who
are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say
about yourself?” 23He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the
wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah
said.”
As I mentioned earlier, he was the son of Zachariah, a priest, and
his wife Elizabeth, who was the cousin of Mary the mother of Jesus. That
made Jesus and him cousins as well (the degree to which is too confusing for
my simple mind).
But beyond his family identity lay his true and most significant
identity. That identity is none other than the announcer that immediately
preceded the Messiah, who had been prophesied for some four millennia and
was now on the scene. This was, of course, a direct reference to Isaiah’s
prophecy some 600 years before: “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare
the way of the Lord [Yahweh]; make straight in the desert a highway for our
God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made
low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord [Yahweh] shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together, for the mouth of the Lord [Yahweh] has spoken.’” (Isa
40:3-5 ESV)
The evangelist Mark (as well as the apostle Matthew) further
identified him when he wrote in His Gospel narrative: “Now John was clothed
with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts
and wild honey.” (St Mark 1:6-7 ESV) That particular visible and physical
description connected him with the Old Testament prophet Elijah, of whom he
was the New Testament version. That is, John the Baptist was God’s segway
between the Old Testament prophets and the Messiah, whom they prophesied.
But alongside the great importance of his true identity was …
II. Cousin John’s Meaningful Activity. (24-28)
24(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25They asked him, “Then why
are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the
Prophet?” 26John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands
one you do not know, 27even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal
I am not worthy to untie.” 28These things took place in Bethany across the
Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Today’s Introit contained the message and explanation of this
Sunday’s Latin-language sub-title “Rorate Coeli”, namely, “Shower, O
heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the
earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth
cause them both to sprout. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the
sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (Is 45:8a & Ps 19:1 ESV) In fact, today’s
Epistle Reading enlarged that meaningful activity message: “Rejoice in the
Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to
everyone. The Lord is at hand … . And the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
(Phil 4:4-5, 7 ESV)
You see, Cousin John’s meaningful activity was threefold. First,
he announced that the Messiah had truly arrived when he declared: “Behold,
the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I
said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’”
(St John 1:29b-30 ESV) Second, he called the people to repentance as he did
when he preached: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (St Matt
3:2 ESV) And third, he baptized people into the formerly-coming but
then-present Jesus, that is, “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins.” (St Mark 1:4-5 ESV)
That continues to be the task of Christ’s contemporary Church.
When Jesus at His ascension commissioned His disciples then and us today to
“make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you.” (St Matt 28:19-20 ESV) He thereby told us to do what His
cousin John had done. That is, call people to repentance (a major emphasis
of both Advent and Lent) by convicting them of their sinfulness with God’s
Law; tell them the Good News about Jesus, the Gospel message that His holy
life, innocent suffering, crucifixion death, and majestic resurrection from
the dead have gained forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life for all
sinners; and baptize them into Christ’s death and resurrection in the name
of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So, today’s Gradual, “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to
all who call on him in truth.” (Ps 145:1 ESV), reminds us not only that the
annual celebration of our Savior’s birth is close at hand (only seven days
away!) but of much greater importance that Jesus is both with us and in us
who receive Him with our ears and our mouths. As we do so, let’s be
absolutely clear about who is who between Jesus and His Cousin John. That
is, let’s be completely certain about the fact that …
“Cousin John Emphatically declared That He Was Not the Christ!”
In so doing, let’s realize with joyful gratitude that the one true
Christ was pointed to by both …
I. Cousin John’s True Identity. (21-23) as well as …
II. Cousin John’s Meaningful Activity. (24-28)
With all that having been said, let’s complete this Advent season
looking forward to Christ’s Last-Day coming and enter the Christmas season
next Sunday with today’s Collect on our minds and in our hearts: “… come and
help us by Your might, that the sins which weigh us down may be quickly
lifted by Your grace and mercy.”
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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