“JESUS HAS JOHN POINT TO JESUS”
Saint John 1: 19-28
Rorate Coeli: 20 December Anno Domini 2020
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Names are good. The Lord tasked the first man to do some naming. Actually, it wasn’t a burden before sin, but a joy or sub-creation for Adam, to name the animals. God knows the names of all the stars, and also of all the angels; not just Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael.
Titles need not be bad or sinful. Calling a medical healer or surgeon “doctor” is a good thing. Calling an attorney “counselor” isn’t wrong. Calling a man sent by God to preach and administer the Sacraments, “Pastor,” i.e. shepherd, is both theologically accurate and faith based—as is the beautiful term “Father.” Abraham was Father, Gideon was Judge, Elias was Prophet, David was King, and Joab was General.
But what about that strange fellow in camel hair, rough-hewn leather belt, long unkempt hair, and smelling of grasshoppers and honey?
One can never get enough of John or hear enough about him. He is Jesus’ kinsman. Jesus knew John before the beginning of time. Jesus made, redeemed, sanctified, and called John. Jesus has John point to Jesus.
So, who is this John? John of course is the New Testament Greek derivation of Jacob—Israel. He is not named according to family custom but by Zacharias obeying the will of The Holy Ghost. We call him the Baptist because that is what he did—He preached to sinners and baptized sinners. He preached repent and believe. He therefore, because the Word works—does what it demands—He ended up preaching to Saints having baptized them to Sainthood.
He doesn’t give himself a title. He is no fame-seeker or power-accumulator. He, like Moses, is the most humble of men. He knew he was not called to be successful, look at how his physical/earthly life ended, but rather that he was called and ordained to be faithful. John does acknowledge what the Word of God said about Him in Scripture—that he is a “voice.” He comports to the faith that constrains him to “cry in the wilderness.” Not weep, though he did for the faithless of Israel, but to shout, speak boldly, pronounce, trumpet, confess clearly, in the desert of deadly sin and disbelieving men—the truths of God; of the Messiah!
Satan is your enemy, along with his demon tempters, named Screwtape, Wormwood, or flesh, mammon, or the world. Satan was John’s enemy. The brood of vipers, children of the serpent himself, the priests, Levites, Pharisees, and Sadducees, from Jerusalem tempted John the way their Father of Lies tempted Eve in the Garden. It’s always pride and ego that is the lure, the trap, the tar-pit of perdition. “You can be like God.” “Are you the long awaited Messias; are you Elias; are you the Prophet?” They buttered him up with all the temptations to claim for himself worth, importance, and quite possible social acceptance and prominence in Judea—for all the people were flocking to John. But John was not the Shepherd.
Private confession is salutary because it allows, it does not force anything, it allows one to speak the truth about oneself with a voice into a different set of ears. By nature, you are self-righteous and you inherently try to self-justify and build yourself up. When others flatter you, when the demons flatter you, its easy to slip into the old nature—in thoughts and words, if not actions.
The Spirit and The Word hold John back from any such presumption or pomposity. Pride will not have dominion over him for He knows who is Dominus, His Lord is!
“O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto Thee all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended Thee.” This is what John preaches to all the crowds, to all men, to this crowd, you brothers and sisters. He too shows you himself: I am not worthy to untie His sandal strap—"He it is, Who coming after me is preferred before me, Whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.”
Sandals were worn for walking, then, and now, even with all our modern footwear. No one who follows The Christ sits, remains motionless and inert, and inane. To pick up one’s cross and follow means to, well, follow—walk in the way of The Lord. And though your walk, the walk of all men, is crooked, the way of The Christ is straight, inasmuch as Jesus is Himself The Way. One should follow The Baptist’s example; one should follow St. Paul’s words to “imitate him.” But when you can’t, when you don’t The Word of John into your ears forces your face into the countenance of God in The Flesh: “behold The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” Jesus makes you straight by taking you into His side; His heart; you are + Baptized. Jesus has washed you clean. That’s where the Cross is. The Cross is Jesus for His atoning Sacrifice isn’t in word or thought only, but in His precious Body hammered onto wood. His precious blood pouring from His sacred wounds. His riven side letting the Holy Heart of God gush out blood and water to baptize you, to make you straight, and to unloose the latchet, not of your shoe, but of the prison cell of death.
These things are done, TODAY, in Beth-Augsburg, beyond the Kansas River, where Jesus is saving!
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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