A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus said to the crowds now this is the, you know, the sequel of yesterday's reading and the day before his reading. And this is our lord's where they brought news to our lord that John the Baptist had been taken over by Herod and was a prisoner. And, John had sent messengers to Christ to ask him who he was. And, our Lord gave a reply, look what I'm my works.
And then he turns to the crowd and continues his discourse. This is the beauty, of course, of breaking up a a text into 365 pieces. So our Lord said to the crowds about John, I solemnly assure you, history has not known a man born of woman greater than John the Baptist. Yet the least born into the kingdom of God is greater than he. Remember those words.
From John the Baptist's time until now, the kingdom of God has suffered violence, and the violent take it away. They get a hold of it. All the prophets, as well as the law, spoke prophetically until John, John the Baptist. If you are prepared to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who was certain to come. Heed carefully what he has to say.
This is the gospel, the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. From the very beginning of the annunciation of our lord's conception, John the Baptist is a very important figure and a very mysterious figure. If you would take a few minutes and just read the beginning chapters of either Luke or Matthew, you will see the important place that John had in our Lord's history in this world.
Because at the very moment of annunciation, John comes into the picture with the angel telling Mary, as a motive of credibility, that her relative down into remember Mary's up there in the lake country, all the way up in Nazareth, and that her cousin down near the city of Jerusalem, who is sterile, who is in her who is an old woman, is going to have a baby, and the baby's going to be a boy. So John is right in on the first step of our Lord's incarnation. And then when it comes to the beginning of his public life, John is a big figure. Now I've read a good bit about John the Baptist. All all of us took good.
That'll surprise you. But you know, one of the one of the most touching things I've read is by our late friend Oscar Wilde, of great repute. He calls it Salome. He wrote it first in French, and then when he tried to have it put on the stage in England in the translation, well, they wouldn't let him do it. Because, you know, Salome dances that dance in the seven veils.
Well, there's a lot more to that play, Salome, than a than a girl dancing in veils. Believe me. It's one of the most touching things I've read about because the hero of it is John the Baptist. Oscar has him down in a deep well. John's a powerful figure.
Now our great and good friends, separated brethren of various sorts, have tried to claim him as an s s e n e s. That is one of those monks or whatever you want to call them, down by the Dead Sea where the scrolls have been found. Well, he may have had some contact with them, that's for sure. But the point is he cannot be identified with them, in spite of our separated brethren's efforts to so. He is the precursor of Jesus Christ, the son of God.
That's what he is. You see, everything he draws about this, either this see, there's no question today. Now, Believe me, I know what I there's nobody today, even Wilson in that last biography he wrote called Jesus. No one questions that there was a man born of a Jewish girl who was named Jesus and who lived. There's no argument about that today.
It was when I was studying theology, whatever that was. But not today. Nobody can deny that Jesus Christ is a historical figure. Moreover, in Josephus, in one of his books called The Antiquities, he talks about John the Baptist. So that's completely separate from the New Testament stories.
Now, the whole point of Jesus Christ is not whether he lived, and there's no use of a sensible reasonable person asking or saying that he was just a good man. As CS Lewis pointed out in his inimitable way, that is one thing you cannot say about that he was only a good man. He wasn't. If all Christ was was human, he was not a good human being. He was a mess.
He was no Socrates. Jesus Christ comes down to this. There's no question about his being born. There's no question about his living. There's no question that he was some kind of a preacher over there in Israel or whatever it was called.
No question about that today. The question is, was this son of Mary whose precursor was John the Baptist God? God almighty. The almighty, inexpressible God. Think of we don't see, today the world has lost its concept of God.
Plenty of people go to church and don't think much about God. I'm not against going to church, don't misquote me. I'm all for it. But the thing is, the main thing in life is either God exists or he doesn't. There are contradictory terms.
One of them has to be true. Either he is or he ain't. And if you say that God exists, then you'd say, Did he come into this world as a human being? You've got to answer that yes or no. They're contradictories.
One of them is true and one of them is false. And you say he did come into this world, and he came as a human being born of a virgin. His father was the God himself. Then you've got to say, do we treat him as God or we do or not? They're contradictories.
One has to be true, one has to be false. They talk about the two faces of Christmas. The Washington Post had a beautiful editorial on it. Christmas only has one face. It's Christ.
It's in the word. Christ. Take out Christ and what have you. You have what we have, a commercial holiday. Now a lot about this commercial holiday is good.
I'm not downgrading it. But if that's all it is, then let's say that's all it is. But don't kid yourself. Christ was either God or He was not. And then the fourth step, either He founded a church which exists or He did not.
And if you say He did found a church, then it's your obligation to it. It's your obligation to recognize it and to see in that living church the voice of God. Not the voice of a man, but the because in this son of Mary, there's only one person, and that person is divine. One person. Jesus Christ was not two persons, two natures.
But Luther has some wonderful stuff on this. He was excellent in this of how God nursed at his mother's breast, how God walked down the streets of Nazareth, how God helped his father in making rocking chairs, how God that's absolutely correct. There's only one person with Jesus Christ. And what is missing in the world today I mean with people who think they're religious. And I say that with respect.
Because a lot of what they are today is not their fault at all. It's what's happened in the last thirty years. They have been deprived of the truth. They have been deprived of doctrine. They have been sold of goods, of experience, of emotion.
How do I feel? What do I get out of religion? Is it comfortable? That kind of mismatch. There's a better word for it having to do with the barnyard.
And so to when we talk about John the Baptist as as Oscar Wilde pitched it, a rugged, strong man who had no doubts about who he was and who God was and who Jesus Christ was. None. And he stood up. Today, we bow down to compromise. It's the democratic way of living, as if God was president of a democracy, God Almighty, upon whom we all dangle by a thin thread.
They call that contingency. And so when we talk about John the Baptist, notice they think it's better to call him the baptizer. These things just drive me up the wall, as if that was significant. The point is John the Baptist is a tremendous figure. It really is.
He had a great following, and that following is we have evidence of that in in the in the gospels, in Christ's career. And after all, our Lord began his career by going to John and being baptized by John. And so we today, let us face it. John the Baptist, John the Baptizer, call him what you want, is the precursor of Jesus Christ. His writing on the Ground Floor from the very annunciation is there when our Lord begins his public life, and you find echoes of him in our Lord's history.
We cannot separate the two, and we have no reason to do it. There's no reason at all. As John says, His mighter than I, I am not worthy to unlatch his sandal. And that's where we stand. We see John.
We hail him as a great man. He was a great man. Our Lord said he was the greatest. Christ said that. And yet Christ said someone in the kingdom of God is infinitely more.
That's you. By baptism, raised to the supernatural order. Know who you are. Recognize what you're doing. Is there a God?
Yes. Did God send his son into this world to be our Redeemer? Yes. Did he found a church to speak in his name? Yes.
Is it my obligation to listen to Christ's living voice? A resounding yes that John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of Holy Spirit. Amen.