(John 1: 6-8, 19-28)
One of my favorite places to work as a young Houston Police Officer was an area of town called Montrose. It was an older part of town not far from downtown. It had a lot of older homes that were being gobbled up by the dinks. Double income, no kids. There were some pretty fashionable restaurants up and down the Westheimer strip along with all kinds of night clubs, bars and gay discos. There were also some seedy hangouts, adult bookstores, petty drug dealers and street prostitutes. On the weekends the area drew a large crowd of party goers who wanted to experience the night life. It also drew a fair number of troublemakers, those looking to harass the gays, street people and any other likely targets to satisfy their need for fun at someone else’s expense. Our job, my partner and me, was to look for the potential troublemakers and impress upon them the wisdom of having their fun somewhere else.
One warm evening as we cruised Westheimer monitoring the crowd of fun-seekers, I saw a large white pickup truck that caught my attention as possibly containing someone who might be up to no good. You might call it profiling, but I call it police work. About that time, I saw the passenger hurl a beer bottle at a black guy standing on the corner. This guy was a street preacher, and he was laying down a strong message of repentance. Well, the beer bottle, much to the delight of the rednecks in the white pickup, caught him right upside the head and down he went. I was on that truck so fact they didn’t have time to fully enjoy their ugly deed. I extracted the passenger from the truck and was beginning to thoroughly and graphically explain to him what was going to happen next and how unpleasant it would be. And, just before things got real ugly, the street preacher staggered up with blood streaming down the side of his face saying that it was alright, everything was okay, that he forgave them and did not want to prosecute. Reluctantly, after a stern admonishment about getting out of town and never, ever returning, I let them go on their way and turned my attention to the street preacher. I told him my grandfather was a Methodist minister and I understood what he was trying to do. He said he knew the risks, but he felt compelled to bring the Word where it needed to be heard the most. He was a witness come to testify to the Light.
And that’s what the John the Baptist was doing in our scripture reading this morning. Like my street preacher, John was a man sent from God who came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. And, like my street preacher, he himself was not the light, but came to testify to the light. So John, like Jesus Christ, is one sent from God, and his mission is to bear witness to Jesus, the Light, the coming Messiah.
So, John the Baptist is out in the wilderness preaching up a storm, making disciples, making converts and baptizing new believers. And his growing ministry soon caught the attention of the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin. The members of the Sanhedrin were divided into Sadducees and Pharisees, and the delegation that came to investigate John the Baptist were of the Pharisaic faction. They were a very influential sect that numbered about 6,000, and as strict interpreters of the law of Israel, they were extremely zealous for Jewish ritual and tradition. Their purpose for traveling all the way out to the wilderness was threefold. First, they had their duty as guardians of the faith which included investigating any new teaching or movement. Second, they wanted to find out if John had the proper credentials of a prophet. And third, John had quite a following that was growing to the point people were taking notice and were beginning to talk. The Pharisees were probably jealous and wanted to see why this man was so popular.
So the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin, sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? A fair question as many in the first century were waiting for the coming of the Messiah promised by Old Testament prophets. The writer tells us that he, John the Baptist, confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, I am not the Messiah. And, we are told, they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? To which John said he was not. They asked if he was a prophet and he answered no. These religious scholars and experts in the law wanted to know if he was Elijah because of what the prophet Malachi foretold in the fourth chapter of Malachi about the coming of the Day of the Lord when he said; See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. And, if not Elijah, they wanted to know if he was the prophet predicted by Moses in Deuteronomy 18: 15, where it is written; The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. So, again they asked; Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who send us. What do you say about yourself? John responded: I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said, referencing Isaiah 40: 3. In Isaiah’s day there were few roads and when a king traveled, roads were built so that the royal chariot would not have to travel over rough terrain or be stuck in the mud. What Isaiah was saying is that before God appeared to manifest his glory, a voice would be heard, inviting Israel to make straight the way by which God himself would come. John the Baptist was identifying himself as that voice, calling people to make straight the way of the Lord.
Well, you know that had to have gotten their attention. He was injecting himself into the expected coming of the Lord. These experts in the law were very knowledgeable and this bold assertion really must have put them back on their heels. As they had been sent by the Pharisees to investigate what he was doing, they asked him, Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? For the Jewish leaders, performing the rite of baptism was regarded as making a claim of authority. They wanted to know by what authority John was performing this religious rite as they believed that they were the ones who had the right to accredit religious speakers. They could see that their fragile status quo with the ruling Romans could be jeopardized as they were concerned about maintaining peace under the watchful eye of Rome and kept a close watch on all prospective messiahs that might upset the status quo. So John answered; I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal. John is taking his accreditation from God. He doesn’t need anyone else’s approval. To answer their question of who he is, he is a man of God, and a man from God.
Jesus bears witness to the Father and John the Baptist bears witness to Jesus, so that Jesus might be known to Israel. Jesus was the light and John was the lamp that bore witness to the Light. We, like John, are not the source of God’s light; we merely reflect the light. Jesus is the true light; he helps us see our way to God and shows us how to walk along that way. And Christ has chosen to reflect his light through his followers to an unbelieving world, perhaps because unbelievers are not able to bear the full blazing glory of his light firsthand. So it is Christians who, like John, bear witness to the light, that those who receive it might believe. It is this word “witness” that indicates our role as reflectors of Christ’s light. So, this begs the question of what is it that we do in our daily lives that reflects the light of Christ? You have to ask yourself what is it that you can do to let your light shine a little brighter? What is it that we can do as a church right here, right now, to be the light in such a dark and intimidating world? You have to realize that it’s the light that you reflect that makes you stand out to the point that people ask: Who Are You? And that’s a great question. Who are you?
Please pray with me.
Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free. Free us from our fears and sins and let us find our rest in thee. By your spirit, rule in all our hearts alone. Move us, O Lord, to be a voice in the wilderness speaking out to those who need to hear your words of peace, hope, joy and love. Enable us with the guidance of your Holy Spirit to carry the light out into the darkness so the lost will be found and come to believe. Help us in our lives to be reflectors of your Light in all we do as we endeavor to be your church right here and right now. Instill in us that bright and shining light where people will readily know we are Christians by our love, our love for you and our love for them. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.