The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Luke, the first chapter:
Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Perhaps you might think it strange that we are celebrating this day, not the life of St. John the Baptizer, but the birth, the nativity. But, it’s really not. We don’t celebrate it every year; it only happens on a Sunday every few years. But it’s an important day. John the Baptizer is the last of the prophets who would point to the Christ, for any other prophet, if there were another prophet, would point back to Christ, for His work would be accomplished. John the Baptizer would make straight the paths of the people’s hearts for the Messiah. He would work to bring down the mountains of sin in the hearts of men and raise up the valleys of sorrow in the same. He would prepare the way of the Lord, and so it is right that we celebrate John this day and what our Lord did through him.
You might wonder though, why June 24? Well, that’s pretty easy. John is said to be six months older than Jesus, so what’s six months from now? Christmas Eve. The Nativity of our Lord. We celebrate both nativities, the nights of their birth, for what our Lord has done for us. Because of Christ’s work, we celebrate His birth, and because of who He is and what He has done, we can celebrate the lives and births and deaths of all the saints who point toward Him and come from Him.
But, the amazing thing in this text is what the Lord is doing behind the text. Let’s give the story a little meat here. John’s father, Zechariah, is a priest. He’s serving in the Temple of the Lord, entering into the Holy Place in the Temple, the room where the priests offer the incense up to God and make the prayers on behalf of the people. Typically, the priest does that and then exits back to the people and pronounces upon them the Aaronic Benediction: “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His peace.” That would end the priest’s service for the day and the service itself would end.
But, for the people gathered to hear Zechariah that day, the service would not end, for the mouth of Zechariah would be stopped. An angel of God would appear to him in the Holy Place and tell him that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a son. Zechariah couldn’t believe it, literally, and so the angel stopped him from speaking altogether; the service couldn’t end. Yet, the promise of the son to Zechariah and Elizabeth carried within it the benediction, a blessing. The boy shall be named John, which means that Yahweh, God, has been gracious. In fact, the next time Zechariah is able to speak, he speaks the boy’s name, amazing the people that his mouth was opened, but amazing us that God is good and gracious in His blessing of the people.
A couple of things to note then: Notice in the benediction that the Lord is invoked three times. In fact, it’s not just the Lord in a general sense, but it is the very name of God. Yahweh bless you and keep you. Yahweh make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. Yahweh lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. How many times did we mention the name of God? Three. And John the Baptizer is most famous for what? Baptizing. This is not complete in itself, but complete in the work of Christ, who then tells us to Baptize His disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus makes it clear who it is that the Baptism is located in, not some generic God, but the God who is now fully revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Three times the Benediction mentions God’s name, we are baptized in the triune name of God. Again, this is all going on behind the text, but realize then that the missing benediction of Zechariah is located in the name of John and finished in the work of the Holy Spirit in Baptism.
After all, look at what is happening in the text. Zechariah speaks his blessing over John, his son. He knows what this boy will do; after all, sons born to barren, old mothers in the Scriptures tend to do great things. And what does Zechariah say of him? That Lord is to be blessed with a good word; He is to be spoken well of for He has visited His people and promised the coming Messiah, of whom John will be the forerunner. He will come before Him, not just in birth, but in that He will be the last prophet born before the coming of the Christ and he will, with his very own finger, point to that man, the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
That Messiah whom all Israel had been waiting for, He would be the horn of salvation, He would redeem His people, He is the One prophesied from of old, He would save us from our enemies, He would show the mercy of God that has been promised, He would remember His covenant with Israel, He would fulfill the oath to Abraham, He would deliver them from their enemies. And John? This little baby? He will prepare the way for the Messiah. He will make tender the hearts of the faithful. He will make people aware of their sins, he will preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins. He will preach mercy to the hearts of the people.
This is the true benediction. This is what the people were waiting for the day that Zechariah’s mouth was stopped up. They didn’t know, but they were waiting for John, the one who would bless the Lord and by whom the Lord would bless the nation. John’s birth began the great story of the last prophet, the last prophet to preach about the coming Messiah, and the first prophet to point with his own finger at the man.
But what of us? What bearing does this have on us? After all, we know that John got a little weird. We know that he went out into the wilderness and ate locusts and honey and dressed in that ever-popular, super-comfortable camel’s hair. Are we to do the same? Well, of course not. That’s not the point. The point for John was that he was called to fulfill a specific purpose and he did. And he did it for us.
It’s not that John’s work is like Jesus’, in that anything John did won anything for us. But, because John was a faithful prophet, because he made straight the highways, because he worked to bring the mountains low and the valleys high, we, along with all those gathered to hear him, hear his words echo in our ears: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. What child will this be? The child who grasps on to the promises of God and points others to the One who is the fulfillment of those promises.
John reminds us that it isn’t just a little thing that he was doing. He’s not just out there to get his jollies. He’s out there doing serious work, bringing wandering sheep back into the fold. Yet, his baptism was just a simple thing. While it was serious business, it was just washing of repentance and the preaching of forgiveness. It wasn’t much different than other baptisms before it. It was necessary, it was serious, but it wasn’t complete. So, when Christ came, John’s baptism turned into the greater thing–a washing of renewal, a washing of the conscience, a flood that would drown the Old Adam and bring to life the New Adam within, a washing that brings certain salvation to all who receive it.
John was the forerunner of the Christ, the One who would make all things new, even the baptism of John. And so it is today, that John continues to point us to the Lamb, even as we are washed in simple water for the appeal to God for a good conscience, that He would save us. John is the forerunner, reminding us of who it is that deserves our fealty. John is the forerunner, speaking a word of blessing to God that we might speak the same. John is the forerunner, whose father prophesied over him in the Benedictus that we still sing and speak and pray today. John is the forerunner, who speaks the word of repentance to us, that we should indeed repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, and yet points us to that kingdom that is in the very person of Jesus Christ.
You see, the point of celebrating the life of John the Baptizer today isn’t that we worship the man, pray to the man, even do the same things the man did. Instead, the point of celebrating him today is that we would hear what he would say to us. We should hear the voice of John pointing us to the Savior, Jesus. We should see the Lamb of God. We should desire to be baptized by the Lord. We should follow John’s pointing finger to the Lamb, as we watch Him grow in wisdom and in stature, as we see Him begin His public ministry, as we hear of His miracles and signs and wonders, as we march with Him to the cross, as we see Him die for the sins of the world, the sins of you and me, as we await His resurrection, as we see His ascension, as we wait for His final coming. We follow John’s finger, we follow his direction, and we see Jesus in Word and Sacrament. John would always remind us of Jesus, for it is only in Him that we should be guided in the way of peace everlasting, life eternal in His name. We follow John, for he saw the way in Christ, and is bringing us with him through Word, through Sacrament, through time itself. And someday, we shall see John the Baptizer, and he will be glad, for you listened to him this day. You listened to his benediction, and you shall hear it again, and it is a promise for you that you shall have peace in Christ forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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