Dear friends in Christ.
A friend once asked Isidor I. Rabi, a Nobel prize winner in science, how he became a scientist. Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. She wasn't so much interested in what he had learned that day, but she always inquired, "Did you ask a good question today?" "Asking good questions," Rabi said, "made me become a scientist." Well, in the same way that a simple question asked by his mother eventually revealed Isidor Rabi as a scientist, so also a simple question asked by a group of Israelites on the banks of the Jordan River was the avenue the Lord used to reveal his Messiah to his people, as our text tells us: “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.” (Luke 3:15 NIV)
Now, as our text opens, roughly 30 years have passed since last week. The Magi had come, worshiped the Savior, and returned to their home by another route. The Lord had sent an angel to warn Joseph to take his family to Egypt so that they might all be safe from Herod and his murderous plot. Herod had died, Joseph and Mary had returned to Bethlehem, discovered that Herod’s son was now ruling in his place, and quickly moved back to Nazareth because they knew no one would be looking for them or their son in what was essentially the smallest and poorest community in all of Israel. Though the Bible mentions how Jesus traveled to Jerusalem with his family when he was 12 years old, it says nothing else about him until a simple question reveals him to be the Lord’s Messiah. It was the question that all the people were wondering, because John had done his job so well!
So expertly had he prepared the way for the coming Messiah that the people wondered if John might actually be him! After all, John was the first Prophet the Lord had sent to the Israelites in nearly 400 years. He came, wearing the traditional marks of a prophet, garments made out of camel’s hair and a leather belt, just as the Prophets of the Old Testament had warn (see: Zechariah 13:4 and 2 Kings 1:8), and even though there were undoubtedly others who were traveling as prophets throughout the land of Israel, John preached with such authority that the people were drawn to him. He was the one who called the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers. He was the one who condemned the people’s superstitious notion that they would be saved simply because they were descendants of Abraham. He was the one who so forcefully preached the message of God’s law that the people were moved to repentance and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. He was the one who so lovingly and so regularly preached the gospel of forgiveness that the crowds continually asked him for advice on how they could live their faith in their everyday lives. In short, as John prepared the way for the coming Messiah, the people were simply buzzing with anticipation, expecting that in any moment the Messiah might come walking down the road, step out from behind a tree, or simply miraculously appear right before them. So primed were they for the Messiah’s appearing that they began wondering if the Messiah might already be standing before them.
Well, even as they asked their simple question, wondering if John might possibly be the Messiah, he simply told them that he wasn’t and once again called on them to prepare for his coming, as our text tells us, “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’” (Luke 3:15–17, NIV)
Unlike we Lutherans, who will simply look in the guest book if we really want to know who a visitor is, the crowds directly asked John their question, and through their simple question John had the opportunity to once again prepare them for the coming of the Messiah. In short, his answer was a resounding, “No. I am not the Messiah.” Rather, he was the voice of the one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” He was the one who was constantly pointing the people toward the Messiah, encouraging them to look for him, and calling on them to put their faith and their hope in him. John was not out to make a name for himself, no! His sole purpose was to bring glory to the Lord by preparing the people for their Messiah, and that is exactly what he did with his answer! For even as he answered, John told them that he was merely the Lord’s humble servant! He was the Lord’s humble servant who wasn’t even worthy to stoop down and untie the Messiah’s sandals. Even though John was a powerful and authoritative preacher, his mission was to point to the one who was more powerful than he, the Messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Now, when people hear this statement, that the Messiah would come to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, so often, they get all bent out of shape. They begin to think that John’s baptism wasn’t up to scratch and they now need a special baptism by the Holy Spirit in order to be faithful Christians. The thing that they don’t realize is that with this simple sentence, John is summing up the entirety of the Savior’s mission on earth. When the Messiah came, he would come to his people in love and grace proclaiming the message of salvation to all who believed. He would be gentle with those of weak faith and build them up in their trust in him, just as Isaiah had prophesied: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:1-4, NIV)
Jesus was the one who would come as the Lamb of God to be the sacrifice for all people, just as the Lord had demonstrated through all of the sacrifices he had commanded. He was the one who would take back his life and return to heaven, and only then, after he had been gloried, on the Day of Pentecost, would he baptize the people with the Holy Spirit and Fire. For it was on that day, as I said last week, when all the nations were gathered in Jerusalem that the Lord Jesus poured out his Holy Spirit on his disciples. Not merely the 12, but all the disciples who had gathered together in that house, and they were given the opportunity to proclaim the message of the Messiah to the peoples of the world right there in Jerusalem. He is the one who would winnow and separate the believers from the unbelievers and at the end of days take the grain into the barn and the chaff into the fire. Right now the harvest is taking place. Each day the workers harvest more and more grain from the harvest field of the world and bring it to the threshing floor of the Lord’s presence, where the oxen of the Lord’s Word continually walk its prescribed path, breaking up the kernels, beginning the separation of the grains from the chaff. Each day our Savior stands with his winnowing fork in his hand, observing the process, and waiting for the exact moment to begin the winnowing. On the Last Day, he will use his fork to toss the kernels into the air so that the grains might fall back to the ground and the chaff be separated landing elsewhere. When the winnowing is done, all the grain will be gathered up and taken into the store house of heaven, but the chaff—those who did not believe in Jesus as their Savior—they will be burned up in the unquenchable fires of damnation.
In such a simple, and yet straight forward way, John answers their question, revealing that he was not the Messiah, and yet preparing them for his immediate arrival. However, when the Lord answered their question, he clearly revealed Jesus as the Lamb of God, the Messiah for whom they had been so well prepared. Our text tells us, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” (Luke 3:21–22, NIV)
At the very height of John’s preaching career, while all the people were coming to be baptized, in a rather quiet and unassuming way, the Messiah appears on the scene to be baptized. Though it doesn’t tell us here, from the other gospels we learn that John was so surprised that Jesus would come to him to be baptized that John was rather hesitant to do it. Instead, John insisted that he needed to be baptized by Jesus. Though John would have been correct on any other occasion, Jesus showed him that it was necessary now, at the start of his earthly ministry that John baptize Jesus in order that Jesus might be anointed and revealed as the Messiah who had come to his people!
It was in that moment, after Jesus had come out of the water and was praying on the shore that the Lord answered the people’s question revealing Jesus to be the Messiah. For in the same way that characters in a play will be lit by spotlight in order to emphasize their performance, the God the Father tore open the heavens revealing his glory. The Holy Spirit descended from the heavens in the form of a dove, lighting on Jesus, and remaining with him, as the Father proclaimed, “You are my most beloved Son, with whom I am completely pleased!”
How incredible it must have been on that day when the Lord God simply pointed at his Son and said, “Behold! Here is your Messiah!” How incredible it must have been to have the question of Messiahship answered. How incredible it must have been to realize that the Lord who had sent John into the wilderness, baptizing the people for repentance, just gave his seal of approval to their baptisms by using the baptism of his Son to mark him as the Savior of all people. How incredible that on this day, when Jesus was baptized there would have been at least a few people who had heard the message of the shepherds and seen the Magi come to town some 30 years before. But how much more incredible that the Lord our God saw to it that this account was recorded for our learning! For from these words, our question of who the Messiah is, is clearly answered. We are assured that Jesus is the one whom God the Father chose to be our Savior.
Now, because Jesus’ baptism was given the approval of God his Father, we can take comfort and assurance in our baptisms, because our baptism today is no different than Jesus baptism by John. In fact, by John’s confession that he needed to be baptized by Jesus, baptism was marked even then as a Sacrament by the Authority of Jesus from whom baptism derives its divine power. Even though the Lord Jesus did not command baptism to be carried out by all believers among all nations until the day he returned to heaven, those who were baptized by John and by Jesus’ disciples received the same blessings as we do today, the forgiveness of sins, life, and the assurance of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.
What an amazing question we have answered today! Though it isn’t a question from our mothers asking us about school or if we asked good questions today, it is a question of utmost importance. For today we have asked a simple question about the Messiah and learned who he truly is and all that he has done for us.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
