Men We Don't Know

This sermon will be heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday December 14, 2008, the 3rd Sunday in Advent.

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
1Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

On Tuesday, “The Dark Knight” was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. This movie introduces the viewer to the Batman’s first encounter with his archenemy, Joker. One of the hallmarks of the Batman series from its beginnings was the secret identities of its main players. In the current cinematic incarnation, the only person who knows that Bruce Wayne is the Batman is his butler, Alfred Pennyworth. As for Joker, we never learn his given name. We only come to know him as a severely twisted, wicked character bent on chaos and destruction.

Two men the residents of Gotham don’t know, but will soon enough. Two men the residents of Gotham will come to know through their deeds. One man a dark yet heroic figure and the other an even darker sociopath.

Our gospel reading is silent about the reasons the priests and Levites were sent to see the man sent from God named John. But by the way we meet him; we can assume that when reports about him made their way to the home office in Jerusalem they were not welcomed.

So the leaders of the temple, the intelligentsia, the leadership corps; the people our reading calls “the Jews” were wondering exactly what in the name of all that’s holy was going on in the Judean countryside. When the priests and Levites come upon John, they knew they had found who they were seeking. Then the priests and Levites asked the obvious question, “Who are you?”

What they got was either the most obvious or the least obvious answer, “Well, I am not the Messiah.” Tell me, who starts there? When people ask me who I am the first thing I say is “Well, I am not the Messiah.” Don’t you?

Separating themselves from what they probably assumed was the obvious, they ask “Who then? Are you Elijah?” “I am not” John answers. All righty then, not Elijah, they ask if he is the prophet cast in the mold of Moses.[1] “Nope” John says.

So you’re not the Messiah (as if), not Elijah, not the prophet; check, check, and check. In the minds of the priests, the Levites, and the Temple leaders who sent them; John is a nobody. He has no temple or synagogue status and acts like, well, like a guy who wants to get in trouble with the big-boys.

“Look guy, there are some very important people who have sent us to find out who you are and what you have to say for yourself, you’re wasting our time so let’s have it.” So John lets them have it:

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’”[2]
as the prophet Isaiah said.

Yep, trouble maker.

It is important to point out two things; the first is that this gospel refers to the man at the Jordan as John; just plain John. This gospel doesn’t call him “John the Baptist” or “John the Apostle” or “John the Revelator” either. He’s just John. And in this writing, he doesn’t even share his name with the priests and Levites. The narration lets us know who he is, but the dialogue is silent. He gives no one his name. To the priests and Levites, he is simply that guy they were sent to see and find out what he was doing.

The second thing I want to point out is the way that he told the priests and Levites that he is not the Messiah. Our translations say “I am not the Messiah,” but sometimes huge things get lost in little translations. In this case, what got lost is that John invoked the negative of the Greek version of the Holy Name. Theologically, he said “I am not the I AM.” When asked whether he was Elijah or the prophet, he didn’t say “no” the same way. Answering these questions, he did not use the Holy Name.

You can just imagine the priests and Levites were at a loss. We have not the Messiah, not Elijah, and not the prophet. He evokes the spirit of Isaiah without quoting the prophet directly. This odd fellow tells the world who he isn’t, effectively telling them that he is nobody of any importance.

The priests and Levites had been sent by the Pharisees, so they had to get a straight answer. “Look, if you’re nobody, why then are you baptizing?”

John answers, “I baptize with water.”

“I baptize with water.” Isn’t that what the priests and Levites just said? They had gotten past “what are you doing?” They asked him “Why are you doing it?” John says “I baptize with water.” Imagine the stupefied looks screwing their faces in all sorts of weird directions. Yeah, well thanks, baptism—and at the time there was a Jewish baptism—baptism is done with water, we had that part figured out.

John continues, “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.” Tell me, how does that answer the question “Why are you baptizing?” These guys, emissaries of high temple officials want to know what’s happening in the wilderness and the only answers they get are so far from what they were expecting that they’re left speechless.

That’s when John gives them the meat and potatoes of this reading. I paraphrase, “Look, you don’t know who I am, you ask what I’m doing when you all ready know what I’m doing. So guess what, if you are having trouble with me you ain’t seen nothing yet. And if you just wait a little longer you will.”

So a guy the priests and the Levites don’t know tells them that somewhere in the community of humanity is someone else whom they don’t know. The mischief maker then says that he isn’t worthy to untie the sandal of this other guy they don’t know. And this is the Gospel of the Lord. (Thanks be to God.)

If this is confusing, imagine being in their sandals. The priests and Levites were getting an earful and couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Their questions were pretty straight forward, if not self-incriminating, and John’s answers were bizarre.

If this isn’t confusing, it is because we have all ready filled in the blanks. This gospel only says John baptizes in water. We need Mark’s version to tell us John comes proclaiming a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. When we hear “I baptize in water,” we also hear the echo of Mark’s gospel continue, “but the one who is more powerful than I will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

So whether you are confused by this reading or not, I believe we need to put ourselves in the place of the priests and Levites; we need to hear this again for the first time just like it was heard 2,000 years ago. What John presents is a mystery bigger than all creation.

Listen to John’s cry: “I am not the Messiah, I am not Elijah, I am not the prophet. I have no special status. I am a child of the One True God. I am a child of the one who is coming, the one whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. I am the child who has been called to come to the wilderness and make straight the way of the Lord. That is who I am.”

There is a glory to the mystery that surrounds these statements. They seem so definitive, yet they are so very mysterious. They are concrete, but they come from the man we don’t know about the man we don’t fully know, not yet.

It is to our joy and God’s glory that we know this story; and that we know what comes next. But because of that, we tend to fill in the blanks left in John’s gospel. Today, let’s not fill in the blanks. Let’s listen with the awe and wonder, and yes the confusion, the priests and Levites shared as they heard John’s testimony. John testifies to the true light, and begs us to see the it again in the fresh eyes of one who sees it for the first time.

Advent is the coming of Jesus Christ. We wait and we wait upon others in this season of preparation. In its own peculiar way, John’s gospel reminds us that we don’t really, can’t fully know whom we wait for, whom we wait upon. God is so completely different that on this side of glory we won’t fully know who God is, even God who walked the earth.

This gospel’s description of John delights us with strange answers to straight-forward questions, reminding us that questions we take for granted need answers that aren’t obvious. Still rejoice in what we know for sure, the man we don’t know will have his secret identity revealed. It will be revealed in a manger. It will be revealed on the cross. It will be revealed again coming in glory. Jesus has come. Jesus is here now. Jesus will come again.

[1] “The New Interpreter’s Bible.” Vol. IX. Leander Keck, General Editor. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, pages 527-528.
[2] This is a paraphrase of Isaiah 40:3, not a direct quote.