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Sermon for Rorate Coeli – Advent 4
Isaiah 40:1-8 + Philippians 4:4-7 + John 1:19-28
Every year we hear the testimony of John the Baptist on this Sunday before Christmas, and rightly so. John was sent to prepare the way for the Christ, and even today the Holy Spirit speaks to you through John’s testimony. The testimony of John recorded in today’s Gospel is very simple and straightforward. He confesses plainly what he is not. And he does not deny what he is. And just as it was in the days of John, so it is also today. God demands that everyone must pay attention to the testimony of the baptizer.
Remember who John was: the son of that elderly, godly couple Zacharias and Elizabeth, who were surely dead by the time John was thirty years old and began to attract the attention of all Jerusalem. He lived out in the wilderness alone. He wore camel’s skin for clothing. He ate wild locusts and honey for food. And in his whole life he probably never cut his hair or shaved his beard, like Samson in the Old Testament. He would have appeared strange to the people of Jerusalem.
But the strangest thing about John was not his appearance. It was his preaching and his baptizing. John was preaching a powerful message of repentance and drew large crowds out into the wilderness where he was, on the banks of the Jordan river. And baptizing people for the forgiveness of sins was brand new, not commanded in any of the Old Testament Scriptures. Something new was happening. So the religious leaders felt they needed to investigate. Who are you?, they asked.
The other John, John the Evangelist, in his Gospel, made a big deal about John the Baptist’s testimony to the Jews that day. He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” Remember, there hadn’t been a prophet in Israel in some 400 years, since the days of the prophet Malachi. And Malachi had prophesied that the Lord Himself would come to Israel, referring to Christ the Savior. In fact, if there were any around who remembered, about 29 years earlier, there had been a stir around Jerusalem when some wise men came from the East looking for the Christ who had been born. But no one had heard about Him since. Could this John be the Christ? But John confessed the truth: I am not the Christ.
Are you Elijah? You remember Elijah, that powerful Old Testament prophet who performed many miracles and who preached against the wicked rulers of Israel. John probably did sound a lot like Elijah. And remember, Malachi had prophesied in the very last verses of the Old Testament, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. But John confessed that he was not Elijah. Why does he say that, when the angel Gabriel had told John’s father that John would come “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” and Jesus Himself would later confirm that John was the Elijah who was to come? Because the Jews weren’t expecting an Elijah, but the Elijah, the same one who was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind, accompanied by a fiery chariot.
Are you the Prophet?, they asked. They may have been referring to the Prophet that Moses said would come back in Deuteronomy 18: The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear. But the Jews rightly understood that the Prophet Moses talked about was the Christ, and they had already learned from John that he was not the Christ. So they may have just been asking, are you a prophet? And John said, no. How could he say no, when he was clearly sent by God to preach God’s word? Because the office of the Old Testament prophets was to prophesy about future events. The prophets all had one basic job to do: To declare to the people of Israel that, “Someday the Christ will come!” And that was not John’s office or his testimony.
What was John’s testimony? The Jews asked him, Who are you, then? And he did not deny who he was: I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD,” ’ as the prophet Isaiah said. Oh, that changes everything. John is not just one prophet among many. John has a special role to play in God’s plan of salvation. He is the voice that announces the arrival of the LORD. And, by the way, here’s another passage that proclaims the divinity of Christ. John was specifically preparing the way for the Christ. And he says, make straight the way of the LORD—that’s the Lord God. That’s Yahweh or Jehovah. Those who claim that Jesus is not true God, or that Jesus is not Jehovah, have to also deny the testimony of John the Baptist.
But how is the way of the Lord made straight? That’s what John has been preaching all along. Repent! That was his message to everyone, to tax collectors and harlots, to kings and rulers, to Pharisees and religious leaders, to all of the people of Jerusalem, to everyone within the sound of his voice, John cried out, “Repent!” You are not good enough to enter God’s kingdom—any of you! You have not kept God’s commandments well enough to be saved by your obedience—any of you! You are all corrupt, you are all sinners, you all deserve God’s wrath on the day of wrath. And yet, you are all—every one of you—being invited by God to have your sins washed away and forgiven for free. You are all being given a Savior from sin, because God wants you all to enter His kingdom. God is providing peace and rest and hope for all of you—for everyone within the sound of my voice. But you have to listen! You can’t deny your sinfulness or go on willfully living in your sins. You can’t trust in yourself. You can’t trust in anyone but in the Lord Christ.
That’s the testimony of John. But that’s not what the Pharisees and those who were sent by them wanted to hear. They didn’t believe John’s testimony. They didn’t believe that they were included among the sinners of the world who needed to be saved by the Christ. And so they didn’t recognize John the Baptist as anyone they needed to pay attention to. They asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
So he told them, I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. In other words, I am carrying out my God-given duty. But it’s not about me. It’s about the One who is coming after me—not coming long after me, not coming someday, but He “stands among you.” The Christ is here. Now. The LORD is here. And I am pointing you to Him, whether you believe me or not. God has made me a voice to tell you where to find Him, now that He has come, and how to benefit from His coming, by repentance and faith in Him.
That was the testimony of John. And that is the testimony of every New Testament preacher. You are all sinners. And you are all commanded to repent of your sins, and you are all invited to enter the kingdom of God for free, by faith in the Christ who has come. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Repent and believe in Him. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins.
But where do you find Him, this Christ the Savior, Christ the Lord, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? No longer will you find Him in a manger, or on the banks of the Jordan River. No longer will you find Him out in the desert. And you certainly won’t find Him in that sinful place called your heart. You will find Him, together with the peace and hope and forgiveness that He brings, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism where He covers a person with His own righteousness, and in the Sacrament of His true body and blood that He instituted for Christians to eat and to drink. Here in this Gospel Christ comes to save sinners from their sins and to raise up for Himself a holy Christian Church—holy, because the members of it have had their sins forgiven by God, and also holy, because its members are being renewed daily by the Holy Spirit to lead holy lives in this unholy world.
Most people didn’t heed the testimony of John the Baptist, but some did, including some of the worst sinners in Israel. And they rejoiced at the coming of Christ, because they found forgiveness with Him. They found God to be a good and merciful Father who gave His Son into death for their sins. Most people today don’t heed the testimony of John the Baptist, either. Most don’t believe in Jesus as the Christ; most don’t believe that God came to earth on that first Christmas, or that God is coming to earth again on the Last Day, or that God still comes to earth through the Gospel and will be here in person among us on Christmas Day, giving His very body and blood in the Mass that is Christ-mass. But some believe. And for you who believe, this is your hope. This is your comfort. This is your time to rejoice. Amen.
