Point to Christ - Redeemer Episcopal Church

John 1:29-42 

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, "After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." 32 And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God." 35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

___________

This sermon was originally preached by me, Rev. Sarah Locke, at Redeemer Episcopal Church on January 19, 2020. You can read the sermon below, or listen to it at the link here. 

God of grace, give us the courage and strength to point to you in everything that we do and how we live our lives, so that others might come and see that Christ Jesus is the messiah, meant for the whole world. Amen.

I have always been a very visual person. I have a hard time remembering anything unless it is written down or put into a picture. Perhaps that is why, of all of the things we studied when I was in seminary, what I remember most are the pieces of religious artwork. 

One painting in particular comes to mind whenever we talk about John the Baptist, not only because it is one of the most famous, but because it says the most in its detail. 

Fifteenth century artist Matthias Grunewald painted a particularly graphic depiction of the Crucifixion of Jesus called the Isenheim Altarpiece. On Jesus’ right is his mother Mary, being held as she faints, by the beloved disciple. To the left of the cross is John the Baptist, which is a little weird since John was dead for several months or even years before Jesus’ crucifixion, but apparently he was taking some artistic liberties. 

Anyway, John the Baptist is standing there with the Hebrew Scriptures in his left hand and with his right, he is pointing with this long bony, unnatural looking finger to the cross where Jesus hangs. At John’s feet is a snow-white lamb, and out of his mouth comes the Latin script, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” 

This painting of John the baptist pointing to Christ is what the Gospel narrative is all about. 

All of John the Baptist’s ministry is about pointing to Christ, taking the attention away from himself, and putting Jesus first. 

Imagine this scene: John the baptist is a fairly popular preacher and prophet at this point, baptizing people in the Jordan River day after day and preaching about the coming of the son of man. He has crowds surrounding him and people following his every word. But as soon as Jesus shows up, he continues this preaching while pointing directly at Jesus. “This is him! This is the one I’ve been talking about!” I can almost imagine him jumping up and down and waving his arm frantically to get everyone’s attention: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” And immediately, some of John’s disciples leave to follow Jesus. I imagine it take a lot of humility to watch that happen— to watch the people who have been following you for years leave to follow someone else. But then again, everything that John is, is caught up in who Jesus is. John is because Jesus is. There is no separation from that. 

The season that we are in, the season of Epiphany, is about the manifestation of Christ to the entire world, it’s about pointing to the light of Christ and saying, “it’s him: he is the light of the world, he is the messiah.” Or as John the Baptist proclaimed, “"Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” 

This painting of John the baptist pointing to Christ is what a life of discipleship is all about. This is what is means to be a disciple of Christ, this is at the heart of what it means to be Christian. We are called to point to Christ in all aspects of our lives. 

Increasing our proclamation of Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection to the point that people can’t separate our identity from Christ’s identity. 

This is not an easy call. It is a call that put the disciples into hiding and ended up making many Christian martyrs. It is something that must be practiced and disciplined constantly. And the only way we can orient our lives toward Christ is if we know Christ. And to know Christ, we must know this story: the story, that from the beginning, points toward the incredible life-giving grace of God. It requires study, and prayer, and relationship. It is, quite literally my job to point to Christ in how I live my life, and even I’m not that good at it!

But friends, the good news is that no matter whether we are always pointing vehemently to Christ, whether we are led astray by the temptations of the world, or whether we are just too darn defeated to point or be pointed toward our God, the Messiah still comes.  The lamb of God still enters the world to take away the sin of the world.  The light still shines in the darkness… and the darkness will not, can not overcome it.  God promised a Messiah, and regardless of ourselves, God keeps God’s promise. 

  

Karl Bart wrote, “all of theology is in that single, bony, finger.”

Our call every day is to take every opportunity as an opportunity to point the bony finger.  Point to Christ.  

Baptized in the waters we cannot help but raise a bony finger pointing to Christ.  Pointing to the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Baptized in these waters, we can’t help but invite people into this community and into this new way of life. And all we have to do is follow Christ’s example and say, “come and see.” Amen.