Who is this John? That is the question of the day. And though it was asked antagonistically by those who came from the Pharisees, it is nevertheless a worthwhile question for us to consider.
To clarify, first of all, the John here in question is not St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, who has recorded for us this Holy Gospel, but St. John “the Baptist,” the Forerunner of the Lord. And that is already to answer the question: He is the one who goes before the Lord to prepare His way.
That is the answer of the Holy Scriptures, both here and elsewhere. And it points entirely away from St. John to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
From St. John the Baptist, concerning himself, we hear almost nothing at all, except what he is not. To begin with, He is most emphatically not the Christ or Messiah; he is not the Lord’s Anointed.
And St. John is not Elijah. Which might seem obvious up front. The thing is, though, that Elijah had not died, but he was taken directly into heaven by the Lord; and the Prophet Malachi later declared that God would send “Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Not only that, but elsewhere the Lord Jesus indicates that St. John the Baptist is the Elijah who was to come. So, which is it? Is he Elijah or not? The key is to distinguish between St. John according to his own person and St. John according to his office as the Forerunner of the Lord — as the last and greatest of the Prophets, whom Jesus identifies as “more than a Prophet.”
Yet, St. John is not that Prophet. He is not that Prophet “like unto Moses,” whom the Lord would raise up from among the sons of Israel. Back at Mt. Sinai in the Exodus, when the people were so terrified by the presence of the Lord that they begged Him (through Moses) not to speak with them directly, lest they die, He promised to raise up “that Prophet,” who would be like Moses, and who would speak the Word of God. That Prophet is Christ Jesus, your Lord and Savior, the incarnate Son of God, the Word-made-Flesh. So, to be sure, St. John the Baptist is not “that Prophet.”
And one more thing that he is not. He is not worthy to unloose the sandal strap of the One who is coming, who is standing among the people yet unknown. Though He comes after John, yet, He was before John, because He was in the beginning with God. He is the One it’s all about.
Whereas St. John the Baptist prefers to say nothing about himself (but only what he is not), he is all the while intent on proclaiming, over and over again, who and what the Lord Jesus is: For Jesus is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, the Savior-King from the House and Lineage of David who shall reign forever and ever, whose Kingdom has no end. He is the Lord who comes to redeem His people, to free them from captivity to sin, death, and hell. He is the Light of the world, and Life and Salvation. He is the Lamb of God, who bears the sins of the world in His Body to the Cross.
That’s about all you’ll get out of St. John: Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus! That’s really all he wants to talk about. He’s not wrapped up in himself, and he’s not interested in talking about himself. He isn’t sent to exalt himself, but to point to Christ Jesus and to prepare the people for His coming.
St. John’s whole identity and purpose, even from his mother’s womb, are bound up with this one thing — this single-minded purpose — that he must prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. And so it is that, as the Lord Jesus comes and makes His appearance among the people, St. John’s life and ministry correspondingly come to an end. As Jesus must increase, St. John must decrease.
So, let us return to that distinction between St. John’s person and his office as a messenger of the Lord, as a preacher and baptizer of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
It is, again, by virtue of his office that St. John the Baptist is the Elijah who was to come. And that office — that Voice in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord — continues wherever the Lord is to come. So must that “official Voice” prepare you, also, for the coming of the Lord.
As great as St. John’s person and personal significance are, they are subordinate to his office and ministry, and they are all the more subordinate to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Likewise, to this day, the ministers of Christ Jesus — the pastors of His Church — must be entirely concerned, not with themselves, but with their office as preachers of His Word, as liturgists of His Gospel. In the footsteps of St. John the Baptist, Christian pastors are all about the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, who has come in the Flesh, who has conquered sin, death, the devil, and hell by His Cross, who is risen from the dead, and who is coming to judge the world in righteousness.
As also in the case of St. John the Baptist, the ministers of Christ Jesus prepare the people for His coming especially by the preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Thus are you turned away from your sins, from your idolatry and unbelief, to fear, love, and trust in the Lord your God, to receive Him as He comes to you in His Word and Flesh, and to rely on Him.
To begin with, the preaching of repentance first of all exposes your sins and your sinfulness. It strips you of all pretense and lays you bare before the Lord Almighty, that you might recognize how desperate are your circumstances and how futile are all of your own reason and strength. The Word of the Lord thereby stabs you through the heart, buries you, and condemns you in your sins.
But as you are cut to the quick and convicted by this divine Word of the Law, by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit, the messenger of the Lord then also preaches the divine Word of the Gospel, the forgiveness of all your sins. Thus are you raised from death to life, from out of hell into heaven. Indeed, you are given a brand new life, both body and soul, in Christ Jesus; because the Gospel is not just facts and information, but the living and life-giving Word of God in Christ. The preaching of His Gospel delivers the goods. It actually does something for you, and it gives you everything you need. It forgives your sins, it saves you, and it gives you life in Christ Jesus.
This is what your repentance is — being-put-to-death by the Law and being-raised-to-new-life by the Gospel. None of this is anything that you are called upon to do for yourself, nor could you do it for yourself. It is the preaching of the Word of God that works repentance in your heart, mind, body, and soul, unto faith and life in Christ Jesus, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.
Along with this preaching of the Law and the Gospel, there is also the Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, which is also the work of God unto life and salvation. It is especially by way of Baptism that St. John prepares the way of the Lord; not only as it prepares the people for the coming of the Lord, but as it is the Way by which He comes. For the holy and righteous Son of God submits Himself to St. John and to his Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, even though our dear Lord Jesus had no sins of His own. He thereby takes upon Himself the sins of the world and commits Himself to sacrificial death upon the Cross to atone for them all.
The Lord Jesus was thus baptized into His own death, just as you have been crucified, put to death, and buried with Him by your Baptism in His Name. Only, everything is reversed for you and Him. He goes into the water holy and sinless, and He comes out saturated with your sins, whereas you go into the water utterly sinful and unclean, and you come out cleansed and covered with His perfect righteousness. From the waters of the Jordan He bears your sins in His Body to the Cross, where He suffers the death and damnation you deserve. But you die with Him in your Baptism, so that you also rise with Him to everlasting Life with God in both body and soul.
So, then, in the waters of Holy Baptism there is again the dying and the rising which constitute your repentance. You die to your sins, to the world, and to yourself, and you rise and live before God in the righteousness and peace of Christ. Thus are you turned from sin and death to real Life.
This is what Christ Jesus is all about. So this is also what St. John is all about, as He points to Jesus and says, “There He is, the Lamb of God. He’s the One who matters. Look to Him.”
Follow St. John’s voice and finger, therefore, always back to Jesus. That’s how Dr. Luther liked to put it. Listen to St. John’s voice as he proclaims the Lamb of God who takes away all your sins; and look to where St. John’s finger points — to the same Lord Jesus, your Savior and Redeemer.
Think of what that means, for Him to be your Redeemer, and cling to that. Consider that He who is true God, begotten of His Father from eternity, is also true Man, born of the Virgin Mary; that He is your Lord, who has redeemed you, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won you from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy and precious blood, with His innocent suffering and death — that you might live with Him in His Kingdom, just as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity.
That is what St. John is getting at, even as he quotes from the Prophet Isaiah concerning himself. For if he is the Voice of one crying in the wilderness, then the One who comes after him must be the Lord, who comes to redeem His people from sin and death and to comfort them with Peace.
This redemption of the Lord Jesus is implicitly expressed in St. John’s familiar comment, that he is not worthy to unloose the sandal strap of the coming One. Commentators will typically say that St. John is simply being humble, expressing that he is not even worthy to be the slave or servant of the Lord. That may be true enough, as none of us are worthy of ourselves; although St. John the Baptist surely is a servant of the Lord, even the last and greatest of the Prophets of the Lord.
But there is more to it than simple humility. For the Jews, according to the Law of Moses, a man might be called upon to redeem his kinsman’s wife, or property, or honor. For example, if a man’s brother were killed and his widow was left without children, the man was expected to marry his brother’s widow and to have children by her, in order to preserve his brother’s name and family. If there were no brother, than a cousin or another close kinsman would be expected to assume this duty and responsibility. But if the kinsman refused to do so, the widow would come to him in the presence of the elders, and she would unloose his shoe from his foot, so that he would henceforth be known as “the one whose shoe has been loosed.”
Along those same lines, in the Old Testament story of Ruth, when Boaz desired to marry her, it was necessary that her deceased husband’s closest kinsman first relinquish his responsibility toward her. And that kinsman did so by unloosing and removing his own shoe and giving it to Boaz in the presence of the elders of Israel. In doing so he also said, “I cannot redeem this inheritance for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. Redeem my right for yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” The text goes on to say that this was the custom in Israel.
This seems to be most likely what St. John the Baptist has in mind when he states that he is not worthy to unloose the sandal of the coming Lord Jesus Christ. For although he and Jesus were kinsmen or relatives according to the flesh, St. John was neither worthy nor able to “redeem” the Lord Jesus; nor could he possibly redeem or accomplish what was laid upon Christ Jesus for the salvation of His people. St. John could by no means redeem the inheritance of the Lord.
Indeed, no one else could do it. Not even close. No creature in heaven or on earth could redeem you or save you, but only the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. And He has done so!
No one could unloose His sandal, nor did He remove or relinquish His sandal from His foot, but He has assumed the responsibility for you and for all people, for all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, who were His own creatures. Not for His own benefit, but entirely in love, with divine compassion, grace, and mercy, for the rescue and salvation of all of us poor sinners.
Thus has He taken you to be His own. He has redeemed you with His own holy and precious Blood, with which He also quenches your deepest thirst and meets your deepest need here at His Altar in the Holy Communion. No less so has He cleansed you by the washing of the water with His Word and adorned you with His beautiful righteousness as His own beloved Bride forever.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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