One Comes After

Luke 3:15-20
15 -And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not;

Having engaged in a fair amount of heart musing myself, I am not surprised at this response from the people that have been listening to John's preaching. Somewhat overwhelmed with his physical appearance, coming to terms with his mannerisms, and hearing his hard-hitting, yet simple and hopeful message that life change is possible as well as mandated, they must have wondered who and what this fellow might be. He could not be an ordinary man.

In fact he was an ordinary man, a man under the authority of God and moved by the power of God. He was not the Christ, but he was the closest anyone had ever seen to him.

16 - John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

John did not let their wonderings go unanswered. He could tell what they were thinking. In fact, they likely had verbalized their thoughts.

"I'm a water baptizer," he said. I'm the guy that gets you wet. In fact, he had done a bit more than that; he had held them accountable for meaning business by their baptism. He had challenged them that what they were doing was significant and life changing.

"I am not worthy to untie the Messiah's shoes," he said. "He is mightier than I. He is coming after me. He will get you so wet with the Spirit and so hot with fire that you will boil over with the Holy Spirit."

The symbolic actions John was officiating for pointed to something real, something genuinely heart changing and life affirming. Reality is spiritual. Water is nothing more than a reminder of what is real. Ritual points the way to what is validated by the One to come after.

17 - Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

John's message that the people needed to mean business with their repentance/baptism was based upon his knowledge that the Christ would mean business. He was not coming to play games with people. He would not be all talk. He would sort things out decisively. What was rubbish would be identified as such and dealt with appropriately. No idle words would remain. No chaff would endure the heat of His holy fire.

John is not talking about final judgment here. He is talking about immediate judgment, the kind that gets to the heart of things right away. He is talking about a Messiah who has the authority and the will assert Himself in the world.

18 - And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.

One can only imagine what those many other things might have been that John preached - but he never seemed to want for an audience. It is interesting that when Jesus did come, He did not look as much like John's picture of Him as John described. Nor did He look and sound much like John. But don't be fooled by that. With His gentle touch, compassionate deeds, and humorous stories, He was piercing the hearts of men and women with truth and sorting out the wheat and chaff. he still is.

The Word of God, incarnate and spoken in Jesus Christ is harsh to the harsh and brittle of spirit and gentle to the tender hearted. Once delivered, it baptizes thoroughly. The water of the Spirit permeates every pore of our existence and saturates us with the very presence of God. The fire that He brings energizes and consumes.

John was absolutely accurate in his description of the Christ even beyond his ability to understand how.

19 -But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, 20 - Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison.

Truth does not sit well with everyone and certainly not with reproved kings. People in power do not like to be questioned. Prophets cannot help but reprove them. There are consequences and John would pay dearly.

What John brought to the table of our experience of the Messiah was integrity, humility, and courage. He had the integrity to tell the truth, the humility not to take too much credit, and the courage not to modify his message in spite of the dangers to himself.

We need a little of his gumption today.