16 Apr 2024
Text: Luke 7:18-35
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
John the Baptist is also John the Prophet. He is the last, and in many ways, the greatest of all the prophets. And yet, the kingdom of God that John proclaims, paradoxically, makes even the one who is least in the kingdom even greater than he! For John is a preacher of righteousness, of being made perfect. John does this by proclaiming Christ. And Christ makes all of us perfect by His coming: His Incarnation, His passion, His death, and His resurrection – which John and all the prophets proclaimed.
Jesus says that John is even “more than a prophet,” for He is the pinnacle of the prophets. He is the prophet prophesied by the prophet Isaiah: John is the “messenger,” the one who “will prepare [the Messiah’s] way.” He is the last of the prophets and the first of the Christian preachers. John’s father Zechariah prophesied about John as well, which St. Luke recorded for us, and which we often sing in Matins: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High… to prepare His ways… to give knowledge of salvation… in the forgiveness of their sins… to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
And now it is John who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death. He is in prison, having been arrested by Herod, who was offended at his preaching. Now it is John who needs to hear the good news, whose feet need to be guided into the way of peace. And so it is now the Christ Himself who preaches the kingdom to the prophet who went before. It is the fulfillment of the kingdom proclaimed by the King Himself that brings comfort and peace to John. For as John’s father also prophesied about Jesus: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people.” For we shall be “saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,” serving Him “without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”
John’s days will be cut short by his enemies who hate us, by a man who calls himself king of the Jews. John’s preaching will be silenced. But the Word cannot be silenced. The kingdom cannot be stifled. The fulfillment of John’s proclamation cannot be suppressed. For the word of the prophets has been fulfilled by the Word Made Flesh: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” The kingdom has indeed come with signs and wonders, but more importantly, by the cross, by the real King of the Jews who is the King of the universe. And just as John the Baptist baptized Jesus with water, John the evangelist will testify of the blood and water that flowed from our Lord’s pierced side when the kingdom was brought to its completion.
John’s preaching, his own life and death – and his own coming resurrection on the Last Day – all testify about the King and the kingdom. “Wisdom is justified by all her children.” We are wise to heed the prophets, and we are wise to see in Jesus their glorious fulfillment. We are wise to continue to hear Christ preached, even sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to be drawn into the kingdom, and to become even greater than John by the grace of the King about whom he prophesied.
Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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