December 1998 Issue

Perhaps, the earliest sermon in print on this text is by St. Augustine (A.D. 354-430). The striking feature of this sermon, which attempts to harmonize the relationship of John the Baptist to Jesus, is that Augustine writes as if he were there! One is reminded of the historical closeness of Augustine and Jesus.¹

Martin Luther, predictably in his polemic style against church abuses, uses a sermon on this text to bash those in the church who failed to "embrace Christ" but follow their own rules. Luther argues that those in the church should be like John the Baptist and point beyond themselves to the Christ. For Luther, the sermon is also another opportunity for a Law and Gospel debate.²

In a sermon titled, Nature and Circumstances, Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) elaborates on the theme of greatness. None "born of women" were greater than John the Baptist but still John had to defer to Jesus. Brooks developed his sermon by stating that a person feeling great personal power in a "lower region of life" might feel less powerful at the next stage of life. (I suppose like the high school senior who is often on top of the world in that setting but then becomes just another first year college student.) In a similar way, Brooks argues that some women and men choose to limit themselves to one sphere of life rather than risking a higher kind of existence. People thus become resistant to change, and this according to Brooks is what keeps many from becoming Christian. Individuals had rather succeed at mediocrity than fail at piety. As people of faith, we are often reluctant to respond to the summons to a more mature Christian life because of our fear and resistance to change.³

The Harm Jesus Risked Doing, a sermon by Paul Scherer based on verse six ("blessed is he who takes no offense at me"), gives us a glimpse into the tension that Jesus lived with. Jesus took risks in being the kind of Messiah he was: his tenderness could have been mistaken for impotence, his humility for poverty of spirit. When one considers how Jesus went against so many of the views of God of that day, it is easy to see how he risked creating a scandal! His words, "blessed is he who takes no offense at me," sound all the more profound.⁴

In 1958, Edmund Steimle on the Protestant Hour preached a sermon, How to Handle Your Doubts, based on this passage. Steimle takes issue with the notion that it is sinful to doubt as he notes John's doubt - "are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" Developing the theme of doubt and faith, Steimle humorously remembers the character in Alice in Wonderland who professed to doubting six times before breakfast each day! Jesus, Steimle points out, dealt tenderly with sincere doubters (searchers) like John and Thomas but not so with Pharisees who did not ask sincere questions. Steimle quotes an English writer who wrote that faith is like reading a book written in a foreign language. One will not understand every word, but one can trust it will make sense as one understands more. The modern problem is in not understanding what faith is: a growing faith has sincere questions and one does not have to divorce oneself from one's brain to be a Christian.

In another Protestant Hour sermon, A Divine Directive, Raymond Wood of Ascension Lutheran Church, Savannah, Georgia, hears Jesus' words "go and tell John" as a kind of mini-great commission. Wood exhorts his hearers also to go and tell what they were hearing and seeing in and through the church.

Helmut Thielicke in 1961 preached a sermon on this text paralleling our experience with John's experience as we both ask the question -"are you the one?" Thielicke compares John's question (and our questions, too) to Jesus' temptation in the desert where Jesus was dared to prove himself. As in the desert, Jesus in response to John side-steps demands for proof. Jesus does not give John the answer. (Jesus instructs John's disciples to go and tell John what they hear and see.) The answer must come from John, with a little help from his friends. The answer must always be our own to the question - "are you the one?" Thielicke suggests that our answer is like the response of the child to the mother when the child says "you are the best mother in the whole, wide world" but hardly has the child compared his or her mother to every mother in the world! Ultimately, we come to Jesus in the same way. Not documented by proof but in our heart of hearts, we know He is the One.

In a published sermon, Is God as Good as Jesus? in 1967, Edmund Steimle lays this text alongside John 14:8-11. (Philip's question to Jesus- "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.") Steimle develops his sermon along the lines of the problem of evil - "how is it possible to believe in a good God in a world like this?" It is not a new or exclusively modern question. John the Baptist raised the question as well - "Does God actually act like this Jesus of Nazareth?" (Are you the one?) Philip too wondered if Jesus was the real One. The problem for John was that he expected Jesus (God) to stamp out all evil (Mt. 3:10). Steimle believed that a lot of his listeners would share John's feelings. Philip was looking for a God who would give visible and concrete proof of God's presence (and wouldn't we all like that!). Steimle contended that this demanding proof is a kind of blasphemy, like a spouse demanding proof of love from the other spouse. Jesus' response to both John and Philip was the same: "There will be no proof but look at who I am and decide for yourself." Steimle suggests that we too can either look at this universe and conclude that "there is no God at all, and if there is, he is a monster" or we can look to Jesus, his life, and compassion and come up with a faith answer.⁵

In another sixties sermon, Shopping Around For Answers, Sherman Skinner on the National Radio Pulpit (1969) suggests that we once believed, perhaps simplistically, that the Christian faith had all the answers to all the questions. In a reflection of the unrest and skepticism of his day, Skinner acknowledges that the church was staggered by criticism. Like John the Baptist, many once thought the church was "the one" (had the answers). In 1969, Skinner sensed the same question of the church as John had for Jesus - "are you the one?" (Do you have answers for today's problems?) Skinner then points his listeners to the church "sloshing with soldiers through the jungles of Vietnam" and suffering with the continuing struggle of the Civil Rights movement (just as Jesus pointed John's disciples to the blind receiving sight, etc.).

Helmut Thielicke, When Nothing Makes Sense, begins another sermon on this text by comparing a modern day group of people sitting around a table complaining about injustice in the world (the rich getting richer, etc.) to John's disappointment when Jesus did not "put the axe to the tree" and wipe out injustice and evil in the world (as John apparently expected). In a similar way, we envision, Thielicke suggests, how our lives should really be and how God should make our lives turn out, but then we are disappointed when things do not work out that way. There is a John who lives in all of us: we are disappointed in God. Interestingly, Thielicke points out, John ultimately trusted Jesus to answer the question (he sent his disciples to Jesus) and that's what we can only do (trust that God knows best). Thielicke makes a striking comparison of this text to Jesus' question on the cross - "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He suggests that Jesus was asking the question: "Am I the One?"⁶

In keeping with the Advent theme of expectation, Catherine Gonzalez and Don Wardlaw (Protestant Hour, 1974) make clear that what we expect can control our lives. The sermon, A Time of Expectation, points out the two sets of faulty expectations in the text. First, John expected Jesus to be something he was not, and there was the disappointment of no reward. (John was even imprisoned!) The preachers compared this to Peggy Lee's song, Is that all there is? Second, there were the faulty expectations of the people. They were cynical. No one could satisfy them in the end. The preachers then drew parallels for their listeners: we are like the people; we are cynical in the church; no preaching is good enough; nothing satisfies us. What we get out of this is that we do not have to commit to anything (if it is not good enough). Like John we too are disappointed when our faith does not reward us and save us from suffering. The preachers then pointed out the mature expectations of Jesus and how he affirmed John in spite of John's faulty expectations. The preachers also clarified how Jesus sent his questioners back to the Scriptures to check the promises and thus bring the expectations in line with the promises.

William Sloane Coffin in a published sermon, Christ's Plan, developed the theme of seeking a new Messiah. John was sorely tempted to do so when Jesus turned out differently from what he expected. We too are tempted to seek a new Messiah when we encounter modern day frustrations.⁷

In a marvelous sermon, Are You The One?, Barbara Brown Taylor illuminates the anger and the disappointment in John which fueled the question - "are you really the one?" Taylor points out how life was not going well for John and points out the differences between John and Jesus. Jesus dined with the very sinners that John vigorously demanded repentance from. This must have been confusing for John. Taylor then uses several vignettes of disappointment from contemporary life to draw parallels between John's experience and ours. The preacher points out many instances of suffering in the world today and then asks the question, "Jesus, are you the one, or shall we look for another?"

Taylor then rewords Jesus' response for modern ears: "Go tell John ... People who were blind to the love loose in the world have received sight; people who were paralyzed with fear are limber with hope; people who were deaf from want of good news are singing hymns. And best of all, tell John that this is not the work of one lonely Messiah but the work of God, carried out by all who believe, and that there is no end in sight!" In the eyes of this writer, here is outstanding preaching.⁸

The above sermons seem generally to fall into two categories. Several writers deal with the emotional state of John and his faith struggle. Others (Luther, Wood, Gonzalez) seem to be seeing doctrinal content in the text. Skinner even stretches the text to develop an ecclesiological sermon. Nevertheless, each sermon to some degree wrestles with the basic christological question - "are you the one?"

David B. Howell