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“Who are you?” You can hear the disbelief oozing from the Pharisaic priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem. Who are you, you weird, zealous, camelhair wearing, locust and honey eating man who preaches in the wilderness across the Jordan River and baptizes people? Who do you think you are?
John wasn't just preaching and baptizing at any old spot on the Jordan River, either. “These things came to pass at Beth–araba, across the Jordan, where he was John the Baptizer.” (John 1:28, my translation). He was preaching at a point on the river called “Bethany on the Jordan” as opposed to “Bethany near Jerusalem”. In Aramaic, the name is “Beth–abara” — the “Place of Crossing”, near Jericho.
John was standing on the wilderness side of the Jordan, as opposed to the Promised Land side. He was preaching and baptizing people from the wilderness into the Promised Land, right where the Children of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground many years before, going in the same direction, from wilderness into the Promised Land. Before they crossed, Moses was allowed to see the Promised Land from the other side, and then he died. This was also the spot where Elijah and Elisha had later crossed the Jordan immediately before Elijah was taken up into heaven.
John was also dressed as Elijah was, wearing camelhair, eating locusts and honey, living off the land. He was definitely not a man dressed in soft clothes, not meant for the king's palace. He was meant for the wilderness and, later, the king's dungeon and chopping block.
Thus they ask John, “Are you Elijah?” No. Even though he is dressed like him and lives like him, even though he preaches as he did, calling sinners to repentance.
“Are you ‘the Prophet’?” Are you the new Moses God promised to raise up from among us, as God promised in the Old Testament reading today? After all, he preaches right at the spot where Moses left off. No, John says.
John also confessed, “I am not the Christ.” I am not the Messiah.
Who are you? What are you saying concerning yourself, then? Why, then, are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, not Elijah, not the Prophet?
“This is the testimony of John.” To give a testimony or to witness to something is to give the “marturia” in Greek — the root word of our words, martyr and martyrdom. The evangelist John really writes in the first verse of our Gospel lesson today, “This is the martyrdom of John.” In other words, if you want to know why John the Baptist was beheaded, here is the real reason. Calling down King Herod for his adultery was just a pretext. The reason for John's martyrdom was that he admitted to doing what the Lord had called him to do. John emphatically declared, “I am the voice of one calling out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the Prophet Isaiah said” (John 1:23).
John is there to point to the one who is coming after him, whose sandal strap he is not worthy to tie on his own account, being a sinner by nature. He is there, despite all appearances, to say, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He is there to tell the Pharisees what they do not want to hear — that they are sinners in need of repentance, and that their only hope as sinners is a flesh and blood man who is the Christ, the real Prophet who has been standing among them in their midst for thirty years, since that night in Bethlehem, and they did not know Him or who He was.
He did not tell them what they wanted to hear. Sinners want to hear that they are not really all that bad; that they can help themselves before God by their pious works; that God will make things great for them in the here and now; that everything will be soft clothing and fine food and king's palaces, if they just do a little bit for God here, appease God a little bit there.
You are no better, sinners, than those Pharisees, Priests, and Levites out at Beth–abara. Who wants to go out into the wilderness of Plano, fight the traffic, only to see some preacher dressed in funny white robes, standing next to an ugly cross with a man dying on it, only to stand and confess that “we are by nature sinful and unclean in thought, word, and deed”, only to see him pour water once in a while on a baby, only to hear that our hope is in a man who claims to also be divine, who was born, lived, and crucified two thousand years ago, only to eat bread and drink wine that he claims are somehow the body and blood of that same Jesus fellow?
Who are you? What are you saying concerning yourself? Who is Jesus? Is He really the Savior from sin? Is He — a humble Jewish man from Nazareth — really God's Son, really the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, really the Prophet of all Prophets, does He really speak for God in Heaven?
These are the doubting questions of your sinful nature. Surely, God's Kingdom must be in king's palaces, amongst rich clothing, with royal food and festivities — not out in the wilderness near the Jordan then, not in East Plano now. No, not possible, says Satan, tempting you to push away the Gospel and say, “No thank you,” to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, just as those Jews did at the Jordan River, even with the Lamb of God standing right in their midst.
Today, now, before it is too late, listen to the Wilderness Preacher. Repent! Repent, believe in Christ, the Lamb of God, and be baptized, and you shall be saved. Receive and give thanks for the baptism of our Lord Jesus, which crosses you over from the wilderness of sin, death, and the power of the devil to the Promised Land of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins in Him, which He won for you by His perfect life, death, and resurrection in your place. Cross over daily from death to life by repenting and remembering your baptism into Christ.
Repent and be crossed over even as Jacob Chantry Gilbert has been crossed over from death to life by the blessed and lavish washing away of all sins by those same waters of the Jordan, which are all waters combined with the word and promises of Jesus.
Today, now, listen to the Wilderness Preacher. Listen to those who preach in the line of Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, and John the Baptist. They all pointed to Jesus Christ who was to come, who has come. Listen to the Holy Apostles and Evangelists. They testify to Jesus. Many of them gave the ultimate testimony as John the Baptizer did. They gave their life in martyrdom rather than deny the truth of who Jesus Christ is. No man will die for something that is not true.
Listen to the Wilderness Preacher who preaches Jesus Christ, because in that preaching you hear the true and living voice of Jesus Christ Himself, the one True God who created the world at His speaking, who at His speaking, even through wilderness preachers like John, or like this poor sinner called to be a pastor in Christ, His Word creates saving faith in Him in you! How are they to hear unless there is a preacher? Faith in Christ comes by hearing the preaching, and hearing the preaching of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:17).
Listen to the wilderness preaching of Jesus Christ, who by His death and resurrection has defeated death and leads the way in crossing over from death into life, from the wilderness of sin into the Promised Land of an eternal life in a new heavens and a new earth, the home of God's elect, the home of all God's baptized saints whom He has passed through His saving waters.
Listen to the wilderness preaching of Jesus Christ. He has a humble meal ready for you of His body and blood in bread and wine, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. How much easier it is to eat the Bread of Life and drink Christ's life–giving blood and to live securely in His forgiveness than to scrounge around for the junk food of this life and of these times, the false teaching and false promises of the false preachers and the deceiver of this world, who deny the power and grace and love of Jesus Christ even though He is standing right in their midst.
Christ has come. Christ is coming. Christ will come again. Cling to Him who is the Lamb of God in our midst, He is the new Elijah, He is the new Moses, He is the ultimate Wilderness Preacher, He is the ultimate Baptizer who brings life and immortality to light at His Word. He is, even now, bringing us over into His Promised Land.
Rejoice. God is with us and has ransomed you from the wilderness of sin and death and has given you the gift of life in Him. Give thanks for this living message of the Wilderness Preacher, our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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