Text: (John 1:19-28)
John said: I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord,” as the prophet Isaiah said.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In our reading today, John calls himself “a voice”. He is not the Christ, he is not Elijah, he is not the prophet, he is simply “a voice”.
At this stage, John had become famous, and people were coming to see him from different places, simply because of his voice. Later when he was arrested, it was because of his voice. When he was beheaded, this final insult happened because of his voice.
So there is a lot that happened, because of John’s voice. His voice made him famous and well-known, but his voice also put him physical danger.
And so our reading begins with the words: This is the testimony of John. This is his witness. This is what he said, this is what his voice said.
So we read:
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ”. And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 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.”
When these Jewish people who came to John trying to work out who he might be, there were basically three alternatives: he must have been the Christ, Elijah or the prophet.
And John gives them the same answer to all these three alternatives: no, no, no.
First of all, they thought he must be the Christ. Now, Christ is a Greek word, which means anointed one. In Hebrew, the word is Messiah. Messiah and Christ are the same word, but in different languages. In the Old Testament, different people were anointed with oil and set apart for a special service. Anointing was what was done when a person became a priest or a king. So when King David became a king, we read the passage, where Samuel went to his father Jesse’s house and asked to meet all of his sons. Eventually, Samuel made David the king, by pouring out oil on his head. When this happened, David received the Holy Spirit. And from then on, he did many amazing things under the special blessing and protection of God: he killed Goliath, and he calmed king Saul down with his harp playing.
But the “Messiah” (or the “Christ”) was a special king that every one was waiting for. Even today, we call ourselves “Christians”, we are named after the “Christ”. Now John the Baptist wasn’t him. We see in the life of Jesus, that he wasn’t simply anointed with oil and received the Holy Spirit in part, but when Jesus was baptised, we see him directly and physically anointed with the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. When this happens, Jesus isn’t simply someone who receives the Holy Spirit like us, but he is filled with the Holy Spirit in such a way that he and the Holy Spirit together with the Father are in one perfect unity, and that Jesus then gives out the Holy Spirit and breathes the Holy Spirit out. Jesus is not simply a king like David, with an earthly kingdom with boundaries, but he is the king of heaven, which has no boundaries.
Now John was not the Messiah. He was not the Christ. He was not the one who fulfilled all these prophecies.
And so John says: “I am not the Christ.”
Then they ask him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”
Now why do they ask him if he is Elijah, do you think? In the Old Testament, we read that Elijah did not die a natural death. He was taken up into heaven in a special way that was unique to him. We read: As Elijah and Elisha still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elijah saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.
So we see here that Elijah was carried into heaven. Now, in the book of Malachi, in the last book of the Old Testament, it says that Elijah will come before the Messiah. We read: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
Now what is said here about Elijah turning the hearts of fathers to their children, is exactly what the angel says to Zechariah about his son John before he was born. The angel says that he will go out in the spirit and power of Elijah. Jesus says in another place that John is in fact Elijah who is to come.
So is John the Baptist Elijah or not? Well, yes he is, in the sense that he is the one who fulfils this prophecy. He is the Elijah who has come to prepare the way for the Messiah. But the Jews want to know if John is the same person as Elijah, as if Elijah was reincarnated, or as if Elijah had dropped back out of heaven. If this is what they mean, then the answer is no.
So they say: “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.”
So then they ask him the last alternative, “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered “no”.
The people recognised that John was a prophet. He was a very special man. They recognised from what he said that there was something very unique happening.
And in Deuteronomy, Moses says: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you.” And God says: And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
So everyone was looking forward to a particular prophet. This person was Jesus. Jesus spoke the words from God. In his sermon on the mount, Jesus says: You have heard that it was said, “You shall not murder,” but I say to you… Now John is not this person. He is not the prophet. John never says: I say to you. He only ever says: Thus says the Lord.
And so when they say: “Are you the Prophet?”, he answered, “No”.
And we read: “So they asked him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
They thought that John was one of three things: the Christ, Elijah or the Prophet. They’re all out of ideas now. And what does John say:
I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.
John is simply content to call himself: a voice.
His strength stands and falls on him opening his mouth. In psalm 51 it says, “O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will tell of your praise.” God opens John’s lips and he speaks. He is simply a voice.
And this voice crying out in the wilderness does one thing: It prepares the way of the Lord, it makes straight the way of the Lord.
John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet. But also he was also a bit like the first Christian pastor. Like all pastors, John really does nothing. He just points to Jesus and opens his mouth. And like all pastors, John’s ministry stands and falls simply on the basis of what he says. So pray for your pastors: because if John was arrested for speaking the word of God, there is also much attack, both physically and spiritually, which is thrown on all pastors in the church. The devil is always looking for a way to make sure that the voice crying in the wilderness is silenced. And the greatest attack on the church is always on the ministry. People say, “We don’t need pastors anymore. We shouldn’t make them learn Greek and Hebrew. We don’t need to educate them very much anymore and put unqualified people in the job.” That is simply not true: now, more than ever, the church throughout the world needs pastors. And pastors do not have to be professors or scholars, they simply need to be a voice for the word of God. So pray for pastors in the church.
And so how do we prepare the way of the Lord? Well, when people think of preparing the way of the Lord, we might think of giving ourselves a spiritual spring clean. We might think to try and put away everything in us that we see is wrong. We might make an effort to be a better Christian that we were before, and all this sort of thing. And this is all something good that we should do. But when John comes and says, “Prepare the way of the Lord”, he’s not asking us to do something for God by our own effort, or by our own energy. He’s not asking us to make a resolution, or to make choices and decisions.
When John says: “Prepare the way of the Lord”, he is saying to us to stop moving, to stop making an effort, because there is nothing that we can do to prepare for Jesus to come and forgive us, and make his home in us. There is nothing that we can do.
So when John says: Prepare the way of the Lord, he is asking you to be passive. He wants you to listen. He wants you to listen to the word of God. And God’s word will prepare you, because all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers the flowers fade but the word of our God will stand for ever.
If you want to meet the Lord, if you want him to come to you, you have to be still in his presence and let him work on you. You need to stop reaching up to him, stop achieving, stop choosing, stop resolving, stop deciding. You need to be still and listen.
St Paul says: How are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?...So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
And in our little church today, this word is being preached. The word of God is being given a voice. This is what the church is. It is not a place where bibles remain closed, and where the Scriptures are not heard, and not understood. Luther said: “The church is not a pen-house, but a mouth-house.” The good news of salvation is here today, and we have come to hear it. Jesus our Lord and our God is here with us, and he speaks to us the good news of his birth, his suffering, his death, his resurrection. And when we hear these words, the way is prepared for the Lord.
The word of God does everything, we do nothing. After all, the word of God does such great things that we can never do ourselves. The word of the Lord will stand forever. The word of the Lord will endure forever. And so we say to our heavenly Father today, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will tell of your praise.”
Amen.
Heavenly Father, do everything for us today. Prepare the way for us to meet our Lord Jesus today. Build the highway, and don’t let us build it ourselves. Open our ears to hear the good news of the forgiveness of sins won by your Son Jesus on the cross, and open our lips to praise you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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