Living in the shadow of the University of Minnesota you are likely to see some pretty strange looking characters. But even with their pink spiked hair, painted faces, and pierced body parts, I'm not sure that Dinkytown has anything to compare with John the Baptist. Without a doubt, he is the strangest figure in the New Testament. Outfitted in a suit of camel hair and living off a diet of grasshoppers dipped in honey, John the Baptist was not exactly ordinary.

In fact there was nothing ordinary about John the Baptist. Even his birth was unusual. His parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth were well passed the age of parenting. "Well advanced in years" is how Luke puts it. They were childless. Yes, they had prayed for a child but none had been given. I would guess that they had made their peace with God's wisdom on this matter. Then one day, when Zechariah was taking his turn in performing his priestly liturgy in the temple, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a son. Like Elijah of old, the son that was to be born to this old couple would be filled with the Holy Spirit and he would turn many to the way of the Lord. In time this angelic word was fulfilled as Elizabeth gave birth to a little boy named John.

John would grow into manhood and in time, in God's time, he would appear in the wilderness surrounding the Jordan River preaching and baptizing, calling all Israel to repentance and faith in the Messiah whose coming he announced. John the Baptist was a servant of a Christ, a faithful steward of the mysteries of God. As Paul says of preachers in today's epistle, "Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful." John was faithful in the task that the Lord God had given him. He preached a sermon that was not popular. It can be summed up in a single sentence: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." John did not flinch in this preaching. To preach repentance is to name sin for what it. Without respect to person, John proclaimed the law of God that calls the pious Pharisee, the religious Sadducee, and even the politically potent tetrarch Herod to repentance. It was politically incorrect for John to expose Herod's adultery and ultimately it would cost him his life. Nevertheless, John the Baptist preached that intrusive word to the high and low alike. That was his calling, his office. John was no pampered preacher, no court chaplain who would tell the king whatever his itching ears wanted to hear.

For John, as for all genuine preachers, the law was preached in service of the gospel. The law was preached to lead sinners to repentance, that is, to kill in them any thought that they could right themselves before God. John was a gospel preacher. He proclaimed the Christ, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. John's whole life was spent in the service of this Christ. Of Him, John said, "He was increase and I must decrease." So it was that as the brightness of Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, dawned on this sin-darkened world, John the Baptist faded into the shadows. He was not the light. He came only to bear witness to the light. That was fine for John. He had no need to call attention to himself, to gain any kind of personal prestige or prominence. He was willing to be spent and consumed for the sake of making Christ known.

John's faithfulness landed him in jail. Soon he would be put to death for his faithful service to Christ. Now John begins to look back on his life. The narrow walls of that prison cell close in on him and he has plenty of time to think. Was it worth it? All that time in the wilderness preaching and baptizing, did it make a difference? Is Jesus really the Messiah? John sends this question back to Jesus: "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"

Our Lord sends an answer back to John. He points John to the messianic signs. "Go and tell John the things that you hear and see: The blind receive their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." John's ministry has not been in vain. Jesus is the Messiah. There is no other Coming One. Jesus adds "And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."

Then Jesus goes on to confirm John's identity. John was no religious freak, no spiritual spectacle out in the wilderness. John was no reed blown around by the winds of human opinion. John was no kept preacher whose presence in the palace would make the king look good and respectable. John was a prophet, just like Elijah and Isaiah and Jeremiah of the Old Testament. But he was more than a prophet. He was the messenger sent before Messiah to prepare His way. John was, in a very real way, all of Old Testament prophecy brought together in a single point of light that pointed to Christ alone. John did what prophets and preachers are called to do. He prepared the way of the Lord. He announced His coming.

John did not trim the Word of God to fit his times. He didn't tweak the prophetic words to make them more easily acceptable to his audience. He didn't try to make repentance and faith easy and user-friendly. He simply proclaimed law and gospel, sin and grace. He was determined to know and preaching nothing but Jesus Christ, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. John's goal was not to make the Word of God relevant to his hearers, but to make his hearers capable of hearing God's Word. John was not offended at the Christ whom He was called to proclaim. That was his blessedness.

"Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me." Those words spoken by our Lord to John are also for us. Our blessedness comes not by way of human approval, but through faith in Jesus Christ. He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to Father but by Me." Our world judges that truth claim to be the highest form of intolerance. So Christians are branded as narrow-minded bigots. Those who claim to be so tolerant become very intolerant of the confession of Jesus. Jesus Christ is still the cause of offense. "Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."

God grant us such blessedness through faith in Jesus Christ who comes to us in His words and with His body and blood to comfort and sustain us with the joy of His salvation. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.