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Italian painter and architect Giotto di Bondone (1266/67-1337) illustrated the birth and naming of John the Baptizer as narrated in Luke 1:57-80 in the Peruzzi Chapel of the Church of Santa Croce (the image is used from here).
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have quickly come to our third and final Midweek Advent Vespers Service and the third largely‑sequential Reading from St. Luke’s Gospel account, which account narrates the announcements and miraculous births of sons to two seemingly insignificant women. We have fast‑forwarded about three months from when the angel Gabriel announced Jesus’s birth to the blessed Virgin Mary and from her visit to her kinswoman Elizabeth. Tonight’s Reading tells of the birth of John the Baptizer, of his circumcision and naming, and of prophecy about him that the Holy Spirit made through his father Zechariah, presumably at the time John was circumcised. The birth is briefly narrated in two verses, the circumcision and naming narrated in eight verses, and the prophecy gets 13 verses, before a concluding growth summary of one verse. In the prophecy John is called “the prophet of the Most High”, and we appropriately reflect on tonight’s Second Reading under the theme “The Prophet of the Most High”.
You may recall, as we heard two weeks ago, how the angel Gabriel announced John’s birth to Zechariah inside the Jerusalem Temple and how Zechariah had not at first believed Gabriel’s words, which would be fulfilled in their time. Zechariah more or less had asked for a sign and was given one, namely, his being silent and unable to speak until the day the things Gabriel described took place. As we heard tonight, nine months later, when John was named as the angel had said, then Zechariah’s mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God.
As St. Luke by Divine inspiration tells us, fear came on all Elizabeth and Zechariah’s neighbors (and maybe their relatives, too). And all the things about John’s birth, circumcision, and naming were talked about (continuously discussed) through all the hill country of Judea where they lived, 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. Already when he was only eight days old, people were trying to figure out what to make of John. St. Luke by Divine inspiration does not tell us where the people came down, whether they, like his father Zechariah, declared John to be “The Prophet of the Most High” or whether they dismissed what they heard about John as so much religious nonsense. As we have heard in our Gospel Readings the past two Sundays, some thirty years later when John publicly appeared to Israel, people were still trying to figure out what to make of John. St. Mark told us all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to John and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins (Mark 1:1-8), and St. John the Evangelist told us the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to inquire about John, his bearing witness and his baptizing, and we know from St. Luke that the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John (Luke 7:30).
Centuries later, people even now are trying to figure out what to make of John. What do you and I make of John? Do we, like his father Zechariah, declare John to be “The Prophet of the Most High”? Or, do we, like others today, dismiss what we hear about John as so much religious nonsense? Are the details of John’s birth, his circumcision and naming, and the prophecy about him true? Or, are they made up myths? Do we accept John and his role as “The Prophet of the Most High”, and do we heed his message of repentance? Or, not? Ultimately, to reject John, his role, and his message is to reject Him Whose way John prepares. To so reject John and Jesus is to remain in darkness and the shadow of death that we deserve on account of our sins. To so reject John and Jesus is to continue in the way of sinners, the way of the wicked, who will not stand in the congregation of the righteous nor in the day of judgment (Psalm 1:1, 5-6).
John and Jesus called the people in their days to repent and believe the Gospel, and their voices continue to call us to repent and believe the Gospel. Such repentance and faith is in keeping with the angel Gabriel’s prophecy to Zechariah about John, that John would make ready for the Lord a people prepared (Luke 1:17). And, such repentance and faith is in keeping with Zechariah’s prophecy to John himself, that John would go before the Lord to prepare His ways, giving His people knowledge of salvation in the forgiveness of their sins. John the Baptizer truly was a prophet, even, as Jesus Himself said, more than a prophet (Matthew 11:9; Luke 7:26), but, as great as John the Baptizer was—“The Prophet of the Most High”—John only brought, announced and gave out, the salvation accomplished by Jesus. When we turn in sorrow from our sins, trust God to forgive our sins, and want to do better than to keep on sinning, then God truly forgives us—for Jesus’s sake.
Bible commentators speculate just how much time, after he was born, John lived with his elderly parents, before being in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. John’s remembering his father’s prophecy from when he was eight days old would be seem to be very unlikely, if not for the involvement of the Holy Spirit, Who filled John from the womb (Luke 1:15), Who filled Elizabeth when Mary visited (Luke 1:41), and Who filled Zechariah when he prophesied (Luke 1:67). But, again, as important as John the Baptizer was and is, more important is the One Whose way He prepared. Jesus is “The Prophet of the Most High” above all other prophets of the Most High. In the person of the man Jesus, as Zechariah declared, God visited and redeemed His people, by dying on the cross for His people, His people including you and me. Thus, Jesus is the horn of salvation, Who saves us from our enemies, especially from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Thus, God shows to all people, including us, the mercy promised to our fathers—our fathers really going all the way back to the man and the woman whose sin in the garden created our need for salvation in the first place (Genesis 3:15). So long was God’s holy covenant in place with its means of grace.
John the Baptizer came under God’s holy covenant and its blessings by way of circumcision and faith, but John brought the new circumcision, Holy Baptism (Colossians 2:11‑12), the blessings of which are also received by faith. As he was circumcised on the eighth day, so the Church often baptizes babies on the eighth day, the day of re‑creation. So baptized, we live in the grace that we who believe receive through Baptism. At the Baptismal Font, God gives us clean hands and a pure heart, so that, as we heard in the psalm tonight (Psalm 24), we can ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place and receive blessing from the Lord, righteousness from the God of our salvation. So, as John the Baptizer would have eaten of the Passover, we come here, to this rail, and God strengthens and nourishes our bodies and souls, as we in faith receive bread that is Jesus’s body, given for us, and as we receive wine that is Jesus’s blood, shed for us, the cup of the new covenant in His blood. So John and Jesus have guided us into the way of peace.
As the Holy Spirit prophesies through Zechariah, we are delivered from our slavery to sin in order to serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. Those of you who have been in our recent study of Salvation History in the book of Exodus should recall the similar reason why God delivered the Israelites from their slavery to the Egyptians, to serve God by worshipping Him, and those of you who know your Small Catechism should recall the similar reason from The Rev. Dr. Luther’s explanation to the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed, to be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. We are set free from our sin to worship God spiritually, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to Him (Romans 12:1), with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28), continually offering up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips that confess His Name, and not forgetting to do good to all of those people whom God places around us in our lives (Hebrews 13:15-16).
In this lifetime, we will continue to fail to serve God as we should, but, as we continue to repent and believe, we continue to live in the forgiveness of sins—the forgiveness of sins announced and given out by John the Baptizer, “The Prophet of the Most High”; the forgiveness of sins accomplished by Jesus, “The Prophet of the Most High” above all other prophets of the Most High; and the forgiveness of sins still declared and given out by “prophets of the most high”, pastors today. So forgiven, we are prepared to celebrate the birth of our Lord into the flesh, we are prepared to receive Him as He comes to us now in Word and Sacrament, and we are prepared to stand at the Last Day, when He comes with glory to judge the living and the dead. As we heard in tonight’s First Reading (Isaiah 35:1-10), about His comings we do not need to have anxious hearts, for God comes with His recompense to save us.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +