Advent 3, 2023
Isaiah 61, 1 Thessalonians 5, John 1
Today we hear again about John the Baptist, not from Mark’s Gospel as last week, but from the Gospel of John. The fourth Evangelist depicts a detailed interview of John the Baptist by an investigating committee sent from the Temple establishment in Jerusalem; they want to know just who John the Baptist thinks he is to be doing what he does. Again and again the Baptist answered them, as if to emphasize: I am not the Christ. I am not the promised one. I am not the savior. The mighty one comes after me. The Evangelist uses the word testimony to describe this answer. It is as if the Baptist were put on trial, taking an oath as called into the dock, swearing on the Bible to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Unsatisfied with his denials, however, the investigators from Jerusalem press him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
Interesting question for us nowadays who seem to be obsessed with the question of identity. Who are you, John, if you are not the Christ? John answered, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,'" as the prophet Isaiah had foretold. See, he side-steps the question of his identity, of who he is, by pointing away from himself to the coming Christ.
If you get one thing straight about Jesus Christ, as also about yourself in your own identity, get this straight. He comes to us. You don’t go to God. You don’t have to earn points with God. You don’t have to climb mountains up to God. With a thunderbolt the Baptist silences all such falsely pious pretension and any grounds of religious boasting based upon a human identity claim. He says instead, Behold the one who comes! That means in plain English, Shush! Be quiet! Cease and desist from all nervous questioning about who you are, or what you must do, or think, or feel.
People have doubts that God loves them or cares for them. People look at themselves and sense a mess: a poor, frightened, confused, lost soul. So people throw themselves into every sort of mindless project, or latch onto some prefabricated notion what they are, to keep their mind off the emptiness within– trying thusly to make themselves right, firm, fixed, settled, an invulnerable self-same self, unchangeable identity through tempest and storm. And as such, acceptable, justified, lifting up the valleys, leveling the mountains. John says, Stop that! All such desperate, that is, hopeless human striving does nothing to prepare the way of the One who comes to us. To the extent that it succeeds, indeed, it blocks his way. It interferes with Him who comes to you, just as you are, without one plea. What, then? John summons us: Look with me instead! Open your eyes now in faith to see the One mightier than I, who comes for you, who baptizes in the Spirit, who preaches good news to the poor. Realize that who you are does not avail. What matters is whose you are!
Jesus who comes to us is the savior, then, of all who cannot save themselves. This is his glory, the glory that is his alone. On Christmas Day, we shall hear the angel say, “Unto you this day is born in the city of David a savior, who is Christ, the Lord,” and thusly join us with the shepherds to look in Bethlehem and see. And there is absolutely nothing for us to do about that message of a Savior who comes to us but to behold with the shepherds and to believe in the sense that here the Son of God has come to seek and to find also me, indeed, to be born also in me.
As Luther used to say: it does you no good that Christ was born in Bethlehem unless he is born in you today, indeed every day, conferring his identity upon you, Christian, as you are called after Christ who has sought and found you. Later on in the Gospel of John, the Pharisees ask Jesus, “What must we do to be doing the work of God? Jesus answers, “This is the work of God: that you believe in him whom God has sent.” That’s it! Stop looking at your own selves! Stop wondering who you are, what you must do, think or feel! Stop every attempt at fixing your own identity as if to make you invulnerable, especially against the divine change to occur when Christ comes by his Spirit to be born in you! Don’t fall, then, for Satan’s subtle trick of wondering whether you have faith -- that only turns the focus back on me, myself and I. Rather, look outside of yourself with John and behold what God who so loved the world has done in sending his Son – also to you, as you are, where you are. He is the savior. Love caused his incarnation. This is his glory. And there is nothing for you to do about that but to behold and believe – and merely tell the truth, like John, so when asked who you are instead to acclaim whose you are, to testify to Christ your joy.
Like John, we Advent people of God point away from ourselves to the one who is coming, to Christ. We are different –not because we have made ourselves better than others-- our lives are just as broken and needy as any others. But in the midst of our common human brokenness, our lives are transparent to Jesus Christ who comes to us to make us his own. We become different because He is different who claims and wins us, on whom the Spirit of the Lord came and stayed forever, the LORD’s anointed sent to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners. We are different because our lives point with John the Baptist to Christ, because we for our own selves identify with the oppressed, brokenhearted and captive to whom he comes to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor. That means: it is not who you are, but whose you are!
Martin Luther once commented on a psalm verse with a similar meaning: ‘The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love:’ “According to this verse,” wrote Luther, “God is by definition nothing else than grace and favor, but only to the humble and afflicted… Therefore He forbids despair as the highest wickedness. He wants us to bear the tribulation in faith; He does not want us to add despair. Presumption about our own righteousness and despair about our unworthiness are equally great sins… Each of us should bear his cross and affliction so that we are not crushed by our sorrows and fall into despair, for that would rob God of his divinity, which He shows primarily in His mercy…” (LW 12:406-7).
All week long you, dear Christian people, you are with John the Baptist put on trial for the Kingdom of God, whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not; on the job, in school, at home, you claimed and baptized people of God are put on the witness stand of life. In whom do you hope? In what do you trust? The only real question here is whether you will point to Christ, the friend and savior of all failures whose self-made identities have shattered on the hard rocks of life. Why is that sometimes so hard?
The devil’s first move is the sneak attack, assailing you with all your failings as if to say, “Look at yourself! See, what as miserable excuse for a Christian you are! How can God love or care about you? What a shameful witness you make!” So he gets your eyes off Christ and back onto your own worthiness. If that fails, the devil then tries the frontal assault, slinging at you the arrows of outrageous fortune, until it seems that the sunshine of the Lord’s favor is beclouded in thickest darkness and the whole world is lost and spinning out of control. Then you go looking in the darkness for some other work of God than the one light that shines in the darkness, the work which God has done in sending his Son to the poor, the captive, the oppressed. Then you get to thinking that you can help God out, by taking charge and straightening things out. And what a mess of things we make then! Now we are going to save not only ourselves but also God. Where do you think that will lead? History is red with the blood which has flowed from those who thought to take the kingdom of God by force, motivated as these were by the secret sin of despair.
Joy in Christ who comes to us is the Spirit’s antidote to despair. Faith is tested and tried and to the eyes of the world it seems like nothing, as no real identity at all, just religious illusion. But we rejoice always. Waiting on God, pointing to Christ who comes to us instead of boasting of our own works or wisdom or self-made identity, trusting that he comes to us in our sadness as well as our happiness – this patience of faith does not occur naturally to us. It comes by John the Baptist’s model testimony and the Spirit with whom this Mightier One baptizes.
Luther taught us preachers and indeed all Christians to be like John the Baptist: always to urge Christ, provide Christ, point to Christ! Feed the people of God with this message of the One who comes to them, who baptizes them with his own Spirit, who himself preaches good news to the poor so that you who know how tough the life of faith can be may have your joy renewed. I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God, says the prophet on behalf of all those to whom and for whom the Lord comes; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. See now how the Lord now identifies us who merely receive and believe!
Joy springs renewed from the knowledge of divine love that comes for us, works for us, wins us now and forever. This knowledge is Christ, whose people we are. He who came in humble birth at Bethlehem will come at last with power and great glory. But in this interim, Christ comes by the Spirit's testimony that began once and for all with John the Baptist. The joy of the Advent people of God, we poor, oppressed, and captive who are nevertheless beloved, will be complete and never end, singing God all the glory for all his rich mercy in Christ. Amen.