St. Matthew 11:2-15
December 15, 2019
Advent 3A
Dear Saints of Our Savior~
He shall be great! What new parent hasn’t had that thought upon holding their firstborn child for the first time? He shall be great! She shall be great! In sports, in music, in wisdom—this kid has the potential to be a prodigy. The possibilities are limitless for the newborn child of proud first-time parents. It’s a time of big dreams and aspirations. But after those parents have been humbled—humbled by weeks of sleep deprivation, and a thousand dirty diapers—all those dreams of greatness don’t die, but they usually get tabled for a time.
He shall be great. Search the pages of your New Testament and you will find that only one person aside from Jesus is ever called “great.” The greatness of John the Baptizer was a done deal even before he was born. When the angel Gabriel informed old Zechariah that barren Elizabeth was going to have a son, Gabriel, that great angel warrior, was clear and direct: That son, Gabriel said, “He shall be great in the sight of the Lord.” Fast forward three decades and today we hear Jesus pick up where Gabriel left off: “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.”
But by the time Jesus called John “great” in today’s Holy Gospel, that opinion was starting to fizzle. The fiery-eyed wilderness preacher we heard from last Sunday had, since that time, dared to publicly criticize the immoral conduct of Herod, who had shacked-up with his brother’s wife. By the time Jesus called him great, John was languishing in prison, about to have his head severed and served up on a
You call that great? The world certainly wouldn’t. From the world’s perspective Herod was great. In fact Herod’s father had been known as “Herod the Great.” People feared him. He had whole towns wiped out. Caesar was great; he reigned over most of the inhabited world. But John, that sunburned man with uncut hair eating grasshoppers and digging for honey in hollow trees? Great? Get real! Novel, eccentric, interesting, a religious side-show perhaps, but not what most people would call great. What did he accomplish? Nevertheless, Jesus, the Son of God, called John great.
Some have questioned the greatness of John based on what we learn in today’s holy Gospel. From prison John had sent his disciples to ask a question of Jesus: “Are you the one who was to come? Are you the one we are waiting for, or should we expect someone else?” Some have seized on that question and concluded that John must have been wavering—that his faith was going wobbly now that he could only keep company with cockroaches in Herod’s dungeon. Was John himself having doubts about Jesus? That’s a distinct possibility; John was only human, after all.
The other possibility is that John was simply doing what John did best. He was pointing the way to Jesus. Sending his disciples to see the Savior seems about right for the one who pointed his prophetic finger and declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Perhaps John sent his disciples to Jesus with that question so that they could hear Jesus’ answer with their own ears. John must decrease; Jesus must increase. Perhaps John wanted his disciples to be in the very same spot to which he points all of us—that is, with Jesus.
It is in this little episode that the greatness of John begins to reveal itself—in a new way. What is this Advent greatness of John? John was so captivated by the God He served—so consumed by the Word of God he had been called to preach—that he could live his days on earth in a kind of freedom—freedom that you and I can only imagine. John’s faith in the Christ gave him a glorious freedom—an absolute independence from the things that keep most of us chained up day in and day out.
John’s blessed independence was evident to all. He preached without regard for what people thought of him or how high up he was in the public opinion polls. As a preacher he didn’t worry about being relevant or clever like so many preachers worry about today. John’s message was “Repent and be saved, or else prepare yourself for hellfire,” which is a message that never goes out of style. John didn’t care about what he wore—camel’s hair and leather was good enough. He didn’t care about living in a pricey north shore neighborhood—the wilderness was good enough. He didn’t care about what was on his table or in his wine cellar—locusts and wild honey were sufficient for John’s daily bread.
What made John great was that freedom and independence from all the patterns and expectations that would draw us away from Jesus. John was a non-conformist in the very best sense. He was totally conformed to Christ—and nothing else mattered. His voice, his finger, his baptizing—it all served to point people to the coming Christ. John’s conformity to the Christ is what made him one of a kind—the greatest ever born.
You can’t hear of John’s greatness without realizing how much we lack it—how much we don’t have it. John’s zeal for the Lord brought him freedom and independence. But our lack of zeal makes us conformists of worst kind. We are far too eager to conform our lives—not to Christ—but to the secular sleaze of the world around us. It would be nice to be free and independent of all that. But we usually go along to get along. We go with the flow—even when the flow is away from the Lord. We don’t dare rock the boat with our Christian beliefs, our morals, our doctrines. No, we keep all that safely tucked away so that nobody can accuse us of being judgmental, or eccentric or some kind of religious fundamentalist.
Instead of conforming our lives to Christ, we conform to all the wrong things—to a culture driven by greed and lust. We seem to fit right in. We fear the condemnation of our friends more than we fear the condemnation of God. We trust our own opinions more than we trust the Word of God. We love the people and pleasures of this world more than we love God and His gifts to us. We prefer the security of mediocrity and a safe spot among the majority. It’s so nice to be normal. It’s nice to be accepted. It’s nice to belong. But if that’s all you’re aiming for in this life, you will never, ever be “great” in the way that John was great.
John the Baptizer ultimately paid the price for this kind of Advent greatness—the greatness of independence and freedom in Christ—the greatness of total conformity to the Christ. Ultimately, John the Baptizer was executed. But when you conform your life to Jesus of Nazareth, execution—or at least cross-bearing—is always to be expected.
We call John the “forerunner” of Jesus. He even ran ahead of Jesus into death by execution. John got it just right, for that’s why Jesus came—to die. If Jesus is going to sever us from our sins and cut off our conformity to the ways of this dying world, if He has truly come as the Lamb of God who takes away our sin, then, of course, He Himself would have to die—in your place, as your sacred substitute, bearing your sins.
If you want the boldness of John, if you desire the freedom and independence of John, if you want the Advent greatness of John in your life—you will find it in the cross of Jesus. Jesus is the greater one of whom John spoke—the One whose sandals John wasn’t worthy to stoop down and untie. John—John the Great!—he lived and died for Jesus. But Jesus lived and died for you. The commandments of God which we keep so casually and carelessly—Jesus kept them perfectly; and through faith in Him that perfect record of obedience now belongs to you. And death which seems so scary to so many in this world—well, Jesus has destroyed death by His own resurrection. Your death—and the deaths of all who die in Christ—it’s simply the final step until you are with Christ—until you are enjoying the greatness of resurrection life. That’s real freedom—looking forward to the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.
Jesus called John great, but He also said that even the least and the lowly in His kingdom are greater than John. Do you know what that means? I think it means that you—yes, you—are great. You are not perfect, but sinful. But in Jesus who lived and died and rose again for you—in Him you can confess your conformity to this world. In Jesus you are being transformed into the greatness of Jesus Himself. Oh, you might not feel great as you head off to your job, your school or into the darkness of December. But great you are. Great you are because you are baptized into Jesus’ death and life, joined to Him through faith, having His body and blood in your body, you are great in Jesus, riding the coattails of His death and resurrection to the life of the world to come.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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