“Sent From God…” | John 1:6-8, 19-28
There’s an old story about the young boy who was given a very important role in the Church Christmas play. He was to be the angel and announce the birth of Jesus. For weeks he rehearsed the line that had been given him, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.”
The grandparents got in on it and any time the family was together, and the boy was there, they would dress him in his costume and he would rehearse his part for them, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” They were certain that when he grew up, he would be another Charlton Heston playing Moses because of his dramatic ability.
The great night came for the Christmas pageant, and everybody was in place. All the grandparents and extended family were there. Visitors had come in and all the children were in costumes, complete with bathrobes for the three kings and fake wings and halos for the angels. All the mothers were excited, and everyone was really into this thing.
As the pageant started, the excitement was electric around the room. The dramatic event in the first part was the announcement of the angel, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” The spotlight hit this young boy and as he stood center stage in the middle of all this excitement, his brain froze. Every grandparent, aunt, uncle and neighbor came to the edge of their seats, wanting him to say something. You could see them in unison, mouthing, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.”
Still, his brain was frozen; he couldn’t say it. He tried, but it just wouldn’t come out. So, finally, in a heroic moment he filled his lungs with breath and blurted out the words, “Have I got good news for you!”
John 1:6-8, 19-28
I know what you’re probably thinking, “More John?” Didn’t we cover this last Sunday? Didn’t we light the pink candle this morning that for some represents Mary, the mother of Jesus? Yes, and yes, but Mary gets next Sunday. Let’s spend some more time with John with more Jesus mixed in this week. First, let’s look at a couple of verses that surround some of our text for this morning. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). And “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world” (John 1:9).
The beginning of the Gospel of John is very similar to the shotgun start of the Gospel of Mark that we studied last week. If you were here last Sunday, you may remember that the word Gospel means “Good News,” just like the good news this young boy had to share in his Church Christmas play.
I love how Eugene Peterson puts it in his Message Translation: “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14). How cool is that? Jesus moves into our neighborhood!
Both the Jewish and the Greek readers of John’s Gospel would have been familiar with his use of the term “Word” (Logos) with which the Gospel is introduced. Though, and I’m not sure we can wrap our minds around it, there would have been few who could read when these books or letters were written. The Gospels, and the entire New Testament for that matter, were letters which were circulated among the churches and in many cases, the Priest or Rabbi or whoever was the leader in each of these individual churches might have been the only person in that area with the ability and training to read; or even the material to read.
As a child I can remember that the most difficult part of Christmas was simply waiting for it to come. From Thanksgiving to December 25th seemed more like an eternity than a month. Days seemed like weeks—weeks felt like seasons—time seemed to stand still. Waiting is foreign to our society. It seems unnatural. We hunger for immediate gratification. The idea of delayed satisfaction is a stranger to our thinking.
You see, the problem for us is that scripture tells us that God’s clock is wound in a different way. Time is different for him. We look at seconds; he looks at the ages. Waiting, not hurrying is one of his characteristics. And this waiting God tells his people that often, they too must wait. My friend and mentor Joyce Payne has always said that Jesus never ran anywhere.
Let’s consider for a moment how much the people of Israel were forced to wait. God made a covenant with Abraham that he would have many descendants and a land for those descendants to occupy. This took place around 2081 B.C. Those descendants spent over 400 years as slaves in Egypt before God sent Moses to rescue them; and they wandered around the desert for another forty years. When they finally crossed the Jordan River in 1406 B.C. it had been 675 years since the original promise.
The virgin conception of Jesus is found in Isaiah 7:14—His birth in Bethlehem is found in Micah 5:2—the family’s flight to Egypt is from Hosea 11:1—the ministry of John the Baptist is in Malachi 3:1—and the Suffering Servant can be found in Isaiah 53. There are close to 100 references to the Old Testament found in the New Testament!
And in the period between the Old and New Testaments, which I mentioned last Sunday, God was silent for about 400 years and in 63 B.C. Israel came under the rule of Rome. For us to imagine such a thing it would be like living here in the United States and being under the rule of Germany—or China—or much worse, Iraq! Can you imagine such a thing? And we complain about waiting. It’s no wonder that the Israelites flocked to the wilderness once they heard about John. It’s a wonder they hadn’t already given up.
There are two important things we are told about John the Baptist: he was commissioned by God and his mission was limited to testimony.
Jesus “was” while John was “sent.” They in no way should be confused or thought of as equals or as leaders of rival movements. The word “sent” carries with it the sense of official authority, recalling the prophets of the Old Testament.
Jesus was the Christ—John was only a witness to Him. The immediate purpose of John’s mission is to bear witness to the light; the ulterior object is that all might believe through him.
The testimony of John, according to this Gospel, brought to Jesus His first disciples, through whom the apostolic witness went forth, which in time was spread through the entire world. John denied all status in contrast to Christ—he claimed to be only a voice crying in the wilderness. He had no original message of his own—he spoke the words of another (Isaiah) in his witness to Christ.
The testimony of John that we have read this morning was given in the most forthright way before priests and Levites who were sent from Jerusalem to question him. This encounter between John and the Jews took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan. This was not the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, which wasn’t far from Jerusalem. This Bethany has never been identified.
These leaders came to see John the Baptist for several reasons: (1) Their duty as guardians of the faith included investigating any new teaching or movement. (2) They wanted to find out if John had the true credentials of a true prophet. (3) John had quite a following, and it was growing; they were probably jealous and wanted to see why this man was so popular.
The question of the priests and Levites, “Who are you?” refers not to identity but to status and claim in the religious life of the nation of Israel. In his answer John disowns three titles: he was not the Christ—not the Messiah—and not the prophet whose coming was expected in the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.”
John also denies being Elijah who the Jews expected to return in bodily form. From the last book of the Old Testament from the Prophet Malachi come these words: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes” (Malachi 4:5).
But John was simply a voice crying out in the wilderness. He refused to claim a place or a name for himself—he is but a voice—a witness to the One whom they didn’t know. John was sent on his mission of baptizing so that the Coming One (Jesus) might be made known.
John, with his burning sincerity—his courage—his red-hot anger against sin, had gotten through the nation’s guard; he had pierced the people’s consciences. They flocked to him—they listened—they knew that what he said was true; they grew sick of themselves, and they yearned to be quite different. And in token of this they crowded eagerly to be baptized—to be changed—to make a new beginning in a new kind of life.
But something else was happening as well. God, no longer silent, was taking action—was accepting them—was pledging himself in their support—was individualizing His promises—and assuring them that He stood to His word toward them.
A little more than thirty years ago now a remarkable event took place in the Gulf of Mexico. Darrel Dore was working on an oil rig when suddenly it began to wobble. Before too long it tipped to one side and crashed into the water. Darrel found himself trapped inside a room on the rig. As the rig sank deeper and deeper into the sea, the lights went out and the room where Darrel was trapped began filling with water. Thrashing about in the darkness, Darrel made a life-saving discovery. A hug air bubble was forming in the corner of the room. He kept his head inside that bubble of air and prayed that someone would find him.
As he prayed, Darrel felt Christ’s presence there with him. For twenty-two hours the presence of Christ comforted him, but deep down, Darrel knew that the oxygen supply inside the bubble was slowly giving out. Soon he would be dead.
Then Darrel saw a tiny star of light shimmering in the pitch-black water. Was it real or after twenty-two hours was he beginning to hallucinate? Darrel squinted his eyes. The light seemed to grow brighter. He squinted again. He wasn’t hallucinating. The light was real. It was coming from the helmet of a diver who was coming to rescue him. By his own admission, John the Baptist was not the light. Rather, he came to bear witness to the light, as we are called to do as well.
Jesus is the light of the world. That’s the good news for this Third Sunday in Advent. The light that enlightens all humankind has come into the world in the person of the Christ Child.
Thanks be to God!
Eastman First Methodist Church 