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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