24 Dec 2023
Text: John
1:19-28
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
“Who are you?” This strange question was posed to John the Baptist by the Jewish priests and Levites when crowds came pouring into the desert to hear John preach and to be baptized by him. The question: “Who are you?” was asked out of fear. Of course, they all knew who he was. He was the son of an elderly priest named Zechariah and his elderly wife Elizabeth. They knew that his name was John. Their question, “Who are you?” was not really asking him who he was.
Some three years later, a similarly strange question was posed to John’s cousin Jesus, not by Jewish priests and Levites, but by the Roman governor. Jesus was in the custody of Pontius Pilate, and was being interrogated by him. The Jews told Pilate that Jesus was claiming to be the Son of God. Pilate’s response is interesting. He didn’t roll his eyes. He didn’t laugh at them. He didn’t tell the priests and the Levites and Jesus Himself to just go home and stop wasting the governor’s time. Instead, as John writes, Pilate, hearing “this statement… was even more afraid.” And his question for Jesus was not “Who are you?” but: “Where are You from?” He too asks this question out of fear. Of course, Pilate knows where Jesus is from. He put it on the sign above His cross: Nazareth. Jesus is a Galilean from Nazareth. That’s where He’s from. Pilate’s question, “Where are You from?” was not really asking Jesus where He came from.
Both of these questions are really the same, dear friends. For the Jews and the Roman governor were both afraid of the supernatural. They were afraid of the Christ, the Messiah. The priests and the Levites controlled the people with the Law, and John was preaching without their approval. Pilate controlled the people by virtue of Roman law and military occupation, and Jesus was preaching as a King – not to mention as the Son of God – without their approval.
When Jesus was asked this fearful question, “Where are You from?” – He refused to answer it. And this made Pilate even more afraid, seeking to release Jesus. When John was asked the fearful question, “Who are you?” – “He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’” For that was their real question. They knew who John was, but his preaching was so unlike anything that they had ever heard, recognizing it as supernatural, that they were afraid that John might be the Christ. “I am not the Christ,” John answers.
But the priests and Levites are still afraid. Their interrogation continues: “Are you Elijah?” “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” “No.” And losing patience, they order John to make it clear what his mission is. “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,” says John, “Make straight the way of the Lord.” John is confessing that he is not the Christ, the Messiah, but he is the one announcing that the Christ has come – he is the one prophesied by the prophet Isaiah.
John tells them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even He who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
And now, the priests and Levites are really afraid. For John is indeed a fulfillment of prophecy, but one greater than he is already out there: “among you,” says John.
The priests and Levites were afraid of the coming of the Christ. So was Pontius Pilate. So are the rulers of our world today, dear friends. And so are all unbelievers. They are terrified. They cannot abide people wishing one another Merry Christmas. They cannot stand public nativity displays – either trying to outlaw them, or to put statues of Satan next to them. They are afraid. Satan is afraid. For our Lord did not come into this world to be an example of niceness. He came to smash the serpent’s head. He came to call the priests and the Levites to repentance. He came to call the governors, kings and emperors of this world to repentance. He came to call each one of us to repentance.
He has come to retake the world that was taken from him, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
Thirty years before this incident in our Gospel reading, where John is asked, “Who are you?” a Jewish king, King Herod, who was actually a puppet of the Romans, was also afraid. St. Matthew said that he was “troubled.” For “wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who was born king of the Jews?’” For Herod thought that he was himself king of the Jews. He didn’t want any competition. So Herod “killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region two years old or under.”
Herod’s son – whose name was Herod Antipas – eventually executed John the Baptist, and also joined Pilate to put Jesus on trial. Jesus would also die by execution. For these powerful people: priests, Levites, kings, and governors, all live in fear. They are afraid of the Christ. So are presidents and congressmen and senators and governors and justices today, dear friends. So do people who control our culture through movies and sports and movies. They are all afraid. And like the priests and Levites, Herod and Pilate, and like the Roman Emperors that martyred Christians – they fear our King: Jesus. Even the simple act of saying, “Merry Christmas, Jesus is King” enrages the demons, and the demons inflame our leaders: political and cultural.
And to this day, a lot of people who ask us questions aren’t really asking questions, dear friends. They are making accusations. And we should not fear them, and we should not deny, but confess.
We are not the Christ, but we are Christians. We worship the one born in Bethlehem, and we confess Him to be nothing less than Emmanuel: God with us, the Word Made Flesh, the Son of God and Son of Man, our King, our God, and our Savior. And no matter what insults or lies or questions that aren’t really questions that they hurl at us, we don’t care. We will confess, and will not deny, but confess that Jesus is the Christ. He is our King. He is their King. He is the King of the universe. And He is coming again.
His coming to us the first time, His miraculous conception and birth, His escape from Herod, His perfect life, His ministry of preaching the kingdom, healing the sick, forgiving sins, raising the dead, and shedding His blood for our redemption, His resurrection and His coming again, are all about Him whose coming we celebrate today and tomorrow, and year after year, Christmas after Christmas, until He returns in glory.
When the world asks us who we are, let us confess and not deny, but let us confess that we are Christians: believers in King Jesus our Redeemer. Let us celebrate Christmas without fear of who might not like it. We don’t worship priests and Levites and kings and governors. We join the wise men from the east in worshiping the miraculous baby born to Mary, the Son of God and the Son of Man. We are not worthy to untie His sandal, but He is worthy to unbind us from our sins and from the power of death, and to restore our bonds to our God that were broken by our fall into sin and rebellion. He has come to fix it, and to fix it all.
Let us worship our King, and let those who are terrified of Him repent and join us in our worship of the Christ. As we earlier sang the words of the prophet Isaiah, let us ponder our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray: “Rain down, you heavens from above, and let the skies pour down the Righteous One; let the earth open her womb, and bring forth Salvation.” For we know who He is, and we know where He is from!
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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