To Us a Child Is Given-- John the Baptist

Text: “13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord” (Luke 1:13-15).

We’ve heard about John the Baptist a few times recently. He’s always an important part of our Advent emphasis. And, in fact, he was the focus of our readings the last two Sundays. Tonight I’d like to take a slightly different perspective. Tonight isn’t about John, per se, as much as it is about his father, Zechariah— or, at least, how he viewed his son.

There is one part of Gabriel’s message to Zechariah that caught my attention this time: Gabriel told Zechariah that John would be “great before the Lord” (Luke 1:15). That’s a really interesting statement, isn’t it? Let’s think about that for a few minutes tonight.

To be sure, Gabriel’s description of who John would be and what he would do is pretty impressive. Even before his birth, John was called to a unique and important office. He would “be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15); “turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” (Luke 1:16); and he would “17 go before [Jesus] in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:17). That’s a pretty important calling. It is certainly a unique and important office that John had been given. Saying that John would be “great before the Lord” certainly seems justified. If there was any question, Jesus, Himself, agreed. “11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Luke 7:28; Matthew 11:11).

John was, truly “great before the Lord,” as Gabriel had said. But, what makes that promise really interesting for you and me, tonight, is the rest of Jesus’ statement: He said, “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than [John]” (Luke 7:28; Matthew 11:11). This is not just about John’s greatness, it’s about yours.

Now, that is a very loaded topic, isn’t it? You’ve been taught, from childhood, that humility is more proper for one of God’s people. And that’s completely true because what your parents and teachers and pastors were trying to steer you away from was sinful pride— the sinful drive to seek fame or glory in the eyes of the people around you. My goal, tonight, is to offer you a different sort of humility— a higher, holier kind.

It’s amazing how quickly our hearts and minds seize on the praise that we receive from others. Give us even a single taste and we yearn for it, we crave it, we struggle to get along without it. How quickly the praise of others turns into the deadly poison of self-admiration (C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”). This is the sort of greatness, if you will, that the disciples, themselves, were constantly tripping over. On one occasion, “1 the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”” (Matthew 18:1). And Jesus’ answer should have been terrifying to them. He answered them, “3 Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Some of the most shameful moments happened when they were arguing with one another over which of them was the greatest (Mark 9:34; Luke 22:24). The demonstrated our great need for humility. And that was precisely what your parents and teachers and pastors were trying to teach you.

But there is a deeper level to the humility that they were trying to teach you. C.S. Lewis once wrote that:

Apparently what I had mistaken for humility had, all these years. prevented me from understanding what is in fact the humblest, the most childlike, the most creaturely of pleasures...: the pleasure [of] ...a child before its father, a pupil before his teacher, a creature before its Creator.

Is there any greater work for that child than to work to please his father— in the best possible sense? … to grow into the man his father always hoped he would be? … to be a man of honor, courage, diligence, integrity? The truest form of humility is for that son to seek to hear from his father, “Well done.”

Is there a greater work for that student than to please her teacher? … to not only show that she has retained the information that the teacher has been laboring to pass along, but show a mastery of it? … to be able to use it and apply with skill and insight? The truest form of humility is for that student to seek to hear from her teacher, “Well done.”

Is there any greater work than for a creature to please its creator? … to rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be? The truest form of humility is for her to hear, from her creator, “Well done.” And that also happens to be the purest form of greatness. Greatness with no room for vanity; free from the miserable illusion that it is her doing; “with no taint of what we should now call self-approval she will most innocently rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be, and the moment which heals her old inferiority complex forever, [drowning] her pride [as deep as can be]” (C.S. Lewis, “Weight of Glory”).

Can we agree that this is the sort of greatness that Gabriel was describing to Zechariah? He was sent “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:17). And served that role faithfully. And he was called to do something even greater than the other Old Testament prophets. Moses— generally considered the greatest Old Testament prophet, performed incredible miracles. He prophesied that, one day, the Messiah would come to His people. But John was privileged to say, “He’s here!” Moses called down the angel of death on the Egyptians, delivering the Israelites by the blood of the Passover lamb. But John proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). He faithfully called people to repent and believe the Gospel, even though it cost him his head.

That’s the sense, by the way, in which even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. John pointed to the Messiah and declared “He’s here!” But he, himself, did not get to see God’s great act of deliverance. John the Baptist knew Peter and Andrew and James and John, but he didn’t know how they would factor in to the story. If he knew the name ‘Pontius Pilate’, he didn’t understand his significance. He knew that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, but He didn’t know how, exactly, His blood would come to be shed. John, himself, was “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). But he would not live to see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

The one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John (Matthew 11:11). John’s baptism symbolized the person’s repentance— the washing away of sin, a ‘new birth’, if you will. But, through the baptism that Jesus ordained, you were given new birth by the water, included in God’s command, and combined with His word (Titus 3:5). By that baptism, the Holy Spirit was poured out on you richly through Jesus Christ your Savior, “7 so that being justified by his grace [you] might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7). Even your youngest child who is able to confess that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, descended into hell, on the third day He rose again from the dead, He ascended to heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead is making a confession of faith that John the Baptist would be jealous of.

Even the youngest among you can be taught to see Jesus in His Word, there in the baptismal font, and there on the altar, and to not only proclaim “Here He is!” but also, “that’s for me!”

He chose you, in Christ, before the creation of the world, and “29 predestined [you] to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). There, at the baptismal font, He made you everything that you were originally intended to be. As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have “24 to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). “10 [You] are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Even your suffering in this life only serves His purpose of conforming you to the image of Christ.

“6 And ...he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). On Judgment Day, when you stand before your Creator, what you will find will be not judgment, but approval. In and through Jesus Christ, you shall please God; you will be a real ingredient in the divine happiness; “you will be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work” (Lewis). Your Heavenly Father will look at you, His dear child, and say to you, “Well done.” “It seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory [and greatness] which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is” (C.S. Lewis, “Weight of Glory”).

“13 The angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord” (Luke 1:13-15). And so are you, in Jesus Christ.