Advent 3 B
I am not the Christ
St. John 1:6-8, 19-28
14 December 2014 – Redeemer
I am not the Christ, but I would like to be and so would you. There are so many ways we want to be Christ. When we let our sins slide because we believe they are not that serious (especially compared to others) we take Christ’s place. When we believe in generic American spirituality – that all religions worship the same God, that everyone goes to a better place at death, that God is basically a therapist / genie whose work is to give us what we want – we make ourselves Christ. When God is acceptable as long as He only requires an hour or two a week, but you don’t want His Word anywhere near your marriage or your check book or your pursuit of happiness you make yourself the Christ. When you craft a God who is comfortable with your selfishness, who doesn’t expect you to rise from your recliner of sin and apathy you have indeed made your own Savior. You have appointed yourself to be the Christ, but you are NOT.
John the Baptist confessed and did not deny, “I am not the Christ.” John is not a comfortable preacher. He wouldn’t make the call list at Redeemer. One look at his Facebook page and you would have made up your mind. Ratty hair. Bugs in his teeth and honey on his beard. Camel hair robe. Perhaps the best thing about John was that he didn’t need a housing allowance and he was cheap. But if you are uncomfortable to look at him, wait until he opens his mouth to preach.
John isn’t the Senior Pastor at First Lutheran in Jerusalem, with padded pews and soothing sermons. He’s out at Desert Lutheran on the Jordan. At Desert Lutheran you won’t find civilized sinners, dressed up in their Sunday best. You’ll be milling around with Sally Streetwalker and Elmer Embezzler. John calls you away from comfort. He has been sent to prepare you and that’s not going to be comfortable.
You can imagine how upset the Elders at First Lutheran were that all their folks were heading out to the wilderness to hear John. They sent a delegation to examine this preacher. The Pharisees sent the Priests and Levites. Although they have a number of questions – all their questions center on this baptism of repentance that John was preaching and performing. According to Old Testament ceremonial law the Jews did observe some washing when they had touched or experienced something unclean. But the only bodily washing, what we might call baptismal washing, was done to Gentiles (non-Jews) and by that washing the Gentiles would become fringe members of the Jewish worship life. They were welcome to the temple, somewhat welcome. They could stand near the door, but couldn’t come all the way in, because well, they weren’t Jewish.
But in the wilderness John preaches a baptism of repentance for everyone – Jews, Gentiles, grandmas, infants, pious priests and adulterous accountants. John preached that before this coming Lord everyone was on the same level – having nothing, needing everything. That’s not what they taught in the big city – in Jerusalem they taught that when the Lord came He would set up His people in power over everyone else. When the Lord came His folks would instantly get promoted to Kings and Queens and the wealth of the nations would be laid at their feet. They looked on the Lord’s coming like some heavenly lottery and if you were a Jew He was your lucky number. They had made their own Christ.
The Priests and Levites could not understand John – he made no claims of greatness. Was he the Christ? No. Elijah? No. The prophet? No. Who are you John? His answer is, “I am nothing, but noise.” John is the car alarm that goes off in your neighbor’s driveway in the middle of the night. John is the sub-woofer bouncing in that car next to you so loudly you can’t hear your own radio. He’s the storm siren that goes off right as you walk by at 1 pm on the first Wednesday of the month.
But John is no random annoyance – he is the Lord’s annoyance. He is nothing but the siren call of the Lord, the alarm that would roust you from yourself and draw you to the One coming after John. Jesus was born six months after John, but the Son of God is as old as eternity. After John, but before John, after John, but greater than John – He is the Lord standing their midst – in fact as soon as John would finish with these priests and Levites he would extend his prophetic finger toward One man and with his preaching voice declare of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
There is not one of you who does not need what Jesus has come to bring. And there isn’t one of you that He would turn away. You are part and parcel of the world He came to redeem. You sins are included in the sin of the world. This Lamb of God stood in the midst of the people of Desert Lutheran on the Jordan to do what John could not do, what Sally and Elmer could not do. He came to take away their sin, your sin.
He is so great that John dare not touch his feet, not even the sweaty lace of the sandal that protects that foot. If John the Baptist dare not touch Him where do we stand? We who have made ourselves the Christ, who sin boldly or secretly because everybody is doing it, we who give God less time and devotion than we give the Vikings. We dare not stand. Repent, but then rejoice, because while you dare not touch the Lord because of your sin, He would touch you, for that is why He came.
Jesus Christ not only touched humanity by taking on flesh and being born of Mary, but when He was baptized in the Jordan He touched us by taking on our sin. The Lamb’s white wool is stained with our sin. The clean and holy Son of God becomes profane and vile with our deeds. His blood is spilled for our iniquities. His Father casts Him off in anger so that we could be adopted in love. Jesus has touched you with forgiveness and brought you back to life again at the cost of His life.
You are not the Christ. I am not the Christ, but Jesus is and He does what we cannot do. He does not ignore Satan. He resists him and disarms him. He does not become comfortable with sin, He takes it away into the consuming fire of His Father’s anger. He does not mask death with make-up and celebrations of life. He lets death swallow Him whole as the perfect sacrifice, but since death has no stomach for the righteous Christ rises on the third day. That’s the Way of the Lord. It is a Way you cannot travel. It is a work you cannot do. It’s the Lord’s way, but thanks be to God it’s the Lord’s way for you. The way of the Lord is the womb, the bug eating preacher, the Jordan, the cross, the tomb. Now from the right hand of God His way is the way of baptism and repentance, of hearing and eating and drinking. You are baptized in the name of Jesus, forgiven in the stead and by the command of Jesus, fed with the body and blood of Jesus. You are not the Christ and that is blessed news – for God has sent His Christ, to do His Work, to save us from ourselves and the Christs of our own making. God has sent His Christ in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
13 December 2014 anno Domini