“THE BONY FINGER POINTS TO THE RADIANT HEAD”
Saint Luke 1. 57-66
The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist: 24 June Anno Domini 2007
Fr Watson
Dear Redeemed, it is in the Name of Jesus that you are forgiven and saved not in the name of John. And yet, today, we celebrate John the Baptizing one. Today it is meet and salutary to remember and honor the one whom Jesus said: “there is none borne of woman who is greater than John.” The Christ does not lie. John bar-Zacharias (the son of Elisabeth and Zacharias) is the greatest of all the Prophets, for he was least. This unpretentious, simple, and humble speaker of God’s holy Word is great because God made him great. God makes men and women great by coming to them and saving them.
Why did John get to be “the Baptizer” and not you? I don’t know, but the Lord does. Why did Mary of Nazareth get chosen to be “Theotokos” (i.e. the ‘God-Bearer’) or as Luther calls her “Mater Dei” (i.e. the ‘Mother of God’) and not you? I don’t know, but the Lord does. They were chosen without merit on their part, without work or participation of their efforts; but so were you. You were called by the Gospel and Baptized in the Gospel Waves of Regeneration at the font. Though most iconography portrays the Blessed Virgin Mary on one side of Calvary’s Cross and John the Baptist on the Other Side, rest assured there is also plenty of space for all of you beneath the comforting shade of Messiah’s outstretched arms. You with John and Mary are one flock at His pierced feet.
Yes there is a sin of idolatry that might adhere to over-emphasizingWere one to pray to John for salvation or mediation with the Father that would be sinful. But there is also a sin that preys upon the prideful-- such as you; that is the sin of egalitarianism. Envy, greed, covetousness and jealousy over what others have, or have done, causes your “old-Adams” to assert that John isn’t any better than you are. In the sense that John too was a miserable sinner like you are, you are correct. In the sense that John sinned every day in what he thought, and said, and did, just like you do, you are correct. In the sense that of himself, all John’s deeds were as filthy dung deserving only the reward of hell, just like you would have coming, of yourselves, than yes again, you have a point.
But it is not John’s fault, nor his decision, that he is who he is. God chooses! The Lord made John the “second coming of Elias” God made him the forerunner of the “anointed One” and then allowed him the singular honor of baptizing Him in the Jordan. The Blessed Trinity selected this strange man to be not “a” voice or just any old preacher of Hebrew Scripture but to be “THE VOICE” the one crying in the wilderness “make straight the paths for the Lord, Repent Ye.” You all are the “ye” that John was condemning.
Moses doesn’t save anyone. Trying to keep the Ten Commandments by discipline and hard work only destroys and damns. Jesus kept the will of God the way it had to be obeyed; perfectly. Jesus fulfills all that Moses taught and pointed to. All the Prophets who followed Moses, including the greatest of them such as Elijah and Elisha, never saved anyone. Elijah preached the Word God gave him to preach. Elijah’s words are directed at you: “repent of your sin; turn from yourself, and behold the Messiah; believe in the Grace of a loving Savior-God.” Jesus and only Jesus made all those sermons of Elijah and all the others matter. Jesus was the One Who paid for your non-payment; your welching; your law-breaking and your unbelief. Elijah got to go to heaven in a fiery chariot without dying; but the Lord Christ Jesus came from heaven to suffer and die on the cross, the fiery, burning, wrathful cross of God’s vengeance against your sin.
But as Paul explained, there came a completion of the Law’s role as guardian, schoolmaster and sheepdog. The Christ was/is the end of the Law for all who believe on Him and His Name. The time of the Old Testament Prophets was over. There would no longer be a need for any more Moses’, Jeremiah’s, Elisha’s, or Elijah’s. Now was the time of the Baptizer. God raised up John from even before he was conceived. And The Lord had him conceived from the last of the typifying “barren women.” Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, were all barren until the Word of the Lord worked life in their wombs. Elisabeth too was bereft of a child, well past the age of fertility, when the Lord put His plan into action. This faithful, believing kinswoman of Mary, was able with her husband to conceive and become “with child.” That miracle of conception was a miracle of life, to be sure, but was again an “arrow” (i.e. a “type”) pointing to the coming Messiah. Where John was the voice, the echo, Jesus was the Word of God. Where John would speak as last of the Prophets about the coming One and as first of the Evangelists about the One present, Jesus was God. Where John’s mother was barren until John’s birth brought fulfillment of her life, Jesus’ Mother was Ever-Virgin and bore God the Son. Whether Elisabeth had other children, Mary as an “exemplar” or “type” of the Church Catholic, herself, bears myriads of brothers and sisters of her Son, but also of her Lord Jesus. For the church, now as Christ’s Bride, births new Christians through Word and Water and nourishes them at the breasts of Word and Supper.
Everything in John’s faithful ministry was there to point you this morning to your Lord and God.
John lived on locusts and honey for in reality you too need both the Law (symbolized by one of Egypt’s plagues) and the sweet taste of the Gospel. John was girded in camel fur and leather girdle, for His Lord, and yours, would also be a rough-hewn man; a man of the people. Jesus was no “metro-prince-ling,” no soft-clothing palace heir, but a carpenter’s son and a Shepherd. Camels go without water for great durations but Jesus went without water and food for forty days to fulfill your total lack of obedience and trust. Jesus went without water when He was burned alive on the cross by the flames of your hell. John preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins, but Jesus came to be that very forgiveness Himself, with His Body given and Blood shed.
John was martyred for telling the truth about God; about Law and Gospel; about Jesus. John was beheaded. Jesus was the world’s martyr for being Truth Itself and for testifying to the Father’s love for the unlovable: for you!
No doubt John did many, many things in his life that were interesting, memorable and important, if to no one else but himself and his family. But he is known in Holy Scripture for primarily two things and only two things. First He preached Christ. He spoke to the people not what they wanted to hear, but what they had to hear: Law and Release—“Repent ye” and “believe!” And secondly, John gave the people the very Son of God. He stepped back, deflected all attention away from himself, and stuck out his bony finger and pointed at the face of God Incarnate saying “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world (your sin).”
If there was any one figure who deserves to be the patron saint of all simple parish pastors it is John the Baptist. Preach damnation apart from Christ and His fulfillment of the Commandments; Preach the Forgiveness of Sins in Jesus’ precious Blood and true Body atoning for you on the Tree; Wash dirty sinners, fellow filthy trespassers, in the New Jordan of the Font, and then get out of the way of the Lord so that He does His work of Shepherding His flock; by being what John correctly identified Him as. John’s bony finger pointed to your Head, your Brother and your Savior. My somewhat corpulent finger does the same this very day.
Repent ye. The Holy Ghost turn you from your sins with hearts heavy with sorrow.
Believe ye. The same Spirit give you Christ crucified for your sins and resurrected for your righteousness.
Receive Him Who comes to you by the bloody witness of Saint John Baptizer; by the blood witness of Saint Luke, Evangelizer, and by the witness of me, your Preacher.
Your sins are washed away in Jesus’ Blood. Jesus is your Martyr, your Head. your Peace. For the bony finger points to, and give you, the Radiant Head.
In the Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost