The evangelist Luke wrote in the book of Christ concerning the birth of
John the Baptist, thus saying, "There was a {353} certain pious servant of
God called Zacharias, his wife was called Elizabeth. They were both
righteous before God, walking forth in his commandments and righteousnesses
without blame. They had no child in common," etc.
"All his garment was woven of camel's hair, his food was coarse; he drank
not drink of wine, nor of any mixed or prepared fluid: fruit fed him and
wood-honey, and other common things.
"In the fifteenth year of the reign of the emperor Tiberius, the word of
God came upon John, in the waste, and he went into the presence of people,
and preached to the Jewish folk baptism for the forgiveness of sins, as it
is written in the prophecy of Isaiah."
The baptism of Christ to come he preached to all believers, in which is
forgiveness of sins through the Holy Ghost. John also, by God's direction,
baptized those who came to him of the Jewish nations, but his baptism
wrought no forgiveness of sin, for he was God's messenger, and not God. He
announced to men the advent of Jesus with words, and His holy baptism with
his own baptism, with which he baptized the sinless Son of God, who needed
no forgiveness of sin.
Rightly does God's church honour this day, the birth-tide of the great
Baptist, for the many wonders which happened at his birth. God's archangel
Gabriel announced his birth to Zacharias his father, and his high honours,
and his illustrious life. The child in his mother's womb knew the voice of
Mary, the parent of God; and in the womb yet closed, betokened with
prophetic joy the salutary advent of our Redeemer. At his birth he removed
from his mother her barrenness, and his name unbound the tongue of his
father, who by his own want of belief had been made dumb.
The holy church celebrates the birth-tide of three persons,--of Jesus, who
is God and man, and of John his messenger, and of the blessed Mary his
mother. Of other chosen {355} persons, who, through martyrdom, or through
other holy merits, have gone to the kingdom of God, we celebrate as their
birth-tide their last day, which, after the fulfilment of all their
labours, brought them forth victorious to eternal life; and the day on
which they were born to this present life we let pass unheeded, because
they came hither to hardships, and temptations, and divers perils. The day
is memorable to the servants of God which sends his saints, after victory
won, to eternal joy from all afflictions, and which is their true birth;
not tearful as the first, but exulting in eternal life. But the birth-tide
of Christ is to be celebrated with great care, through which came our
redemption.
John is the ending of the old law and the beginning of the new, as Jesus
said of him, "The old law and the prophets were till the coming of John."
Afterwards began the gospel-preaching. Now, on account of his great
holiness, his birth is honoured, as the archangel promised his father with
these words, "Many shall rejoice in his birth-tide." Mary, the parent of
God, is like to none other, for she is maiden and mother, and bare him who
created her and all creatures: therefore is she well worthy that her birth
should be honourably celebrated.
The relatives bestowed on the child the name of Zacharias, but the mother
contradicted them by words, and the dumb father by writing; because the
angel who had announced that he was to come, had, by God's direction, given
him the name of JOHN. The dumb father could not have informed his wife how
the angel had bestowed a name on his child, but by revelation of the Spirit
of God the name was known to her. Zacharias is interpreted, 'Mindful of
God;' and John, 'God's grace;' because he preached to men the grace of God,
and that Christ was to come, who directs all the earth with his grace. He
was sent before the Lord, as the day-star goes before the sun, as the
beadle before the judge, as the Old Testament before the New; for the Old
Law was {357} as a shadow, and the New Testament is truth through the grace
of Jesus.
They were children of the same year, Christ and John. On this day the
barren mother brought forth the great prophet John, who is praised in these
words by the mouth of Christ, "Among the children of men there hath not
arisen a greater man than is John the Baptist."
On the mass-day of midwinter the holy maiden Mary brought forth the
Heavenly Prince, who is not numbered with the children of men, because he
is the Son of God in his Godhead, and the Son of God and of a maiden by his
human nature. John fled from the presence of people in his youth, and in
the waste, with austere life-course, avoided sin. Jesus continued among the
sinful pure from every sin. The crier inclined, at that time, a great body
of the people of Israel to their Creator by his announcement. The Lord
daily inclines souls without number of all nations to his faith, through
enlightening of the Holy Ghost.
The holy gospel says of the Baptist, that he preceded Jesus in spirit and
in power of the prophet Elias; because he was his forerunner at his first
advent, as Elias will be at the second against Antichrist. It is not
without signification that the birth of the crier was completed on the day
when the worldly day is waning, and that it is waxing on the birth-tide of
the Lord. This signification the same John revealed in these words, "It is
befitting Christ that he wax, and me that I be waning." John was sooner
known to men, through his illustrious life-course, than Christ was, for He
manifested not his divine power, ere that he had been thirty years in human
nature. Then it seemed to the people that he was a prophet, and that John
was Christ. But Christ manifested himself by many great miracles, and his
fame waxed through all the world, that he was true God, who before that had
seemed a prophet. But John was waning in his fame, for he was {359}
acknowledged a prophet, and the proclaimer of the Heavenly Prince, who a
little before had by uncertain supposition been accounted Christ. The
waning day of his birth-tide betokens this waning, and the increasing day
of the birth of Jesus signifies his increasing power according to his human
nature.
Many prophets by their prophecy announced the Lord to come, some from afar
some near, but John announced his advent by words, and also with his finger
signified it, thus saying, "Look now! Behold here goeth the Lamb of God,
who shall take away the sins of the world." Christ is named by many names.
He is called Wisdom, because the Father wrought all things through him. He
is called Word, because a word is the manifestation of wisdom. The
evangelist John began the evangelical memorial with the Word, thus saying,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God." He is called Lamb, from the innocence of the lamb's nature; and was
guiltless, for our redemption, offered a living sacrifice to his Father in
the manner of a lamb. He is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root
of David, because, through his godly strength he overcame the great devil
by the victory of his passion.
The holy Baptist of whom we are speaking, established a rigid life-course,
both in raiment and in food, as we have mentioned a little before; for the
Mighty Jesus was thus saying of him, "From the days of John the kingdom of
God suffereth compulsion, and the violent seize it." It is known to every
intelligent man, that the old law was easier than the Institute of Christ
is, for in it there was no great continence nor the ghostly courses which
Christ and his apostles afterwards established. One thing is the institute
which the king ordains through his nobles or officials, another is his own
edict in his presence. The holy church is in this place called God's
kingdom, that is, all christian people, who shall with force and violence
earn the heavenly kingdom. {361} How can it be without violence and
compulsion, that any one by chastity overcomes libidinous nature through
God's grace? Or who shall still the frenzy of his mind with patience,
without difficulty? or who shall exchange pride for true humility? or who
drunkenness for soberness? or who covetousness for munificence, without
violence? But he who, through God's support, so changes his ways with
steadfastness, will then be made another man; another he will be in
goodness, and the same in substance, and he will then by violence seize the
heavenly kingdom.
There are two kinds of continence, one bodily, the other ghostly. One is,
that everyone govern himself with moderation in food and in drink, and
manfully remove from himself superfluous aliment. The second kind of
continence is more precious and exalted,--though the other is good,--to
guide the agitation of his mind with constant moderation, and fight daily
against sins, and chastise himself with the sternness of ghostly
correction, so that he restrain the fierce beast of the eight capital sins
as it were with iron bonds. Precious is this continence and glorious
suffering in the sight of God, to govern evil thoughts and sinful pleasures
with our own sceptre, and to abstain from injurious speech and perilous
work, as from death-bearing meats. He who sedulously performs these things,
seizes undoubtedly the promised kingdom with God and all his saints. Great
violence it is through which human beings with humble merits obtain that
heavenly joy, which the heavenly angels lost through pride.
It delights us to speak yet further of the holy man John, for his honour
and our bettering. Of him the prophet Isaiah wrote, that he is "the voice
of one crying in the waste, Prepare the way of God, make right his paths.
Every valley shall be filled, and every hill shall be lowered, and all
crookednesses shall be straightened, and sharpnesses smoothed." The prophet
called himself a voice, because he preceded {363} Christ, who is called the
Word: not such a word as men speak, but he is the Wisdom of the Father, and
a word is the manifestation of wisdom. The Word is Almighty God, the Son
with his Father. In every word the voice is heard before the word is fully
spoken. As the voice precedes the word, so did John precede Jesus on earth;
for God the Father sent him before the sight of his Son, that he might
prepare and make ready his way. But John cried these same words to men,
"Prepare the way of God." The crier who announces right belief and good
works, prepares the way for the coming God to the heart of the hearkeners.
The way of God is prepared in the heart of men, when they humbly hear the
speech of Truth, and are ready to the commandments of Life; of whom Jesus
said, "He who loveth me holdeth my commandment, and my Father loveth him,
and we will come to him, and will dwell with him." His paths shall be
straight, when, through good preaching, pure thoughts spring up in the mind
of the listeners. Valleys betoken the humble, and hills the proud. At the
Lord's advent valleys shall be filled, and hills lowered, as he himself
said, "Everyone of them who exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he who
humbleth himself shall be exalted." As water rushes from the hill and
stands in the valley, so flees the Holy Ghost from the heart of proud men,
and takes his dwelling in the humble, as the prophet said, "In whom resteth
the Spirit of God but in the humble?" Crookednesses shall be straight, when
the hearts of perverse men, which are agitated by the hooks of
unrighteousness, are again made even by the ruling-rods of true
righteousness. Sharpnesses shall be turned to smooth ways, when angry and
ungentle minds turn to gentleness through infusion of the heavenly grace.
Tedious it would be for us to recount and for you to hear all the depths of
the great Baptist's preaching: how with strong reproof and severe
admonition he inclined the {365} hard-hearted of the Jewish people to the
way of life, and after his suffering announced Christ's advent to the
inhabitants of hell, as he in life had with loud voice boldly preached
their own redemption to mankind.
Let us now pray the Powerful Saviour, that he, through the mediation of the
great Forerunner and Baptist, be merciful to us in the present life, and
lead us to the life eternal, to whom be glory and praise with the Father
and the Holy Ghost, ever to eternity. Amen.
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