“HIS NAME IS (JOHN) JESUS”
Saint John 1: 19-28
Rorate Coeli: 23 December Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
All that you need to know about John the Baptist is found in the life and work of Jesus. John is the messenger with the message. Jesus is the content The Message arrived in the Flesh—The Flesh of God. To begin a homily with the words “In The + Name of Jesus” is to begin a homily in The Word made flesh given to John the Baptist to preach: “Behold, The + Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world.”
At this time of year, and I don’t mean the days before ‘Murican chriss-miss, I mean the last two Sundays of Adventide, some people are already a bit weary of hearing about John. Usually it’s the same people that are disconcerted with the traditional Common Service (The Church’s Liturgy) and with the historic Lectionary. They adore Military Uniforms, ceremonies at ball-parks, rituals at Arlington, Gettysburg, or the Lodge, but chafe and whine about Vestments and Chancel appurtenances.
The grumble “who does the pastor think he is,” which is a variant of the pagan’s slander of the Christian—“who does that hypocrite think he is”—is really the same attack leveled against John by the Jews, the Priests and Levites, sent from Jerusalem.
John was not nice. He was not clever, winsome, pleasant, or conversational. John was not an “equipper,” motivator, or leader of men. John was Elias—a Messenger of The Lord…a preacher of Law and Gospel.
Yes, it is true what John spoke that day. John was not Messias. John was not God and not any type of minor, special deity. John was not literally Elias for John knew the Scriptures. John knew that Elias had been taken in a fiery chariot, assumed into heaven by The Lord Himself. Elias spoke for God. Elias spoke truth, God’s truth to power. Elias cared not for outward appearances or niceties but thundered the Law to the evil King of Israel, performed the healing and miraculous works of God, and left the scene when God deemed right and salutary. This is what every under-shepherd of The Great Shepherd is tasked with doing. This was John’s mission. He was not The Christ but sent to bear witness to The Christ. He was not the light but was sent to point to the Light—which was and is The Life of men. John was a voice, a rugged, unvarnished, rough-edged pre-Paul preacher of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. John knew that Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, by The Word of God: Emmanuel.
John does not speak for himself. He speaks the Scriptures of God. He quotes the Prophet Esaias, who wrote by Holy Spirit—Jesus.
So, honor John the Baptist the way Christ did: “verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.” [Mt. 11.11] Honor the man who was beheaded in a cold, dark, painful and lonely prison cell, so that Jesus would be His sole, exalted, and sacred Head. The Holy Spirit dwells richly in you all by your own Holy + Washings. Your Baptisms not in Bethabara beyond Jordan, but at The Church’s Holy 8-sided fonts in The New Testament beyond Moses and the Law. The Spirit of Jesus has you honor John (and Esaias and Elias) not by eating and drinking miraculously replenishing oil and bread, or in consuming locust and wild honey, but by receiving Messias’ True Body and True Blood. Though your head now hangs down, far too often, in shame and guilt and contrition over sin, and in weariness and pain and sorrow over change, death, and decay, Jesus lifts up your head, not as John’s was “lifted up” (though that may one day happen to you), but as His own Sacred Head was lifted up in thorn-encrusted glory at Calvary—to Baptize you in the Grace of His forgiveness and atoning absolution.
You hear John. Which means you hear Jesus—The Word of God: Repent and Believe. The Kingdom of God is at hand.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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