15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was
he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before
me.’”
- John 1:15, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
I have two arms, but fingers none. I have two feet, but cannot run. I carry well, but I have found I carry best with my feet OFF the ground. What am I? A wheelbarrow.
Walk on the living, they don't even mumble. Walk on the dead, they mutter and grumble. What are they? Fallen leaves.
Were you able to solve both of my riddles? Did you figure out at least one of them? Maybe it wasn’t fair. I didn’t give you very much time to come up with the answers. You probably weren’t prepared for a sermon introduction riddled with riddles either.
What do riddles have to do with Advent anyway? How can brainteasers and mindbenders prepare Christians for the coming of Jesus? They can’t, but the text before us this evening can. And when you listened to those words as they were read from the pulpit, or if you read them for yourself before the service today, they do sound something like a tongue twister. John the Baptist declared: "He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me" (John 1:15).
Who was John talking about? And what was he trying to say? The answers to these questions cannot come from within. It doesn’t matter how sharp you are. It doesn’t depend on your problem solving abilities. Only God’s inspired Word can give us the answers we seek. As we review the events in the life of John the Baptist, we will discover that.
The Baptist’s Riddle Has a Divine Solution
I. Jesus came after John
II. Jesus surpassed John
III. Jesus was before John
The hand of God was at work in the life of John the Baptist right from the beginning. Zechariah the priest had gone into the temple of the Lord to burn incense. He and his wife Elizabeth were getting on in years, and God had not blessed them with any children of their own. It was the Lord’s will, or so they thought. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah in the temple: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John" (Lk 1:13).
After years of anxious waiting, Zechariah and Elizabeth were finally going to have a child. This was more than a pleasant surprise. The birth of John would be nothing short of a miracle. But the Lord didn’t stop there. God had also chosen this child to carry out a divine mission. The angel told Zechariah: "Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah.to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Lk 1:16,17).
When the angel made this announcement, neither child had been born. Neither child had even been conceived yet. Still, the angel’s prophetic words were clear. The lives of John and Jesus would be inseparably linked together. John would go before Jesus. John would announce the arrival of Jesus. His voice was the "voice of one calling in the desert, "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him" (Mt 3:3).
John had been given a divine message to proclaim, but he didn’t exactly fit the description of what we normally think of as a pastor or teacher. He didn’t look like everyone else. He didn’t act like everyone else. He wore clothes made of camel’s hair. He had a leather belt around his waist. The staples of his diet included locusts and wild honey.
John didn’t set up shop along the busy streets of Jerusalem where all the people were. Instead, he lived and worked in the Desert of Judea. He didn’t assure the people that all was well when it really wasn’t. He didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear. His message was clear: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Mt 3:2).
In spite of John’s somewhat strange habits, and despite the harsh tone of his preaching, God worked through the Word that he preached. And as a result of his preaching and baptizing, John attracted quite a following.
"People went out to him from all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River" (Mt 3:5). John didn’t have to go out to the people because the people came out to him. They listened to his words. They repented of their sins. Some even began whispering that this man who was baptizing in the Jordan might actually be the promised Messiah, the one the Old Testament prophets had spoken about.
Some didn’t understand who John the Baptist was, but John understood his role in God’s plan of salvation. When asked, he denied that he was the second coming of Elijah. He never claimed to be the Prophet Moses talked about (Dt. 18:15). And he freely confessed: "I am not the Christ" (Jn 1:20).
So who did John say that he was? Using the words of the prophet Isaiah (the verses read in the lesson for today), he said: "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord’" (Jn 1:23). And who did John say that Jesus was? "He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie" (Jn 1:27).
Removing sandals was the most menial task reserved for the lowliest slave. John the Baptist believed that he was not worthy to do even this for the one who would come after him. He was a model of humble service. There was never a hint of arrogance in his words. There was no evidence of pride in his actions.
John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus, and he did his work very well. In fact, some followers believed that he did it too well. They came to John and said: "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him" (Jn 3:26). Was John aware of what was going on? Yes. Did he know that the crowds that used to come out to see him were now following Jesus instead? Of course. Was he jealous? No. Was he upset? Not at all.
John the Baptist wasn’t interested in self-promotion. He wasn’t driven by a personal desire to succeed. He wasn’t able to save a single soul on his own, but he did point people to "the Lamb of God" who takes away the sin of the world.
John’s work was important, but only his successor could carry that work to its completion. That is why John said: "He (Jesus) must become greater; I must become less" (Jn 3:30). It was necessary for the one who came after him to surpass him.
John carried out his work faithfully, but he was still a sinner. Jesus obeyed his Father’s will perfectly to be our sinless substitute. John’s life was cut short by the executioner’s blade, and his disciples took his lifeless body and laid it in the grave. Jesus gave up his life on the cross and was buried, but not even a sealed tomb could keep him there.
John the Baptist prepared God’s people for the coming Messiah. He helps us prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus during the Advent season. He is an example of faithfulness, devotion, and humility. But the fact remains that John is dead, and his body awaits the resurrection on the Last Day.
Jesus, on the other hand, is our living Savior. He is a God of unending mercy. He exercises unequaled power. He lives in unspeakable glory. And John the Baptist could say with complete confidence that Jesus had surpassed him because he was before him.
This is where the so-called riddle gets interesting. John the Baptist said that Jesus came after him. Physically speaking, that was true. John was born first. John also gained prominence as a prophet before Jesus did.
John the Baptist also said that Jesus had surpassed him. Again, this is fairly easy to explain. Jesus was more than a mere man. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. And he never sinned, not even once. John the Baptist was a prophet of God, a servant of God, but he was nothing next to the sinless Son of God. Jesus surpassed him in every way.
The question is: How could Jesus come after John and go before John at the same time? Maybe it’s easiest to solve this problem with what sounds like another riddle. Listen to the opening verses of the gospel according to John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning" (Jn 1:1,2).
To identify who the "Word" is, skip ahead to verse fourteen, the verse immediately before our text. John said: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (14). The Word made flesh is a reference to Jesus. When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, and Jesus made his dwelling among us as a human being.
But that is NOT when Jesus came into existence. Remember that.in the beginning was the Word.and the Word was God. Jesus is true man, but he is also true God. He was present at the creation of the world. He existed before time began. He is eternal, without beginning and without end. As God, Jesus was before John the Baptist and David and Moses and Abraham and Adam and Eve and every person who ever lived.
If you think you can understand this mystery, you are wrong. The fact that Jesus is true man and true God in one person is a revealed, not a reasoned truth. John the Baptist didn’t make that claim because it agreed with logic. We don’t accept it as fact because it makes sense. It is true because God’s Word tells us it is true.
You might be sick of riddles, but please consider one final mystery this afternoon. This is a problem that defies any reasonable solution. It has to do with Advent. Why did Jesus come to us in the first place? Why did he come down from his throne in heaven at all? Why did Jesus set aside his divine power and glory when he didn’t have to? Why did Jesus willingly subject himself to hatred and rejection? Why did Jesus allow himself to be mocked and beaten? Why did Jesus sacrifice himself to save the same people who made it necessary for him to die in the first place?
Why did Jesus give up his life to rescue hopeless sinners, sinners like you and me? The answer is simple, but it is profound. The answer can be summed up in a single word: love. Love was the motivation behind Jesus’ first Advent. Love for sinners brought him to this earth two thousand years ago. Love led him to pour out his lifeblood to pay for the sins of the world. And love will be the motivating force behind his second Advent, when he will come back to take us to heaven.
Meanwhile the voice of John the Baptist cries out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way for the Lord" (Lk 3:4). Meditate in these words. Read the opening chapters of the four gospels, the chapters that tell the Advent story. Learn and grow as you discover how God interacted with the important figures of Advent, John the Baptist and Mary and Joseph. Use these weeks, use these days leading up to Christmas to prepare. Prepare your hearts for the coming of Jesus because Jesus is coming soon. Amen.