Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 1 Thess. 5:16-24 John 1:6-8, 19-28
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is from the Gospel lesson just read, especially these
words, “Who are you?” Thus far our
text.
Dear friends in
Christ. Who are you? Such a foundational question for so many
conversations and worldviews. How would
you describe yourself? What words tell
us what information we need to understand who you are as a person? What is your identity?
In our lesson for
today, St. John the Baptist is preparing people for the coming of the Lord, and
as he does so, Pharisees come to him and ask him that question. “Who are you?” They even give him some prompts, “Are you Elijah,
or are you the Prophet? Who are
you? We need to give answer to the ones
who sent us.” They even ask him, “Are
you the Christ?” And John does not
hesitate in his answer and response.
Instead he gives a great confession.
“I am not Elijah or the Prophet, I am certainly not the Christ.” And here’s where the words get interesting. John goes on to say, “I’m not even worthy to
untie the Christ’s sandals.”
What bold
words. Yes, it is easy to say, “I’m not
a prophet.” Its even easier to say “I’m
not the Christ.” But those last words,
“I’m not worthy of the Christ – not even to untie shoes from his dirty
feet.” John doesn’t even hesitate. He stands before the crowds coming to him for
baptism and boldly declares, I’m not worthy.
He tells the jewish officials, “I’m not worthy.”
What words do you
use about yourself. Or even better what
words do you think about yourself?
Smart? Or not? Successful?
Or not? Pretty? Handsome?
Rich? Average? Good?
Friendly? Praiseworthy? What title do you give yourself? I’ll bet no matter what things you say about
yourself, that the words, “Not worthy” aren’t used hardly at all.
In fact, more
often than not we think pretty highly of ourselves. We praise ourselves more than we
deserve. We think other people owe us
something, and even more so, that God owes us something. That we are worthy of God. That we’ve kept more of his rules than the
people who are around us, and thus that we deserve something from him, that we
ought to be rewarded. You’ve thought
that very thing, you’ve thought “Well if that person were more like me, they’d
have known better.”
Yet the reality is
closer to what John says. You aren’t
worthy. Unless you’ve kept every law
that God ever put in place perfectly – you’re not worthy. Unless you’ve never sinned, not once in your
entire life – you’re not worthy. Unless
you’ve been perfect all the time and in all ways, you aren’t worthy.
Its true. Compare yourself to St. John the Baptist,
cousin, and forerunner of Jesus who was sent by God himself to prepare the way
of the Lord. Are you more holy than he? Are you more righteous? Even than John, who was willing to be
beheaded for confessing the truth of Jesus.
NO? But even he claims to be
unworthy! And we who are no better than
he, are unworthy as well.
But dear friends,
do you see the message of the unworthy John?
He prepares the way for the coming one.
The one who will be our savior.
The one who, while you were still unworthy and unclean and sinful,
suffered, bled and died so that you might be forgiven. He did not wait for you to become holy. He didn’t wait for you to become
righteous. He took your unworthiness
into his own hands, entered our world, to die on that old rugged cross.
And so in Jesus
you are worthy – because he is worthy.
He has made you worthy in your baptism.
There your sin was washed away with his blood. There you are raised from unworthy
relationship with God to a brotherly relationship with Jesus. You are cleansed from all sin, from all guilt
from all unworthiness and made holy in Jesus Christ, and in his great love and
care.
In the name of
Jesus. Amen.
