24 June 2018
Text: Luke 1:57-80 (Isa 40:1-5, Acts 13:13-26)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
At
first glance, John the Baptist doesn’t really seem that important. He’s a little like the person at the banquet
who introduces the main speaker. He’s
like the warm-up act, whom people forget about once the headliner takes the
stage.
Unlike
his namesake, St. John the Evangelist (who wrote five books of the New
Testament), St. John the Baptist wrote no books of the Bible. The other John was at the crucifixion, the
resurrection, the ascension, and Pentecost – and lived until the end of the
first century. John the Baptist barely
saw Jesus get started in His ministry. While
Peter, Paul, and John had influential disciples of their own, St. John the
Baptist’s disciples all left him to follow Jesus.
But
our Lord said that among those born of women, no man was greater than John the
Baptist. John was the youngest person to
ever confess Christ, leaping in the womb when his cousin Jesus, Himself in His
own mother’s womb, drew near. John set
the standard of courageous preaching, proclaiming truth to power, calling the
king to repentance. John was the last of
the Old Testament prophets and was a New Testament martyr for Christ years before
St. Stephen would become known as the Church’s first martyr. To this day, Eastern churches are all required
to have a prominent icon to John displayed before the altar, for John does what
every pastor and layman are to do in their vocations – to point to Christ!
What
higher calling, what more exultant work is there, dear friends, than to point
sinners to their Savior, to confess or preach Jesus as “the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world”? Yes, this
line in our Liturgy, in the Agnus Dei, was first spoken by John – and we sing
it three times every time we celebrate Holy Communion. We also sing John’s confession in the Gloria
in Excelsis, when we draw our attention to Jesus and point to His atoning word
on the cross – just like John the Baptist did three years before our Lord’s
crucifixion and resurrection.
Indeed,
we must remember that John’s ministry was miraculous. Even his birth was supernatural, being born to
a woman who had been barren, to parents past the age of childbearing. In order to bring John into the world, the
Lord God suspended the normal order of the limitations of age. For age leads to death, and barrenness is a
limitation on the Lord’s command to “bear fruit and multiply.” Zechariah and Elizabeth were object lessons in
the Lord’s plan to overcome death and aging, and to bring fruit out of the
wilderness. And like his cousin Jesus,
John’s birth was heralded by an angel and accompanied by signs.
Even
his name was not of the ordinary. Instead
of being named after his father Zechariah, this future baptizer of Jesus was
named “John.” The name Zechariah means “the
Lord remembers.” But this son of
Zechariah is given a new name in accordance with the Lord’s instructions: John
means: “The Lord is gracious.” Yes,
indeed, God remembers His covenant, but He does not remember our sins when they
are covered by the blood of the Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. Instead of focusing on remembrance, John the
Baptist’s name centers around God’s grace. Even the name of John points to Jesus, whose
own name means: “God saves.”
And
as soon as Zechariah obeyed the word of God and commanded his son to be called “John,”
the judgment was lifted, and the temporarily mute Zechariah “spoke, blessing
God.” And this caused those who
witnessed this miracle to fear God, which the Psalmist teaches us, is the
beginning of wisdom!
Zechariah
the priest of the temple, the husband of Elizabeth, the father of John, himself
prophesied on that day of the circumcision and naming of his son. First, he prophesies of Christ: “Blessed be
the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people.” Zechariah’s canticle describes Jesus as the “horn
of salvation” in the “House of… David.” He remembers the prophets, he reminds us of
salvation, and he confesses the Lord’s mercy. And this priest who is at the end of his own
ministry at the end of the age, he whose name means to “remember,” reminds us of
God’s promise to “remember His holy covenant.” Zechariah proclaims our deliverance from our
enemies, the most vexing of which are sin, death, and the devil – not to
mention the world and our sinful nature. And we are delivered so that we might “serve
Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”
But
Zechariah’s time of service is fading fast. He is passing the torch to his miraculous son,
the cousin of Jesus, the one who will preach Jesus and die for Jesus, who will
be the voice crying in the wilderness to “prepare the way of the Lord” Jesus.
And
Zechariah prophesies about his son the prophet: “And you, child, will be called
the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His
ways.”
Under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St. Zechariah lays out what St. John will
do: “give knowledge of salvation” in the “forgiveness of their sins.” And by God’s “tender mercy,” those who “sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death” will find themselves in the Lord’s “sunrise”
to “give light” to those who do sit in darkness, guiding their “feet into the
way of peace.”
This
is John’s mission, dear friends. John is
not the Savior, even as his preaching included words such as these: “I am not
He. But behold, after me One is coming,
the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.” John will follow his calling to decrease, even
as Jesus is to increase. John will
preach the law and the gospel without compromise, and he will die for the truth
of the very Word of God – the living Word being Jesus of Nazareth, his own
cousin whom he will baptize in the Jordan.
The
preaching of John is the preaching of the church: a call to repent, an
invitation to the waters of Holy Baptism, a pointing to the Lamb of God, and
the good news of forgiveness, that is: “comfort.” For the prophet Isaiah prefigured John and prefigured
all preachers in his prophecy, words given to him by God to speak: “Comfort,
comfort My people, says your God. Speak
tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her
iniquity is pardoned… for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Indeed,
dear friends, the mouth of the Lord continues to speak in His Word. We continue to hear this Word, receive this
call to repent, focusing our eyes on Christ the Lamb of God, remembering the
cross and the grace of God in our atonement, calling to mind the waters of Holy
Baptism, and proclaiming to the world that Jesus has come to bring comfort, to
bring forgiveness, to bring peace with God and with men, and to remind each one
of us that in Christ, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh
shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Not
even the sword can silence that mouth. John
has spoken because the Lord has spoken. And because the Lord has spoken, the church
continues to speak. We speak of Jesus,
of forgiveness, and of the Gospel. Thanks
be to God for His mercy and for bringing His holy prophet St. John the Baptist
into the wilderness of our fallen world, a desert transformed into a garden by
the work of the Christ that John proclaimed, that we might indeed serve the
Lord “in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.” Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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