Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 1st Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 6 – 8 and 19 – 28
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said,
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’”
as the prophet Isaiah said.
24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Why then are you baptising if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptise with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptising.
Today’s Gospel is sort of a repeat of what we heard in last week’s Gospel. Last week we heard about John the Baptist from the Gospel according to Mark. Today, we hear about John the Baptist from the Gospel according to John. Now, this can get a little bit confusing if we do not remember that John the Evangelist and John the Baptist are two different men. The Holy Spirit inspired John the Evangelist, the author of the Gospel from which we read today, to include John the Baptist in his account of the Gospel.
The reading that we heard today from John’s Gospel is a fine example of something that literary scholars call step parallelism. Parallelism compares two people or things that have similar characteristics. Step parallelism uses this comparison to show that the second person or object has similar characteristics but in a way that is far beyond those of the first. Probably the most famous quote using step parallelism came from the mouth of the astronaut Neil Armstrong as he lowered his foot down on to the surface of the moon “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Basically, we build up someone or something and then we show that a second someone or something is even greater. Let’s see how this works in today’s Gospel.
John the Baptist was the last prophet to point forward to the coming Messiah. John the Evangelist described John the Baptist as an honest, faithful prophet who preached the words that the Holy Spirit gave him to preach. He was even important enough to have his own prophecies. John the Baptist described his calling with the words of Isaiah, [Isaiah 40:3] “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” These words were his identity. He described himself as that voice.
John the Evangelist makes it very clear that John the Baptist is important. He is faithful, honest, driven, and fearless. John the Evangelist has made it very clear that John the Baptist is a great man. John the Baptist is a force of history.
Now comes the step parallelism. When John had the opportunity to describe the one who came after him, He said, “I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandal.” We can easily make the case that John the Baptist was the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. Regardless, he is not worthy to care for the footwear of the one who follows him. The step parallelism says that John the Baptist is great, but the one who follows him is several orders of magnitude greater.
There is one three letter word that describes the difference between John the Baptist and the one who followed him. That word is “NOT.” When the Jewish authorities came to investigate John, they asked, (John 1:20)“Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” John’s three word answer, “I am not,” is the great difference between him and the one who followed him.
There are many instances in the Bible where Jesus revealed His character and purpose. …. So, the one who followed him would say, [John 8:58] “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” He would also say,[John 6:35]. “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” [John 8:12] “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” [John 10:11] “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” [John 11:25–26] “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” [John 14:6] “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The one who followed John is the one who spoke to Moses from the burning bush and said, [Exodus 3:14] “I am who I am.” The great prophet John could proclaim the blessings, but the blessings became reality in the even greater one who followed him … the great “I AM.”
There is something unusual hidden in John’s proclamation of the one who follows him. John began his proclamation of the one who follows him with the words: “Among you stands one you do not know.” The people were used to the idea that the Messiah would come … someday. John’s message was different in that he said that the one who followed him was already there. The one who followed John … the great “I AM” stood among them and they did not know him. This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. [Isaiah 53:2b] “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him”. The one who followed John … the GREAT I AM … looked like an ordinary man. Even though He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He is also 100% human. He was so human that you could not pick Him out of a crowd.
The one who followed John did not come in the expected way. We expect important people to come in important ways. We expect servants. We expect wealth. Important people demand service, and they get it. However, this one who followed John … who was more important than John said, [Mark 10:45] “[I] came not to be served but to serve, and to give [My] life as a ransom for many.” The one whose sandal John was not worthy to untie came to serve us. [Philippians 2:8] “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”. He came to die for us. He came to ransom us. He came to earn eternal life for us.
The delegation that came from Jerusalem to check on John had its answers. The sad thing in today’s Gospel is that the men in the delegation wanted to know who John was, but they didn’t want to hear his message. When John told them about the Greater One who was already in the crowd standing among the people, they weren’t impressed. As far as they were concerned, no one in the crowd looked especially Messianic.
The problem is that the men in the delegations had preconceived notions about the coming Messiah and His messenger. John didn’t match up. He was not what they expected. They expected the Messiah to reveal Himself in worldly glory and power. They expected the Messiah’s messenger to be a splendid reflection of that glory and power. This shaggy haired, eccentric did not fit their preconceived notion of the prophet of the Messiah.
Their preconceived notions blinded them to the blessings that God wanted to give them through His servant John the Baptiser. John the Evangelist, his brother James and all the other disciples of the Baptiser would soon meet the Christ, but the men in these delegations would miss out. They passed up the opportunity of a lifetime because the Baptiser didn’t meet their expectations.
Nothing has changed in two thousand years. We still tend to let our expectations block our relationship with God. We expect our religious affiliation will mean that we automatically get along with others even though thousands of years of human history show us that it can’t be done. We expect our religious affiliation means that we will automatically live an honourable life even though we have inherited the curse of sin from our parents as we grew in our mother’s womb. We expect our religious affiliation to make us happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise. In short, for so many, being part of a Christian religion is the “Golden Ticket” that they have earned to get into heaven when they leave this world.
It is sad for many that these expectations distract them from God’s wonderful means of grace, His Word and Sacrament. They distract them from the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life. From our daily relationship of trust and faith in Jesus that He will get us through all challenges with peace and joy in our hearts. The only realistic expectation of eternal salvation is achieved by humbly submitting to God’s gracious will for us. You know the fact is that the Bible clearly teaches us that trying to make it on our own preconceived ideas is totally impossible.
The salvation God gives us is unexpected. The true God is the Almighty Lord of this and every other universe. Who would expect such a high and exalted God to pay the price of salvation for such lowly people? Who would expect Him to give it to us for free? Who would expect God to leave His high throne of glory to take on human nature and live under the authority of the law? Who would expect a saviour to hide His divinity in the womb of a virgin? Who would expect a saviour that was so poor that even in His death He laid in a borrowed tomb? Who would expect salvation to come out of the blood and bone and sweat and pain of a grisly execution on a cross? Who would expect the dead author of this salvation to rise from the dead or ascend into heaven? Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the salvation provided by the Great One who followed John the Baptist.
The Great One who followed John the Baptist earned salvation for us when He sacrificed Himself on the cross. This is not the salvation that we would expect. But miraculously, it is the salvation freely given to us through Jesus free gift of grace.
The salvation of our God is so unexpected that, as written in the Gospel according to Mark, it is not until the one who followed John hangs dead on a cross that a Gentile Roman Centurion becomes the first human to properly identify the one whose sandals John is not worthy to untie. [Mark 15:39] “When the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”” So it is that we learn that the Jesus who died on the cross for our sin and rose from the dead is the Son of God … the GREAT I AM … the one whose sandals John was not worthy to untie. It is He who is our salvation. Amen.
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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