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Jesus said, “Tell John what you hear and see,” and He said, “What did you go out to see?”
᛭ INI ᛭
Twice St. Paul says that the Old Testament Scriptures were written for our instruction. (Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:11) He also says that those things “happened to them as an example.” (1 Cor 10:11) Peter also says Jesus was an example. (1 Pet 2), and Paul (1 Tim 6:13) and Hebrews (13:11–13) hint at the same idea. But what does this all mean?
Many churches, preachers, and Christians push Bible Characters as moral examples. Lutherans aren’t necessarily opposed to the idea. We do have saints days and commemorations. Besides, like I just said, Paul and Peter and Hebrews talk this way. The examples involve our various callings: Hannah for godly mothers, Boaz for godly husbands, Hezekiah for godly rulers, John the Baptist for godly preachers.
Yet, the examples aren’t chiefly instructions about works or morals but about faith, forgiveness, and comfort. (Rom 3:27–28; 8: 2) The Lord suffers Himself to be rejected by those who turn His Holy Word chiefly into morals or principles or laws. His Word was actually written so that we’d abound in hope! (Rom 15)
Today, we’ll play the example game a bit, and we’ll see that, when it comes to John the Baptist, it’s not about him being an example, but rather about what Jesus wants to tell people like John, or you and me.
(3. What do you think of John in the wilderness?)
Before we consider today’s reading, we need to back up a bit. When you hear “John the Baptist,” what comes to mind? Well, Congregation at Prayer this past week, and a little bit this week, will help you out. He was miraculously conceived, the son of elderly parents: Zechariah, a priest, and Elizabeth, a relative of Mary.
He was the forerunner of Christ, which means he was sent to prepare the way. Zechariah sings that in the Benedictus. (Jesus says that, today, too!) We mostly remember John for his preparing, his powerful preaching in the wilderness. He dressed like Elijah, ate locusts and wild honey. He preached and baptized sinners for repentance, but also for forgiveness. (Don’t forget that…) He was the final prophet who powerfully preached the coming Savior, as Malachi prophesied. (Mal 4:6) John prepared “tax collectors and sinners” for Christ, while driving away the self-righteous religious elite.
So, then, what do you think of John? How do you stack up to him? In the Great Commission, if there is such a things, are you following in the footsteps of John? Are you calling sinners to repentance? Are you even repenting? Or just cowing to the pressure of sin and society? How do I stack up?
(2. What do you think about John in prison?)
What do you think about John, today? Far cry from the wilderness. His powerful preaching of repentance got him locked up in prison. People don’t like being told they’re sinners in need of change. Who knew? (It’s still that way…) John preached against the adultery of Herod. Eventually he was executed, beheaded.
We’re not quite there yet in Matthew 11. What’s become of this great and powerful preacher? He doubts! He was like a mighty cedar of Lebanon, to use the biblical phrase. (They had a similar reputation like the Redwood forest of California does for us.) Now, he’s a bruised reed. No longer, “Behold the Lamb of God!” But “Are you the Christ? Is there someone else?” Oh, how the mighty have fallen! No longer powerful preacher—not only shackled in prison, but chained and burdened by doubt!
Even in his doubts still faithful. Points his disciples to Jesus. Faithful preachers often preach most what they themselves need to hear. In the face of jail and hardship and certain death, John doesn’t think this whole Jesus thing is all it’s cracked up to be. So, he’s full of worry and doubt. Maybe, Jesus isn’t the Christ… An imposter maybe?… Another forerunner like me? “Are you the Christ? Is there someone else?”
How do you stack up to that? Probably more up our alley. But John doesn’t tell us anything more today besides his question, and without an answer, there’s only more doubt, despair, dread, and death upon death—hell!
(1. What does Jesus say about all this?)
When John’s an example of works or an example of faith, or like today, doubt, it doesn’t get you anywhere. The command to “be like John” and the command to “be better than John” are equally distressing and damning! Matthew is inspired to write this example not to lay John before our eyes, but to show an example of what Jesus does with someone like John.
What does Jesus do? He sends John a couple preachers! “Go tell John what you see and hear: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.” He doesn’t send them to break John. Before John wasn’t a desert reed shaken by winds, but now he’s an imprisoned “bruised reed.” (Is 42:8) They don’t go to snuff out the “smoldering candle” (Is 42:8) to leave John in darkness. The opposite!
They are sent to preach comfort to John: Jesus really is the Christ! He came not only to do miracles, but to fulfill the greatest promise and hope and expectation of His people: to die and to rise for the forgiveness of sins, to rescue them from death, and to reconcile them to God. The example of Jesus today teaches you this:
IF THERE’S PEACE FOR JOHN, THERE’S PEACE FOR YOU, TOO!
Jesus has peace for John not when he’s mighty man in the wilderness, but a cracked and broken shell of a man in prison.
Should you measure up? More than probably. “Be perfect like your Father is perfect.” (Mt 5) So, also be like John. Be like Jesus. They are things to strive for against your flesh, something the Spirit will do within you. Apart from the Spirit, these examples make you worse off than you already are! Moral examples are harmless when your life is more like John in the wilderness. (Our lives are seldom so put together.)
IF THERE’S PEACE FOR JOHN, THERE’S PEACE FOR YOU, TOO!
Peace in Jesus’ life. Peace in Jesus’ blood. Peace in Jesus’ death. Peace in Jesus’ resurrection. Peace in Jesus’ Baptism. Peace in Jesus’ Absolution. Peace in Jesus’ Supper. There our “feet are guided into the way of Peace, in the forgiveness of our sins.” John does this today not because of what he does, but because of what Jesus does for him.
I’m saying “these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ [is] the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 Jn 2:1)
For those who want their sinful life, disregarding Jesus’ Word, and want examples to fix themselves or just make up for it—no real repentance there. Well, What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” (2 Pet 2:22)
(Conclusion.)
So there you have it. An example today. John in prison. But not the example our flesh expects, but it is the example our soul needs.
IF THERE’S PEACE FOR JOHN, THERE’S PEACE FOR YOU, TOO!
Christ crucified for your sins. Resurrected for your eternal innocence. You’re baptized into that Christ. You’re forgiven in that Christ. You’re given His body and blood to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of your sins.
(If you don’t see the need, you’ve overlooked something in your life.) For Jesus’ peace isn’t for when you’re high and mighty and strong. No, like it was for John: broken, doubting, scared, in the dark, all alone. There Christ sends preachers with peace. (Hi! How you doing?) For,
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