Preparing for the Paradox—John the Baptist

December 9, 1990

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Scripture: Mark 1:1-8

Here’s something embarrassing to me, at least modestly so, and the Lectionary reading for this Sunday forces me finally to come to grips with it. I realize with a sense of chagrin that I have never before preached a sermon on John the Baptist.

I’ve preached on John Wesley, and even once on John Calvin, the Presbyterian, but never on John the Baptist. I’ve mentioned him a few times, to be sure, in other sermons, made reference to him, here and there, but never focused on him as the principal highlight of a sermonic effort. And now here he pops up in today’s lesson- the Second Sunday of Advent.

I really am chagrined because my oversight, frankly, borders on the inexcusable. All these years I’ve been missing a splendid homiletical opportunity.... For one thing, in John the Baptist, or John the Baptizer, as he probably with more accuracy should be called, we have one of the truly distinct portraits in the entire New Testament. This is an interesting guy. He really is. The man just stands out in vivid outline, and that always helps in presentation. You can just see him, can’t you, in your imagination, so clearly, unlike some of the other members of the cast.

It’s hard to picture...at least for me...it’s hard to form a vivid mental picture of John the Gospel writer...or some of the disciples, Nathaniel, for instance, or Philip.... What did they look like?

I have no idea what Dr. Luke looked like, though I think he was probably suave and cosmopolitan. Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman, Nicodemus.... WHO KNOWS? Even Jesus Himself, perhaps, in His case, because of His very complexity, can be imaged in our minds in so many ways.

But John the baptizer...who can’t visualize Him? Big, raw-boned, vigorous, young...still young when He died. Beheaded, finally, remember? That ugly business between King Herod Antipas and Salome. She demanded His head on a platter because John had called her what she was. It didn’t set well, to say the least, and she got her revenge at last.  He was probably about 30 when it happened...couldn’t have been much older since we know He was just 6 months older than Jesus.

A young man, then, when we meet Him...in His prime, robust, healthy, muscular, cast-iron stomach...see how long yours would last on a diet of honey and locusts.... I suspect he had a beard, and a good suntan, and quite likely an aroma. And his clothing---my stars, you want colorful? Here’s colorful bordering on outlandish.

It was bizarre enough at least to make an impression on the Gospel writers. They remembered it...and I suspect it was an attention getter---- a tunic made of camel’s hair.... Have you ever worn anything made of camel’s hair? I promise you, it’s coarser than cashmere. Accent it with a leather girdle around the waist and leather sandals.... What can you call it but desert chic?

Then tie it all together with an urgent tone of voice, a sharp, slashing message, and those eyes that could absolutely burn a hole through hypocrisy, and you’ve got yourself a FORCE.

Now, this is the man with whom all the Gospel writers start out their accounts of the life of Jesus...all four. They don’t follow the same pattern in their presentation, of course... fortunately for us. There is variation.

Matthew uses a genealogy as his kick-off point.... Luke very quickly gets into Mary’s story.... More on that next week. John starts off against a cosmic background...just like Genesis--- “In the beginning was the Word.”

BUT ALL OF THEM, including Mark, whose opening sentences I read a moment ago... ALL OF THEM, early in the story, point to John as the forerunner, the stage setter, the preparer, if you will, for the beginning of Jesus’ redemptive ministry.

Hence John becomes an ideal Advent symbol. Why that didn’t hit me in the face long before now, I’ll never know. I am chagrined. BUT THERE IT IS. Why should we be interested in John as we prepare for Christmas? Why should we preach John? Because he’s interesting, eccentric, graphically sketched? Well. That’s something. Preaching can use all the material like that it can get.

BUT MORE THAN THAT. We should preach John because he helps us understand better the majesty and the miracle of Jesus. He points the way. WHAT WE SHOULD REMEMBER MOST ABOUT JOHN IS NOT HIS FACE, OR HIS FRAGRANCE, BUT HIS INDEX FINGER. He’s the Biblical Advent signpost. He himself is not the good news, but he’s the trumpeter of the imminence of the Good News.

He himself is not the Kingdom, but he’s the herald of the Kingdom, the announcer of what is to come, AND, INDEED, IS ALREADY HAPPENING BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES. John saw it as early as anybody, and began to proclaim it. If I may say it this way, he’s the PRECURSOR of the PARADOX.... God in Christ...stooping, in His infinite grace, to lift.

You can say it another way, can’t you...and broaden it. John is an ideal Advent symbol because he’s an ideal OLD TESTAMENT symbol. You see, the Old Testament itself, in the broadest sense, for Christians, is ADVENT. THAT’S WHAT IT’S ABOUT. That’s the essence of the Old Testament story, an index finger pointing... preparation for the great breakthrough.... God getting His people ready, through years, centuries of chastening and molding.

It’s not a perfect story, it’s a very human story, with ragged edges, just as John had ragged edges. Parts of it are bizarre and eccentric, just like John. There are fits and starts, steps backward and stumbles, but slowly it comes----in the hearts of a few, here and there...then others.... hoping, waiting, anticipating, preparing.... That’s the Old Testament story, the Biblical Advent, and what more appropriate figure to sum up those open-ended longings than John.

John is to Jesus what the Old Testament is to the New... what Law is to Gospel, what promise is to fulfillment...not quite there, maybe, but out of the same soil, and near enough to see and to point.

Now, may I try to flesh it out just a bit? As we get ready this year for it to happen again, the re-enactment in ourselves of this magnificent redemptive miracle to which the Old Testament and John point, I’d like to suggest about three areas where John himself, or the story of John can help us. It seems to me they’re all implicit in Mark’s account.

1) See first of all in the story of John this strong sense of HISTORICAL CONTINUITY. Look at how Mark tells it. WHERE DOES THE STORY OF JESUS BEGIN? Where does it start? Does it begin with Jesus Himself? NO! Not at all. We Christians often jump over something in our rush to get to Christmas, to the birth of the Christ Child. We think it started in Bethlehem.

But Mark and all the other Gospel writers push it back. What God did at Bethlehem was not without planning and preparation. Jesus didn’t just come into the world like a rock through a plate glass window. He had roots and they’re Old Testament roots.

Mark places the story of Jesus in the context of the ministry of John, and he places the ministry of John in the context of the Old Testament.

“As it is written”, he says, and he quotes 2 Hebrew prophets. He only identifies Isaiah,

incidentally, but he really quotes Malachi AS WELL AS Isaiah. You can check it out if you like. But you see what he’s saying to the people.... Look, this Christmas thing, this Incarnation thing, this Jesus business is something God has been working on all along, right under our noses.

We didn’t see it, we didn’t understand what was going on...until just now, we had no idea this is what God was planning for His world, God’s hurting, suffering creation. BUT ALL ALONG, GOD HAD REDEMPTION ON HIS MIND....and God was sending out messengers to lay the groundwork....to “prepare the way of the Lord.”

Do you know what I wish I could do? I can’t because I don’t have the talent, but I wish I had the dramatic ability, and skill, and imagination to write a Christmas play around the theme of God’s unfolding redemption through the centuries. Wouldn’t that make an exciting Christmas play?

Instead of having angels, and shepherds, and wise men kneel about the manger, why not dip back into the past and bring in all those who set the stage.

You could have old Amos come in, that rough and tumble gatherer of sycamore figs, the first person we know about who really caught a glimpse of the implication of personal  morality... justice...in day to day living. You could bring him in. And you could bring in Hosea, and let him kneel there---Hosea, a man who loved a woman who left him, walked out on him, and went from bad to worse until she descended into a life of prostitution... but who loved her anyway.... kept on loving her, and went looking for her until he found her, and brought her back home and treated her like a queen...and in the process Learned something about how God feels about his faithless people. You could bring him in.

And Jeremiah ought to be there...supersensitive, great spirited soul.... And Isaiah, and Ezekiel, and the author of Jonah, that broadly inclusive missionary book. All of these had insights into God’s nature.... NOT COMPLETE, not even adequate, perhaps, in some respects, from the Christian perspective, but at least glimpses, faint glimmerings through the fog of a Reality that was to come.

John stands at the end of that line, and the closest to the finale...the bridge between hope and realization. I know a play like that has possibilities, and I think Mark did. He was a historian. HISTORY IS NEVER AN ORPHAN. Things don’t just happen without antecedents.

It’s really a paradox, that’s what it is. Christmas is both old and new at the same time. It’s a breakthrough and yet it has roots. Don’t tell me it’s a waste of time to study the Old Testament. That’s about the worst mistake a Christian Church can make.

IT’S ALL OF ONE PIECE, the Biblical drama, It all hands together, and God is the Director.... God staged it, from the top, as it were, from the opening scene, and God still guides the flow of the plot.

There’s something big about that, something magnificent and tremendously encouraging.

There may be somebody here this morning, who even with a smile pasted in place, is

really just about at the end of the rope...even during Advent it can happen— What is there left for me now? What do I have to look forward to? Or there may be somebody here struggling under a load so heavy, you don’t think you can carry it any longer.

Or there may be somebody here who so despairs of the world’s condition, who is so discouraged about what’s going on in the world that you are convinced there’s no hope left for civilization.

There may be somebody here almost convinced that after all, MIGHT and MONEY really ARE more powerful than LOVE and SACRIFICE. It’s not impossible to feel that way. But if you do, read these opening verses of Mark again. Read them carefully; read them imaginatively.

SEE THE CONTINUITY. The God who laid the groundwork for the Incarnation is not going to let His work go down the drain. He prepared it; He’ll bring it to fruition. He produced it; He’ll see it through. He’s still in charge, just as He’s always been....and the messenger who heralded the coming of God’s Son in lowliness is heralding at the same time the certainty of the ultimate triumph of His righteousness.

Now I know I spent more time on that first point than I should have for proper balance. It means that speed and abbreviation are called for from this point on. But that’s a key reason for valuing the story of John. It helps us see that the Christian story, OUR story, has rootage, planning, purpose, and direction.

2) A second thing we can see in the story of John, and indeed, in John himself, is what I think I would call a strong sense of identification with where people really live, and not just some people, not just elite people, BUT ALL PEOPLE, EVERYBODY, THE GREAT HUMAN PANORAMA. John was a man of the people....

He saw clearly the human condition, saw it unblinkingly---the sense of estrangement between the human heart and God’s heart. He spoke to that condition, called it by its name, its PROPER name—SIN, called people to repentance, with untrembling boldness, but never left them without a hope that by turning back to God there could be reconciliation.

Where have we heard that message before? Why does it sound so familiar? Well, of course. It’s the old, venerable, historic message of the Old Testament prophets. That’s what they all preached. John stands squarely in that line.

He must have proclaimed the message with an uncommon force and vitality, because the Record indicates a powerful response. People listened. The entire city of Jerusalem, the whole town, and the countryside trooped out to the river to hear him. What he said was harsh, stringent, uncompromising, BUT NEVER HOPELESS. It was true, and the truth often hurts, but it was not dead-ended. It was a sermon for Everyone, in language Everyone could understand.

“Hey, you guys, here’s where it’s at.” (I’m paraphrasing now, I trust you recognize. I’m taking some liberties with what Mark says John actually said, but I don’t think I’m distorting the spirit.)

“Hey, listen up, you clowns. Let me tell you how it is. You’re here and God is there. God didn’t move; you moved. If you want to get right, you have to change, because God is not about to change, and neither are the rules that will get you to Him. Change, for God’s sake...CHANGE, so you can live.”

Now, that’s preaching. No, it’s not Gospel. But it’s pre-gospel. It’s not fundamentally good news, but at least it says to people that if they will come to grips with the truth about where they are, about their broken relationship, something can be done about it. It’s preparing the way for Gospel...it’s Advent.

Jesus went beyond John and gave people not only the diagnosis, but the cure, WHAT GOD DOES TO bridge the chasm of estrangement. That’s the good news.

But the good news has little meaning, it’s nothing more than sentimental fluff unless it’s seen against the background of the bad news, the reality of where we are, separated from God.

We need to hear this. One of the dangerous traps into which Christians can fall is to think that God’s mercy—a great New Testament emphasis, somehow eliminates God’s righteousness, that His forgiveness, somehow eliminates His justice. It can happen if you’re not careful in the fuzziness of manger glow. A clear-eyed look at Jesus the adult, Jesus the Man won’t let us make that mistake, but some of our interpretations can.

The Old Testament keeps us honest here, and John epitomizes it. That’s why he’s important as a preparer for Christmas.

And maybe, if I may suggest it, even in this austere message there is a word of encouragement for us. THERE MAY BE SOMEBODY HERE THIS MORNING WHO KNOWS FULL WELL THE AWFUL IMPEDIMENT TO REAL LIFE OF SOME DEED, some blotch, some failure of character that has kept you from having meaningful communion with God. There may be somebody here who for years has been burdened by an indiscretion, or an obsession, or an overt act of unkindness that even now gnaws away at your conscience. Maybe you’ve been carrying it around a long time....

There may be somebody here who, even as many in John’s day, needs to REPENT---- why should we shy away from the word of the Bible itself uses?---- needs to say NOW to God in all candor and honesty, Yes, I have sinned.... I am sinful, and I need to be cleansed. John’s word is pertinent to you.

It’s not the last word of deliverance. It’s not the last step. BUT IT IS THE FIRST STEP toward hearing and experiencing the transforming Gospel. Something has happened since John proclaimed his message, thank God. Something new has happened. A greater than John has come. But his call to repentance has not been replaced...it’s just been responded to by the gracious action of God in His Son. THERE IS HOPE...but it can only be received on the far side of contrition.

3) Now, finally this, and I’m done. Even more abbreviation. We benefit from the story of John because of the strong sense of historical continuity that runs through the account. We benefit from John himself because of his strong sense of identification with where people really live.

AND MAYBE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND MOVING OF ALL, we can’t help but benefit when we read and feel, almost palpably, that strong sense of genuine humility that John displays in relationship to the Christ. Whatever else you want to say about John, he clearly has his  priorities straight.

Not everybody who met Jesus in the Gospel accounts believed in Him. Not everybody acknowledged Him. Many, even after hearing Him preach, listening to His stories, seeing Him heal, even watching Him perform miracles...many, even then, turned away. Some doubted, some left, some became His implacable enemies. The Record is full of it.

But John, from the start, had the foresight, the wisdom...call it what you will, had the faith to see the wonder and the glory of this unprecedented thing and had the trust to commit himself to it.

Hear him---Feel the faith of it: “After me comes one mightier than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” THAT’S THE STATEMENT OF A GREAT-SPIRITED AND GENEROUS SOUL.

It’s not an easy thing for one great man to adulate another.... One who has been himself in the limelight, and received the plaudits of the crowd often finds it hard to see the mantle of approbation passed on to someone else. ABILITY AND HUMILITY DON’T OFTEN SLEEP WELL TOGETHER.

But they combined in John, and that’s why he’s so valuable as a preparer. Maybe his true greatness, and the reason Jesus later said, “Among those born of women, there has risen none greater than John the Baptist”, is simply his selflessness, which is, after all, the embodiment of the true Christmas spirit. John’s life calls us to it again.

His end was tragic, of course...cut off before its time. He didn’t live to see the Resurrection and the victory over the forces of evil he himself had fought against, too. BEFORE HE COULD SHARE IN THE TRIUMPH, HE LOST HIS HEAD TO THE KING. But though of short duration, the measure of his life is overwhelmingly positive, and the outcome of his destiny is eternally assured. FOR HE LOST HIS HEART TO THE KING

OF KINGS.

There may be somebody here this morning who is on the brink of losing your heart to Him, too.... There may be somebody here who now is where John was once....

Will you let me say to you a simple invitation----if the lure, the tug is there...SEIZE IT.

I am confident that John the baptizer...the symbol of Advent, the symbol of the Old Testament promise, the symbol of the one who prepares the way of the Lord, WOULD SO WANT YOU TO...and so do I.