December 17, 2023 Text: John 1:6-8, 19-28
Dear Friends in Christ,
In small town life you have characters. By now, most of you know I grew up in Argenta, 45 minutes southeast of here, population around 1,000. In our town was a mentally challenged young man named Lyle. His parents owned the local filling station, and the town just took care of him. They bought him a riding lawn mower and made him an honorary deputy. My dad’s cabinet shop was next to his parent’s gas station, so Lyle would pop in periodically just to visit. One day he came in to talk with my dad and he had a citation and a fine for $10. He told my dad it was because my dad had given him the finger. Not sure if my dad ever paid the fine, but it has become a part of small-town lore.
John the Baptist barely had a town to live in, he made his home in the wilderness. But he was known to give the finger. He used his to point to a Savior, but this didn’t make the locals none too happy because John the Baptist was . . .
“GIVING THE FINGER”
Ancient Christian art depicts John with an overly large mouth and a hyperextended index finger, pointing to the Lamb of God. John is an authoritative witness, one who tells exactly what he has seen and heard. Scripture says that every matter must be established by at least two or three witnesses for it to be considered true. John lines up seven that testify that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the God, the Savior of the world. They are John the Baptizer, the Holy Scriptures, the works the Farther does through Jesus, Jesus himself, the Holy Spirit, the apostles, and St. John’s Gospel.
John is sent to give the finger. John was sent by God to give testimony. “He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.” (v. 8). John wasn’t the light that gives life to the world. Nor are we, though we think we might shine a little brighter than the world.
We tend to confuse witness with the testimony, the message with the messenger. We pay more attention to the person than the office. Toni and I know a congregation relieving their Pastor of his duties because they don’t care for his sermons or his interactions with the congregation. How would John fare today with his camel’s hair and leather, picking honey-coated grasshoppers from his teeth and preaching repentance and baptism?
“We do not preach ourselves,” wrote the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, “but Jesus Christ as Lord.” The religious leaders of Jerusalem were stuck on the messenger, but didn’t hear the message. Expectations in Israel at the time of John were higher than a five-year-old a week before Christmas. John had created quite a stir. So, a committee was sent to ask, “Who are you?” or more like this, “Who do you think you are?” Religious institutions don’t care for wilderness prophets.
It’s time for John to give this call committee the finger. “I am not the Christ.” “I am not Elijah.” Then they ask, “Are you the prophet?” John could have grabbed a little glory. He wasn’t the prophet, but he was a prophet. He uses his finger to point to the Light. He wants to talk about Jesus, not himself.
This is what witnessing is about. Witnessing is not “Jesus loves me, this I know.” That’s boasting – true and holy boasting, but boasting nonetheless. “Jesus loves you, this I know.” That is witnessing. Pointing the finger to the Savior.
Who then are you? The priests and Levites needed to take something back to headquarters. John wasn’t going after a bunch of internet followers. He was using his digit to show the way of Jesus. Jesus overshadowed him. Quite a concept, that didn’t fly back then and is even worse today. He wouldn’t even get into a big discussion about baptism. He just kept giving them the finger. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. He would extend that finger the next day for the crowd as he pointed in the direction of the lone figure coming toward him, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
The Church today is still giving the finger in today’s wilderness of sin and terror and death – a voice to proclaim repentance and forgiveness in Jesus’ name – a finger pointing to Jesus. There is your salvation and forgiveness and life. There is your Baptism. There is Holy Communion. Earlier, the Holy Spirit pointed us to our Absolution of our sin. We point out all of these gifts to others when we share the love of Jesus with others.
A small word of warning. The word for witness is the same word from which we get “martyr.” You might not lose your head, as John did. But don’t worry, you have already died in Jesus, you have been baptismally buried into his death. You are in the ultimate witness protection program, embraced by the death of the Son of God who loved you and gave himself up for you. No disguise needed. We can just tell the truth about our sin, and even more about our Savior, the world’s Savior. Let’s give everyone the finger, pointing people to Jesus.
Amen.