After me comes he who’s mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I’m not worthy to stoop down and untie. I’ve baptized you with water, however he’ll baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
—John the Baptist, Mark 1:7–8
The place Christmas is anxious, John the Baptist often lies removed from the thoughts. In any case, he’s nowhere to be present in nativity scenes. Creation calendars can hardly sustain with Isaiah’s prophecies, Joseph’s dream, Gabriel’s look, and Mary’s Magnificat to make room for John’s life. Are you able to consider a single carol that mentions him?
However John the Baptist has extra to do with Jesus’s beginning than we notice. Particularly at this time, on Christmas Eve, as we prepared our hearts to have a good time the total drive of Immanuel, now we have a lot to study from the person God despatched to arrange Christ’s means (Matthew 11:7–10; Mark 1:2–3; Luke 3:3–4; John 1:23). “Pleasure to the World” might converse nothing of Jesus’s cousin John, however few males obtained earth’s King as rightly as he. By the Spirit’s energy, he can stir our hearts to arrange the identical form of room that he as soon as made for our Savior.
And the way a lot we’d like the assistance! The God of glory and Lord of affection needs to return to you afresh tomorrow, however as with every festivity, distractions abound. Given how inclined we’re to lose marriage in marriage ceremony muffins, the empty tomb amongst Easter eggs, and Christ himself amid all our Christmas traditions, we may use a information like John — a person so unconcerned with fanfare that he wearing camel’s hair (Matthew 3:4). Who higher to chop a straight path for us by means of bedazzled timber to the manifold excellencies of the Son of God?
So, for a couple of minutes, let’s step away from all of the lights, cameras, and exercise, from the great presents of household, meals, and presents, and surprise with John on the may, salvation, and price of Jesus on show in Mark 1:7–8.
God Almighty Turned a Child
Of all the things John says, Mark chooses to file this phrase first: “After me comes he who’s mightier than I . . .” (Mark 1:7). And of all of the phrases John may have used to precisely describe the person who would observe him — to appropriately establish Jesus — the primary attribute he mentions right here is Jesus’s may.
In drawing consideration to Jesus’s may, John directs hearers to Jesus’s power, and never primarily of thoughts or physique, however of soul. It’s the form of energy that is ready to endure bouts with Devil and show divine glory. John desires us to be struck by each the magnitude and the magnificence of Jesus’s may.
May! The child born to the little city of Bethlehem. May! The kid raised in dusty and despised Nazareth. May! The carpenter’s son who owned no house. May! The person who would die a legal’s demise on a Roman cross. “May,” John? Actually?
For Bible-shaped believers like John, “may” makes excellent sense with regards to this child, this youngster, this son, this man:
To us a youngster is born,
to us a son is given;
and the federal government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his identify shall be referred to as
Great Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
“May” is true with regards to Jesus, our Mighty God within the flesh. Earlier than you have a good time a child’s beginning, keep in mind that an eternity sooner than the primary Christmas, an limitless age earlier than Mary had Jesus, there was the Son — and the Son was God Almighty (John 1:1). Of all of the phrases you utilize to explain the person whose birthday you await, observe John’s lead, and make a lot of Jesus’s may.
From Christmas to Calvary
In relation to making a lot of the God-man’s may, we do effectively not merely to say it however, like John, to know it, to explain it, to proclaim it. Jesus is mighty — however what does he do together with his may? John explains: “I’ve baptized you with water, however he’ll baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).
“Is exalting Christ extra satisfying to us than celebrating Christmas?”
Whereas males like John can preach powerfully of the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4–5), just one man has ever had the ability to really grant the forgiveness of sins (Mark 2:7). Any pastor can administer water-baptism, however by means of his Spirit, Jesus alone produces perception (Ephesians 1:13–14; 4:30). The Son is mighty each as a result of he had the ability to tackle flesh and due to what he deliberate to do as man. Specifically, “He appeared to remove sins” (1 John 3:5) — “to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).
Once you consider Christmas, does your salvation come to thoughts? Oh, the way it ought to! The Son of God didn’t come to earth two thousand years in the past in order that humanity may have two thousand years’ price of wintry merriment. He got here to unseat Devil (1 John 3:8), conquer sin and demise (John 3:16–17), and fulfill God’s wrath on a sinful folks’s behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21). He got here that we’d now not be lifeless rebels however the resurrected, redeemed, righteous youngsters of God.
Christian or not, most individuals love to speak about “the that means of Christmas.” With John’s phrases in thoughts, let’s inform them of its actual glories. Christmas was made for Calvary: Jesus got here to a humble manger to get to a bloody cross — after which from a bloody cross to an empty tomb.
Extra Satisfying Than Celebration
The primary time John encountered Jesus (Luke 1:44), he leaped for pleasure (although nonetheless within the womb!). So, to actually take a look at whether or not John has readied us for Christmas morning, we should always look past whether or not we mentally assent to the divine qualities he ascribes to Jesus. In receiving Christ aright, John does care that our minds grasp fact, however he doesn’t need us to cease there. For he is aware of that true data of God seeps from head to coronary heart.
That’s why, smack in the course of Mark 1:7–8, John makes positive to inform anybody and everybody who will pay attention in regards to the strap of Jesus’s sandals. We’d think about John gesturing towards the bottom. “If it belongs to Jesus — to God Almighty within the flesh, who has come to rescue his folks from Devil, sin, and demise — if that smelly sandal strap belongs to Jesus, then I’m not worthy to stoop down and untie it.”
Will we have a good time the beginning of One so worthy? Does it dumbfound us that the Son not solely permits however truly desires us to sing carols of reward to him and the Father? Can we imagine that we’d please him with our church companies, household gatherings, and even gift-giving? Is exalting Christ extra satisfying to us than celebrating Christmas with out him?
Actually, our expertise of Christmas’s preciousness and energy rises or falls to the diploma that we love Christ and never Christmas. And if John’s phrases have had any impact on us, then the vacation itself has decreased, and Jesus — in his may, in his salvation, in his price — has elevated (John 3:30). On the floor, John might play little half within the Christmas story, however the worth he positioned on the infant born in Bethlehem takes us to the very coronary heart of the vacation.
