Advent 4 The Sunday of John the Baptist December 24, 2017
Advent 4
John 1:19-28
December 24, 2017
“A Man Who Doesn’t Want to Talk About Himself?”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
How refreshing! A man who doesn’t want to talk about himself! John the Baptist. If only there were more like him among us. But there’s not. We can’t talk about ourselves enough. Don’t even try to deny it. Even if we are good at outwardly playing the part of humility, inwardly we always want others to know of our hidden greatness.
But here stands John the Baptist today. To teach you to be a Christ-ian. John the Baptist isn’t just a preacher par excellence. He’s not only the guy who brings you and I to repent by his words—by His sermons. But he’s also a Christian par excellence. He brings us to repent just by his very example of humility. He lives the very words he preaches, “He [Jesus] must increase, I must decrease.”
That’s the whole truth of our Christian faith and the whole truth of our Christian life—“He must increase, I must decrease.”
So let’s start with John’s example how to answer three simple questions. One, are you the Christ? Two, are you Elijah? Three, are you the Prophet? How does a Christ-ian answer those questions? Very easily. “I am not.”
So, question one. Are you the Christ? What we mean is, are you the One person whom God has chosen and sent to save the entire world? Are you the One person who’s going to save this world from death and darkness? Are you the One person who can raise people who have died and give any hope to all of us who desperately miss our moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and friends and children? Are you the One who can save from death?
Are you the Christ, the one who can take away the guilt of sins like abortion, like divorce, like adultery, like abuse? Can you go to someone who has had an abortion and say, “I will take that guilt from you?” Can you go to someone who has committed adultery and say, “I will pay for that?” Can you go to someone who has physically or verbally abused another person and say, “I will save you from that?”
That was John the Baptist’s first question and he answered rightly. Are you the Christ? Are you, any of you, the Christ, the One person who will save this world from sin, death, and darkness? You remember the answer, right? Are you the Christ? “I am not.”
Question two. Are you Elijah? Are you a prophet like Elijah who can tell us where our world is headed? That’s what Elijah did, you see. He was a prophet. The prophet par excellence. (That’s my phrase of the day. I apologize.) He told what God was going to do. And he did it well. He said it wasn’t going to rain. It didn’t rain. He said how people were going to die. They died that way. He said it would rain again. It rained. He was good at it.
What about you? Are you the foreteller of all things? Do you know exactly where the world is headed? Where our country is headed? Where our church is headed? Where your family is headed? Where anything is headed? Do you know?
You may have noticed in the past that I don’t have a strong affinity for cable news anchors. Any of them. They think they’re Elijah. Always predicting exactly what’s going to happen. Political prophets, they are. You give them the results of one little election in “Town-of-no-Consequence, USA” and they’ll predict who’s going to win the Presidential election twenty years from now. What a joke.
So what about it? Can you foretell the future, O Elijah? Do you know where all things are headed in your home, Church, country, and world? Do you have an inside line on the workings of God that you’d like to share with us? This was John the Baptist’s second question. And he answered rightly again. Are you the foreteller of all things, the prophet of our futures—friends, are you Elijah? “I am not.”
Now the funny thing about that one, of course, is that Jesus later does say that John the Baptist actually is Elijah. He’s the Elijah that was promised to come in Malachi chapters 3 and 4. But John, you see, isn’t concerned about that. He’s certainly not Elijah in the sense that they mean. So his answer is good, “I am not.”
Question three. Are you the Prophet? The prophet. Not just any prophet. The Prophet. In Deuteronomy, Moses promised that God would send THEE prophet—the One that everyone would listen to. So what this question really gets at is, “Are you the One we’re all supposed to listen to?” Or, in my own attempt at putting this in easier words, “Are you the One who knows everything?”
Are you the One that knows everything? Are you smarter than the rest of the entire world? Should everybody stop what they’re doing and listen to you? Are you the One that can explain why we’re all here? Are you the One that can explain why God allows evil and suffering in the world? Are the One that can give us a point by point reasoning of the Father’s will? Are you the One that can tell us exactly what lies beyond the grave and what will happen on the Last Day?
This was John’s third question. John the Baptist, are you the One who will tell us everything we need to know? And again he answered rightly. What about us? Will we answer rightly? Do you and I know everything? Will you and I be the ones to explain the whys and hows of all things? Are you the Prophet? “I am not.”
What a relief! I am not! Wow, the pressure’s off. No, you’re not Savior of the world, prophet of the future, or knower of all things. That truly is a load off the shoulders. When anyone else would put you into the witness stand to interrogate you the way they did to John the Baptist, “Who do you think you are?” then you have the answer. “Well, I’m not anything, really.” I’m not Mrs. Perfect, that’s for sure. I’m not the One to save anyone else. I’m just a sinner myself who needs a Savior.
And I’m certainly not Mrs. Know-it-All. I don’t have all the answers. I can’t tell you where the world’s headed or why certain things happen. I can’t even tell you what tomorrow’s going to bring. I’m just another mixed-up, confused doubter who needs a Prophet to teach me.
And now we get to one more perfect answer from John. He says it in a number of different ways throughout his ministry like, “Here’s the Lamb of God!” or “He who comes after me,” or “This is He.” But we’ll just say it this way, “Jesus is all of it.” Learn well this technique. Maybe you can call it “deflection”. Deflect all the questions to the One who is called, “I AM”. Our answer is, “I am not.” His answer is, “I AM.” “I am the light of the world.” “I am the Good Shepherd.” “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” “I AM the Bread of Life.” “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” I am.
He is. He is all of it. He is your Savior. He is your foreteller of your future. And He is the One who answers all of life’s questions. And HE is yours. He’s yours! Who are you? I am a Christ-ian. I’m a forgiven sinner. I’m a baptized believer! I’m an adopted son, adopted daughter, of the heavenly Father! I’m a pilgrim on my way to a better country!
I’m a sinner, day-by-day living more and more in Christ. Here’s where those words of John the Baptist are so helpful—“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30. That is your goal every day. Jesus must increase, but you must decrease. You can’t save the world. You can’t foretell all. You don’t know all. But He does. He does.
So you repent. You pray. You come to the Lord’s Supper. You come to Church. You increase Christ more and more in your heart through His Word and Sacraments and you remember more and more that, “I am not.” Follow John’s example. Which is to follow Jesus. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” And as Jesus increases, everything else good will increase also.
Amen.