The Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, 06/24/2018

Sermon on Luke 1:57-80, by Samuel David Zumwalt

Luke 1:57-80 [Revised Standard Version, New Testament Section, Second Edition © 1971 by Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America]

Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and kinfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they would have named him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said, ‘Not so; he shall be called John.’ And they said to her, ‘None of your kindred is called by this name.’ And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they all marveled. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea; and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, ‘What then will this child be?’ For the hand of the Lord was with him.

And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,

‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets of old, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our father and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’

And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel.

Church, Proclaim: Christ the Promise

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our God is a God who makes great promises and keeps them. And so Luke, having begun this first part of his work (Luke-Acts) with an introduction to most excellent Theophilus (literally, “friend of God”), now launches into the history of God’s promises to His people Israel and how those promises find their fulfillment in “The Promise,” His beloved Son, Christ Jesus. So, the continuity between what Christians call the Old Testament and Luke’s two-part work in what became the New Testament will be emphasized first in the birth of the last of the Old Testament prophets, John, and, then, in the birth of the One, whose very Name means “God saves!”

Today’s celebration of the birth of John the Forerunner, as he is known in the Eastern Church, is one of the oldest Christian festivals. It occurs just after the summer solstice as the days begin to grow shorter, some six months before the celebration of the Messiah’s birth, which occurs just after the winter solstice when the days begin to grow longer. Thus, the timing of this lesser feast and the major Feast of the Nativity of our Lord together literally fulfill John’s words in John 3, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (3:30).

Later, in Luke 7, the Lord Jesus says, “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John, yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (7:28). Professor Arthur Just comments: “John was the last of the OT prophets, but he is the greatest prophet in that he announces the new era of salvation that comes in Christ…but John as a historical figure (born of a woman) is not part of the new era, since ‘even the most insignificant member of the kingdom ranks above the messenger who prepared the way for it. Yet as a believer who, despite his doubts here, most likely died in the faith, he is part of the one holy catholic church comprised of OT and NT believers alike” (Concordia Commentary: Luke 1:1-9:50, 315-316).

As with Sarah and Abraham, Rachel and Jacob, Hannah and Elkanah, the heart-breaking problem of infertility experienced by Elizabeth and Zechariah is the precursor to God’s gift of a child who is integral to the story of salvation. Isaac and Joseph are the bookends of God’s promise to Abram and Sarai in Genesis 12:1-3 in that Isaac is the first born of the new people of God and Joseph is the means of the blessing that God will bestow upon the nations through Joseph’s stewardship of the seven years of bountiful harvests in Egypt. Then, Samuel, the uniquely pivotal figure, simultaneously the last of the OT Judges, a prophet, and priest, anoints David, to whom God promises an everlasting dynasty. So, here John the Baptist prepares the way for the Son of God and Son of Mary, who is indeed the fulfillment of God’s promises both to Abraham and Sarah and to David and (as Matthew reminds us in chapter 1) the wife of Uriah.

Those who have yearned for a child and have been unable to conceive one biologically, or, at least have gone through a heart-breaking series of miscarriages before finally conceiving and carrying a child full term, or who have even waited for a long while to adopt a child, know the doubts that Zechariah gives voice to earlier in Luke 1. Like their predecessors in the faith who struggled with infertility, John’s parents have lived with the heartache of being unable to experience God’s first promise in Genesis 1 to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. As Jews from a long line of priests, Elizabeth and Zechariah particularly feel shame over their infertility. Having reached an age, yes, not as great as that of Abraham and Sarah, they, nevertheless, have reached a kind of resignation that they will never have a child. But, au contraire, they will be the parents of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. Zechariah’s unbelief at Gabriel’s joyous news leads to a period of enforced silence, another time of waiting on the God who promises.

The birth of God’s Son and the Virgin Mary’s, the Savior of the world, is the climax of the story of salvation that began in Genesis. And so, the story of John’s birth in Luke 1 must be interrupted by the Annunciation to Mary, her “let it be,” and her visitation to pregnant Elizabeth whose baby John leaps in Elizabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice. Then, six months before the birth of Jesus the Savior, Son of God and of the Virgin Mary, his cousin John is born. So, these pious Jews have the baby circumcised on the eighth day. The shedding of blood is essential to the covenant between God and His people. And, because Zechariah is still mute, those doing the circumcision assume the baby should be named for his father, whose name means “The LORD remembers,” because God has remembered Elizabeth and Zechariah’s longing for a child in a most wonderful way. But Elizabeth says, “No, his name is John.” They want to argue with her, but, suddenly, God looses Zechariah’s tongue and he affirms: “His name is John” [from the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yehochanan, “The LORD is gracious”]. The neighbors are afraid, very afraid, but it is holy fear. First, God has overcome infertility. Now, God has given Zechariah his voice again. The neighbors wonder, “What then will this child be?”

When Zechariah can speak, he sings the Benedictus, a song of blessing that echoes Mary’s earlier song known as the Magnificat. Those who have waited long for a child know the holy joy that comes at a healthy birth. The mother groans and suffers mightily in natural childbirth. Then, the father weeps with relief and joy when the child has arrived and the mother has safely delivered. Exhausted, she is likewise delighted to see the miraculous gift that God has given. But Zechariah’s joy and Elizabeth’s is much more than the universal joy that accompanies the gift of a child and the continuation of one’s own family tree. This “child will be called the prophet of the Most High who will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins through the tender mercy of our God…” Zechariah’s child and Elizabeth’s will announce the arrival of salvation, the dawn of the new age. This shedding of John’s blood at his circumcision points not only to his entering into the Old Covenant that will give way to the New Covenant that Jeremiah promised. But, John’s blood points to the first shedding of the Lord Jesus’ Blood at His circumcision on the eighth day, which points to His holy cross, where the New Covenant of Blood will be shed to save the world from sin, death, and Satan.

St. Luke’s story of salvation points his readers to the Feast of the Lord’s Resurrection as the eighth day, the beginning of the new creation when God’s Son was raised as Victor over sin, death, and Satan. For centuries, Jews had circumcised their boys on the eighth day pointing to their inclusion by blood in the covenant God made with Abraham, a covenant renewed at Sinai after God had delivered them from bondage in Egypt and from certain death by the blood of the Passover lamb painted on their doorposts. Circumcision, the mark of the covenant first made with Abraham and renewed at Sinai, carried the hope of the messianic age, when the Lord’s Messiah from David’s family would restore the world to live in righteousness with the LORD God. And so, early Jewish Christians began to baptize their babies on the eighth day with Baptism now understood as the mark of the New Covenant, the act through which the Holy Spirit joined the child to the bloody death and glorious resurrection of God’s beloved Son Jesus.

Beloved in the Lord, we bless God today with Zechariah for the gift of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Savior of the world. In John 1:29, John identifies our Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Through the centuries, Christ’s Church has sung John’s words as the baptized prepare our hearts and minds to receive the true Body and most precious Blood of the Lord. Luke the Evangelist could not have imagined a time when the unbaptized would receive the Lord’s Supper. The Gift of God, Christ the Promise, is objectively for all, but Baptism into His death and resurrection, the washing away of sins, is the subjective receiving of God’s Promise and the mark of the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood. For this reason, the Church as the new Israel, often hears these words: “The gifts of God for the People of God” prior to our coming with empty hands and contrite hearts to receive the Lord at His altar.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

STS Samuel David Zumwalt
Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net;www.societyholytrinity.org

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