Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (John
1:19-28)
[John] confessed
and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
Prayer: Heavenly
Father, send us the Holy Spirit so that by your grace we may believe your holy
word and live godly lives here in time and there in eternity, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
When the Jewish priests and Levites asked John who he was,
he said: I am not the Christ.
In fact, the text makes a big deal out of this point. We
read: He confessed, and did not deny, but
confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
At the time, many people mistook Jesus and John. They were
doing very similar things. They were very similar in age, and their mothers
were related. In fact, it was John who jumped for joy in his mother’s womb,
when the sound of Mary’s greeting came to Elizabeth’s ear. John was the jumpy
baby, Jesus was the quiet baby.
When John began his ministry, he said: “Repent and believe
the gospel.” And when Jesus was baptised and began his ministry, he also said,
“Repent and believe the gospel.”
When Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that
the Son of Man is?” the first thing they say is, “Some say John the Baptist.”
Also, after John the Baptist had been beheaded, King Herod heard about the fame
of Jesus and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been
raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.”
So you can see that many people confused Jesus and John.
But also, they lead quite different lives. John’s life was marked with a
certain strictness and austerity. He wore strange clothes—camel’s hair and a
leather belt—and ate a strict diet of locusts and wild honey. Jesus on the
other hand was particularly known for eating and drinking with tax collectors
and sinners. Of course, we know that he fasted in the wilderness for 40 days,
but his ministry was not marked by the sort of strictness that John kept to. We
are never told much about Jesus’ clothing, and we assume that he dressed in a
way that was fairly normal at the time. Jesus was accused of being a glutton
and a drunkard, and went around healing people, and comforting them, and
blessing the children.
Jesus says at one point: “We played a dirge, and you did
not mourn. We played the flute and you did not dance.” John was the funeral
man—he sang a dirge, a funeral song, but people didn’t listen to him. Jesus on
the other hand was the wedding man—he played the flute, a wedding a song, but
people didn’t dance, they didn’t listen to Jesus either. Jesus is the
bridegroom, and his church is the bride. John is the best man—he gives a speech
not in honour of himself but in honour of the couple, in honour of the
groom. John doesn’t point our attention to himself, but to the groom. John must
decrease, and Jesus must increase. John is Jesus’ forerunner, and Jesus comes
and walks in John’s footsteps. But Jesus also brings things that John does
not—Jesus brings healing for the sick, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf,
resurrection to the dead. Jesus dies for the sin of the world, and rises again
from the dead. These are things that John does not do.
And so, it is very important that when the Jewish priests
and Levites come to John, that the first thing John says is, “I am not the
Christ.” “I am not the Messiah.” “I am not Jesus.”
And the same goes for us. Today we are very conscious of
the fact that many people have turned away from the church and have rejected
Christianity. And so Christians today have much more of an increased desire to
want to share the faith with unbelievers. A lot of the time, these people are
members of our own family, and whenever Christians mention anything about their
faith, people are very sensitive and sometimes get angry. They don’t want to
lose their loved ones, and never talk to them again. But at the same time,
Christians love these people in their families, and want the best for them, and
always find themselves walking a tight-rope between their love for them, and
speaking the truth in love to them. But when someone asks us about the faith,
we shouldn’t pretend that we are Jesus.
I remember hearing about a Christian man who was asked,
“Do Christians live a much better life than other people, and do many more good
things and good works than people of other religions?” Now the man who asked
the question was from China, and didn’t know a lot about Christianity, and
didn’t know many Christians. But the Christian man replied, “Well—sometimes, I
suppose. But people of other religions, like Muslims and Buddhists and
atheists, also do good things, and sometimes live a life that is better than
many Christians, and are friendlier and kinder.” Anyway, l remember this
Christian man telling me that afterwards he was really upset about the way in
which he felt that he lost an opportunity to witness to his faith. But, if you
think about it, he did. He didn’t pretend that Christians were Jesus—he didn’t
pretend that the church was perfect. He spoke the truth, and he answered the
question honestly. This answer may have completely surprised the man, and
completely blown his worldview.
You see, most of the time, our best works are the works we
don’t see. St Paul says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Jesus is the
one who performs the good works through us—the glory belongs to him. So there’s
no point in bragging about what you think are your good works, because they are
not the ones that God himself holds most valuable. Remember when Jesus tells
about the sheep and the goats, and the sheep say: “When did we see you hungry
and feed you? When did we see you thirsty and give you a drink?”
So if people say that Christians are hypocrites, and
criticise Christians, and say that the church is a mess, then agree with them.
It’s true. Christians are continually giving Jesus a bad name, and the church
is full of sinners. The best thing to do then is to agree with the true verdict
of God—yes, I am not Jesus. I am not the Messiah.
As one of my fellow students at the seminary used to say,
“If you find a perfect church, don’t join it, because you’ll stuff it up!”
People think the church is full of sinners. They are
right—you are a sinner.
People think religion is for the weak. They are right—you
are weak.
People think Christianity is just some other kind of
self-help. It’s not self-help—but you do need all the help you can get.
Like St Paul, boast of your weaknesses. This is just as
much a faithful confession as any other.
And so John says to the priest and the Levites, “I am not
the Christ.”
Then they ask him some more questions. “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am
not.” “Are you the prophet?” And he answered, “No.”
Our reading today begins with the words, “This is the
testimony of John.” By worldly standards, this seems like quite a poor
testimony and quite a poor witness to the faith. People are asking John
questions, and he’s just giving them one-word answers.
“Come on, John!” we might think. “Make an effort! These
people have come a long way!”
You see, when it comes to giving a witness to the faith,
people think that they always have to give a great eloquent speech, and impress
people with their wit and the clever arguments. But while John makes his
one-word answers, the people who ask him are sharpened in their questioning,
their consciences are shaped that little bit more.
So they ask, “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.”
John is preaching in such a way that people come to a
realisation of their own sinfulness, their own helplessness and their own
poverty. But Jesus is the one who then brings the comfort, the forgiveness, the
strength and all the treasures of heaven.
But at this point, the Jewish priests and the Levites are
not satisfied. The real motivation for their questions is revealed in their
last question. They are not simply interested in who John is, but why he is
doing what he is doing.
They say, “Then why
are you baptising, if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet?”
John answered them, “I baptise with water, but among you stands one you do not
know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to
untie.”
In some texts, it also says, “even he who comes after me,
who was before me.” This is the same as when it says earlier in John chapter 1,
that John said, “He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before
me.”
So first of all, “he
baptises with water”. Jesus is the one who baptises with the Holy Spirit.
This happens every time a person is baptised in the church: the pastor baptises
with water, and at the same time, Jesus baptises the person with the Holy
Spirit. Baptism is not our work, but it is Jesus’ work. Jesus is the one who
makes baptism powerful.
But baptising is John’s particular vocation—it is his
mission. We also have particular vocations—we might be a part of a family, a
husband, a wife, a son, or a daughter, a father or mother. We might work in a
particular workplace. We are citizens of a particular country. We are called not
to be successful in all these things, but faithful in all these things. We are
called to do what we are called to do where we are placed, and to do it to the
best of our abilities.
But as Christians live our lives in the world, Jesus is
standing among us as one whom the world does not know. In fact, many times,
Jesus stands among us and with us as one whom we often do not recognise. Never
mind—he is still working. We know Jesus is with us, though we still need to
learn daily to recognise him in each and every situation.
You are not Jesus. You are not the Christ. But Christ
works through you to his good pleasure. He uses you as his vessel, but the
treasure is hidden in jars of clay. The light is kindled in a rusty old lamp.
People will see the rusty lamp—don’t pretend to people that you’re not one.
People will see the dirty old jar—don’t pretend to people that you’re not one.
John says: Jesus is the one “who comes after me.” John is
six months older than Jesus, and Jesus follows in his footsteps, and continues
the ministry where John left off. But at the same time, Jesus is John’s maker,
his creator, who has now taken on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
Jesus, the Son of God, was there with the Father and the Holy Spirit creating
the world, and so John is not worthy to even untie the strap of Jesus’ sandals.
The same goes for us. Jesus works so close together with
us, and wants to dwell with us and make his home in us. Even the simplest
things that we don’t even know, Jesus glorifies, and shines his light through
us. But at the same time, we are not Jesus. We are completely the opposite of
Jesus. We are the sinners he died for. We are the ones he prayed for on the
cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” If we
don’t think we are sinners, then we make ourselves to be the Messiah and we
have no need for the real one. As St John says, “If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
On the other hand, if we do say we have sin, then the truth
is in us.
And so, we are weak, but Jesus is strong. We are sinful,
but Jesus is perfect. We are poor, but he is rich. We are useless, but Jesus
knows how best to make use of us. We struggle, but Jesus constantly succeeds.
And despite our differences, Jesus does not reject us. It’s not as if Jesus
doesn’t want to have nothing to do with us, but he wants to live with us and
rule our hearts and work through us. It’s completely the opposite of what we
would expect. He forgives our sins each and every single day, and speaks his
own words of forgiveness you’re your ears through the pastors of the church. He
gives you his body and blood to eat and drink. He doesn’t do this for people
who are perfect like him, but he does this for those who are needy, and are nothing
like him, except for the fact that share the same human flesh. As the book of
Hebrews says: “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with
our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet
without sin.”
And so, just as Jesus fills John’s works with the Holy
Spirit, he also fills each of our works with the Holy Spirit, each word, each
thought, and makes them useful for his purposes, even though we are not worthy
to even untie the strap of Jesus’ sandals.
May the Holy Spirit increase in us and grow in us that
same humility that belonged to John the Baptist, so that we give a faithful
witness to Jesus Christ. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, let us never for a moment think that we
are Messiah after all, and that we don’t need you after all. Forgive us for all
those times we have taken the credit for ourselves, when it belonged to you.
Send us the Holy Spirit, and make us useful vessels in your service, despite
all our failings and unworthiness. Come Lord Jesus, and strengthen us, and make
your home and your dwelling in us. Amen.
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