This sermon is dedicated to my dear friend, Pastor Matthew Buse.
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke 1:57-80)
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give the knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.
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.
Exactly 480 years ago in the year 1532, Martin Luther preached a sermon about John the Baptist on this day, in which he said this:
“The real reason for observing this festival, the day of St John, is not because of his austere life, not because of his phenomenal birth, but because of his beloved finger, because of his message and his office.”
The most important thing about John the Baptist was his finger!
In Luke 1, there are 4 different events that take place, all of which happened before the birth of Jesus. The first is that Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father is visited by the angel Gabriel while he was serving as a priest in the temple. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were both old people, well past the years of having children, and the angel Gabriel told Zechariah that he would have a child. Zechariah didn’t believe the angel, and his ears and mouth were shut up in such a way that Zechariah couldn’t hear or talk.
The second thing that happens is that the angel Gabriel goes to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she will conceive and bear a son, Jesus Christ.
The third thing is that Mary goes skipping across the hill country to visit Elizabeth, and John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb in the presence of Jesus.
And lastly comes today’s reading, where John the Baptist is born, and his birth causes great joy both to his parents and to their friends. John is given his name, Zechariah’s mouth is opened, and then he speaks a wonderful song, which we often call the “Song of Zechariah”. Throughout Christian history, the Song of Zechariah has been a song that the church has sung in the morning, and is usually part of Matins.
And there are so many miracles that surround John the Baptist’s birth. First of all, his mother was an old woman, she wasn’t able to have children throughout her life, and in her old age, her womb is opened and she gives birth to a son.
And all this happened so that we might have John the Baptist’s finger!
Zechariah, John’s father, was visited by the angel Gabriel and was made deaf and unable to speak. Now in those days, what used to happen was that the priests used to cast lots to choose who would go into the temple to serve at the altar. It wasn’t that they were leaving the choice up to chance, or wanted it to be random—they wanted to let God choose the priest for the day. This one day was Zechariah’s turn—can you imagine what the people must have been thinking when he came out to bless the people and he couldn’t speak? The people thought, “This can’t be a random act! This can’t be simply bad luck!” We read, when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realised that he had seen a vision in the temple.
And all this happened so that we might have John the Baptist’s finger!
When John was born, we read that Zechariah and Elizabeth’s friends and relatives were disagreeing about the name of the child. Zechariah was given a writing tablet, and he wrote, “His name is John.” And his mouth and ears were opened and he was able to speak. And he spoke a wonderful prophecy: Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.”
And all this happened so that we might have John the Baptist’s finger!
Later on in John’s life we read that he lived out in the desert—he had locusts and wild honey, and wore camel’s hair and a leather belt. And this didn’t happen so that we might copy him and go out and live a life like that out in the bush somewhere. John’s no use to us at all from that point of view.
But he’s got a finger!
Now, what’s all this talk about John’s finger? What’s the big deal about this finger?
Well—what did he do with his finger? He pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
John was the last of the prophets. And there is one thing that John was able to do that none of the prophets before him were able to do. All the other prophets—Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Jonah, Malachi—could only point to Jesus in the future. But John the Baptist could stand next to a person and point to Jesus who was standing over there and say, “That’s him”, “that’s the Messiah”, “that’s your Saviour”, “that’s your Redeemer”, “that’s the Lamb of God who take away the sin of the world.”
That’s why John the Baptist was born. That’s the reason why there were these great miracles at the time of his birth. It was all because of John’s finger.
And all pastors in the church since they models their ministry on John’s ministry. Every pastor in the church when he gets up in the pulpit on a Sunday morning is called to model his ministry on John the Baptist.
Every pastor is called to point to Jesus and say, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Some people misunderstand this, and think that the prophets in the Old Testament pointed to Jesus in the future, John pointed to Jesus in the present, and pastors are pointing to Jesus in the past. That’s not quite true!
Yes, Jesus did do wonderful things in the past. He was born of a Virgin called Mary in a stable in Bethlehem at a particular time in history, during the reign of King Herod in about 6 BC. He died at a particular day in history—on Good Friday around the year 30 AD. He rose again three days later on Easter Sunday. He ascended into heaven in the same year 40 days after he rose, and 50 days after he rose he sent the Holy Spirit on his disciples.
Yes, there are certain things that Jesus did at a particular time in history, and we always want to remind ourselves of these things. But when we preach, pastors, just like John the Baptist, are called to point to Jesus not just back into the past, but here in the church now. Jesus is here. Jesus never called his apostles and pastors to interpret the word of God for people and to use the bible to explain their own opinions. Jesus simply calls pastors to preach the word. We don’t preach about the word, or about the gospel, but we actually preach the word, and preach the Gospel. This way the word that we preach doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to Jesus. It’s his word—and he promises to come and visit our churches every Sunday and be our preacher.
A good sermon is not supposed to draw attention to itself. It is always supposed to point to Jesus. John the Baptist said, “I must decrease, Jesus must increase.” That’s exactly what happens every Sunday—pastors are not supposed to point to themselves and say, “Look at me!” They point to Jesus and say, “Look at him!” “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John the Baptist can’t comfort anyone. His hairy clothes and belt of leather couldn’t comfort anyone one little bit. The only thing that comforts anyone is John’s finger, and where he points.
And the same goes for pastors—the only thing pastors do is read things out of a book for people. The only thing a pastor is called to do is open the bible, point to Jesus and say “Thus says the Lord.” Jesus does the comforting. He sends the Holy Spirit the Comforter.
And just as pastors do this in the pulpit, sometimes each one of us—each Christian—is sent various situations from God where we are called to give an answer about the Christian faith. In 1 Peter 3 it says: “In your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”
What do you do when someone asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you? What do you say when someone asks why you are a Christian?
It’s time to pull your finger out! It’s time to give those squeaky knuckles an oil, and to do some old-fashioned pointing and staring.
Too often though, we point to ourselves, and we say, “I believe in God, because I can feel him.” Or “I believe in Jesus, and he answers my prayer, and I know deep in my heart that he’s real.”
Don’t point them there! Point them to Jesus! Show them what Jesus did for you and for them in history. Point them to the birth of Jesus, his death and resurrection. Challenge them to do some research and see whether they think those things are true. Point them to the preaching in the church, to the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and tell them that Jesus is there for them. Point to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! And you know what happened when John the Baptist did this? All of his disciples left him and ran off and followed Jesus. And that exactly what you want to happen!
And so, Zechariah said on this occasion: “You, child, [you, John the Baptist], will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give the knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.”
This is what John’s birth was for. He was called to go before the Lord and prepare his ways. He was a voice crying in the wilderness. And he baptised Jesus. And he gave the knowledge of salvation to people: not by telling how they should live, and what rules they should follow—John didn’t tell people to go and dress like him, and eat like him, and have the same haircut. He gave the knowledge of salvation to people by the forgiveness of their sins.
This is the same knowledge of salvation that we enjoy in the Christian church today. This is the knowledge that comes simply from pointing away from ourselves, from human works, from human efforts, and human achievements in the church and pointing to Jesus.
Of course, what eventually happened to John the Baptist is that they cut off his head. They blamed him for his words and so they cut off that part of him that they thought was doing the most damage. But even John, when he’s a headless corpse, still has his finger intact, pointing with all its might to the coming crucifixion, to the coming wounds and piercings of John’s wonderful Saviour, who will raise John from the dead, body and soul, with head and torso intact.
The same thing happens to pastors sometimes. People kill the messenger! Pastors preach God’s word, and they get they’re heads cut off. They are thrown out of their pulpits and churches and have their mouths taped up. But this is no threat to a pastor who knows that when his head is cut off, the legacy of his ministry survives through his finger.
The same goes for every Christian who gives a witness in their faith in the context of their family or amongst their friends and acquaintances or amongst their work-colleagues or whoever they meet. They might cut your head off—they might blame your tongue for talking too much, they might blame your eyes for looking at them, they might blame your brain for thinking outlandish things and call you crazy. Let them cut your head off! Your witness will be a faithful witness when it is done through your finger!
As Zechariah said about the son of his old age: You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the LORD to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people, in the forgiveness of their sins.
And if this is what can be done through a finger, what do you think can be done when God himself not only uses his finger, but his whole hand?
We read about John in our gospel reading today: For the hand of the Lord was with him.
Amen.
Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank you for your servant John the Baptist and for his miraculous birth. We thank you for his faithful ministry in pointing us to our Saviour. Make us your faithful witnesses and let our hearts and minds always be turned from looking at ourselves to our loving Saviour. Amen.
Fine sermon, sir. Also, hello from America. I'm Rachel Buse's brother.
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