Christ's Praised His Prophet Who Refused to Pretend

Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 24, 2017

Isaiah 40:6–8 and St. John 1:20

Christ's Praised His Prophet Who Refused to Pretend

In the name of the Father

and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I.

John could have tried to be Jesus. For a while John could have said that he was the Christ. And it's a good bet that many people would've believed him, at least for a while.

John would have been able to return to civilization and gotten a haircut. He could have gotten free home-cooked meals instead of eating grasshoppers and honey. He could have put on comfortable clothes instead of his animal skins.

He could have had it all, but when asked directly if he was the Christ, he said,

I am not the Christ.

JOHN 1:20

Perhaps his conscience prevented him from claiming to be the Son of God. But he could have settled for being Elijah. That would have been good. The Pharisees would have been interested in meeting an 800-year old Elijah, back from the dead. They would have listened to that prophet. But John said he wasn't Elijah, either.

Instead he quoted a different prophet, Isaiah, and used his words to point these men to the true Christ.

I am the voice of one calling in the desert, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”

JOHN 1:23

John patiently explained to his Jewish cousins that the Lord was coming soon. Therefore, it was time to get ready for His arrival. The Jews who heard John quote Isaiah would have known the words that followed this straight-way making.

A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

ISAIAH 40:6-8

We get ready for Christ just as John did. We confess freely that we are grass, just fading blades of grass. Our lives are short, 70 or 80 years, if we have the strength. Our lives make no lasting impact. You will be remember for three generations, four if you're lucky, but no further. Some humans grasp for legacy through art, politics, medicine, or exploration.

And we do know some names: Michelangelo and John Wayne, Lincoln and Kennedy, Salk and Crick, Armstrong and Grissom and Ed White. Schools and buildings and bridges bear their names.

And you do know a few things that they did, but you don't really know them, so you can't really remember them as a fellow human being. So even our most famous fellow blades of grass are forgotten and in the end they changed nothing essential to our human life. Sure Neil and Buzz landed on the moon, and we got Velcro^® out of it, but nothing really has changed.

We are just blades of grass. While occasionally a blade of grass might end up on your kitchen floor and that little bit gets a bit more attention than the billions of other blades that are mowed and left to rot in the field, in the end it too dries up and blows away.

II.

So it is odd that Jesus praised one of these blades of grass.

John had freely confessed that he was grass, here today and gone tomorrow. John said that he was not even worthy to untie Jesus' sandals. He refused to pretend to be anything more than grass.

Yet Jesus praised John.

Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.

MATTHEW 11:11-14

John had said that he wasn't Elijah, but Jesus said that he was! Jesus didn't mean that John was the dead Elijah brought back down from heaven. He meant that John was the promised prophet who spoke boldly like Elijah of old. He was the forerunner whom God had promised would arrive before the Christ and announce His coming.

John is the promised Elijah; Jesus is the promised Christ.

Jesus didn't need John (or Elijah, for that matter). But He chose to need John. He gave John life in the womb of his barren mother. He put John under orders to go out and preach repentance and baptize sinners. John didn't go on his own. Christ chose to need John and sent him out.

III.

With the same mercy Jesus chooses to need you. He sends you out, but not into the wilderness. He sends you back into your life. He sends you into His Word to confess freely that you are a blade of grass who is joyfully waiting for the coming Christ. Paul promised that the Lord is near. These final days of waiting will pass quickly and so we rejoice and are glad. John had been dead for many years when Paul wrote his letter to the Christians in Philippi, but surely they capture John's joy in the coming Christ. Our joy, too.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thanks be to God!