Sermon: "Jesus and John," Season after Epiphany, February 16, 2025
Luke’s Gospel: Jesus and the Outsiders, Outcasts, and Outlaws
Scripture: Luke 7:18-35
Preacher: Gerry Schoberg
Jesus and John
From an historical perspective, one of the things the early Jesus movement needed to do was to clarify its relationship with the John the Baptist movement. The John movement, if we can call it that, had begun before the Jesus movement, with John’s prophetic call for Israelites to repent, to be baptized, and to leave behind lives characterized by greed and abuse of others—“Bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8) he would say—hopefully, thereby, avoiding God’s impending judgment, because, as he put it, “the ax is [already] lying at the root of the trees” (Luke 3:9) and ready to chop them down. Furthermore, the Jesus movement had its origin with John the Baptist—Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River. Indeed, if we read the Gospels closely, it would appear that, for some time at least, Jesus had worked alongside John, either as a colleague or quite possibly as his apprentice. But at some point Jesus moved to Galilee and distanced himself from John in pursuit of what, Jesus believed, was a more profound understanding of what God was up to. And so the Jesus movement needed to demonstrate both appreciation for John, but also how Jesus had distinguished himself from John and how their movements were different. This morning’s Gospel reading is doing essentially this—giving an explanation of John, vis-à-vis the Jesus movement.
When Jesus moved out on his own, it wasn’t that he rejected what John was doing, but rather that he understood what God was now doing more in terms of grace than in terms of judgment. He would, at times, still speak words of judgment, as Luke recorded in chapter 6—
“Woe to you who are rich…,
woe to you who are full now…,
woe to you who are laughing now…,
woe to you when everyone speaks well of you”
(Luke 6:24–26)
—but his focus was now more on those who were not rich, who were not powerful, who were badly spoken of, and his emphasis was on sharing God’s grace with them. This grace was given tangible expression in Jesus’s ministry by healings, by having meals together, and by preaching a message that welcomed such people into the kingdom that God was establishing, a kingdom that would bring about the restoration not just of Israel but of all creation.
And so we come to today’s reading—a reading that has three parts to it. Part 1: While sitting in prison for his criticism of the local ruler, Herod Antipas, John becomes somewhat confused about the new direction that Jesus’ ministry was taking. He had thought that Jesus might be “the one who is to come,” perhaps referring to the Messiah who would defeat Israel’s enemies— meaning, both Rome and Jews who collaborated with Rome, acting as if they were Romans—a Messiah who would purify Israel and would inaugurate a new age for God’s people; but Jesus didn’t seem to be carrying on what John had started. And so, he sends two of his disciples to ask Jesus to explain. And Jesus replies to them with these words:
Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me. (Luke 7:22–23)
These are the kinds of things that are happening in Jesus’s ministry—more emphasis on these than on proclaiming judgment—not that judgment didn’t have its place, but that grace was more the emphasis. And the list of things that Jesus cites here is interesting, because each healing (except for, some reason, the cleansing of the lepers) is mentioned in the book of Isaiah in a context where the prophet is looking forward to God coming to restore his people using the imagery of new creation. For example, in Isaiah 35 we read:
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom….
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert…. (Isaiah 35:1–2, 5–6)
In other words, Jesus understands the various healings that are going on in his ministry as an expression of the promise of God’s restoration, described most vividly here in terms of water being poured out and bringing life to the desert once more. So far to good.
The second section in today’s reading is a bit trickier to follow, but its basic meaning is this: After John’s disciples leave, Jesus turns to talk to the crowds, and he challenges them about their curiosity with regard to John: “Why did you go out to the desert?” he asks. It wasn’t to see the scenery—the reeds blowing in the wind. It wasn’t to see someone from high society—someone dressed in soft robes. No, you thought you might get a glimpse of a prophet. But prophets are not the kind of people you get a glimpse of simply for the sake of amusement. Prophets aren’t a curiosity; they preach and they demand a response. And Jesus affirms John’s role as a prophet— indeed, he is the messenger that the prophet Malachi had spoken of several hundred years earlier who would prepare folk for God’s return to purify his people:
See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you. (Luke 7:27, citing Malachi 3:1)
And the interesting bit is that where Malachi sees this messenger preparing the way for God,
John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus who in turn announces the coming kingdom of God.
And then Jesus evaluates John: throughout all of history, “no one is greater than John” he says. But then he follows this immediately with, “yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (v. 28). In other words, as important as John was, and indeed he was very important, what is going on now with the inauguration of the kingdom of God is the beginning of a new era, an era where even the least is greater than the greatest of the previous era. The point is not so much to focus on John or on people’s level of greatness, but to appreciate the significance of what was beginning with the ministry of Jesus. In this way, Jesus shows appreciation for John but also he clearly contrasts what is going on now in his own ministry. In other words, Jesus isn’t simply saying, “I’ve got another way of looking at things that might bring a bit more clarity to how you understand life, the universe and everything,” or “Here’s a slightly better way of getting in touch with God, compared to what others have said.” Indeed, he is saying, “Things are fundamentally different now. God has shown up in a profoundly new way.” Its not that John was wrong, it’s that God is now doing something new. In retrospect we could also talk about the fact that both Jesus and John died as martyrs for their respective causes; but only the followers of Jesus saw their leader’s death as a profound way of advancing the movement—inspired, no doubt, by their adamant conviction that he had also been raised from the dead.
In the third part of the reading this morning, verses 31 to 35, Jesus turns his attention to the Pharisees and the lawyers—some of the respected religious leaders of the day. Jesus tells a short but rather enigmatic parable to describe the people of his generation:
They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep.’ (Luke 7:32)
What was he trying to say? While several interpretations have been offered, in light of the verses that follow, I think it best to take it this way: Jesus is likening the religious leaders to children trying to get a newcomer to join in their game. They play the flute, but the newcomer does not dance; they wail, but the newcomer does not weep. In other words, no matter what game is that the children want to play, the newcomer won’t join in. Apparently, the newcomer moves to the beat of a different drum. And so the children are frustrated because the newcomer refuses to be one of them.
That’s the parable. Now follows the actual complaints—somewhat exaggerated—against John and Jesus—the two who would not join the game that others wanted them to play.
For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ (Luke 7:33)
True, John led a very ascetic life-style in the desert region along the Jordan River; but the religious leaders accused him of having a demon because of his critique of Israel. On the other hand,
the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Luke 7:34)
That is, in contrast to John, Jesus took up the practice of eating together with those viewed as disreputable from the perspective of the so-called “spiritual” ones in Israel of that day. Given the great significance—certainly in the culture of that day, and indeed in many cultures around the world—of eating together as a sign of welcome and acceptance, Jesus’s practice of table fellowship led to a sharp critique from those who believed that the conditions of the nation of Israel would improve only when people practiced greater holiness—which, the Pharisees believed, would require drawing clearer distinctions between those you related to and those you didn’t relate to. Jesus, however, seems to have had a different understanding of holiness— namely, that holiness could be contagious, that people could become better not by demanding that they try harder to live up to a standard, but by welcoming and accepting them.
But Jesus’s point in this part of today’s reading is that both he and John, in different ways, failed to dance to the tune of the religious folk of the day. While they may have been different from each other, they were on same page that God was doing something new and was calling people to something new, and in this they both rubbed the religious socialites of their day the wrong way.
Well, there we have it. Certainly, clarifying the relationship between Jesus and John was something the early Jesus movement needed to do, and Luke goes a long way towards reaching that goal in this text. But what can we glean from this text for ourselves today? I can think of a couple of things.
One thing we can glean is a recognition that the Jesus movement is more about grace than it is about judgment. Not that judgment is now passé and done away with—abuse will still be punished and we will still be called to give account one day; but the greater focus now is on God’s grace, on him being proactive in restoring broken people like us and giving us a taste of the world to come—a new creation. And, while not part of this morning’s Gospel reading, that grace will become supremely displayed for us in Jesus’ death and resurrection. I think it would be an interesting conversation if we were to ask, To what extent do you see the Christian faith in terms of rules, and to what extent do you see it as a response to God’s grace? To be sure, there are still rules to live by: there are plenty of places in the New Testament where we are challenged to behave in certain ways, or warned not to behave in other ways. Indeed, we would still affirm the moral teaching of John the Baptist: be generous, be content, be fair. But the issue is, what is foundational? Do you think primarily in terms of rules to obey, standards to uphold, principles to live by, or in terms of God acting in grace to restore you, in your brokenness, to make you whole?
Another interesting take away from this text is to be found in the way Jesus spoke of the movement that he began with but later left behind. We have all kinds of examples today of people who began as partners, but who later went their separate ways, and sometimes they can’t stop speaking of how wrong the other party was; or perhaps we were involved with one kind of church but have now moved on—sometimes amicably, but other times with wounds that need healing. Interestingly, in this case, Jesus doesn’t criticize John, like he criticizes other Jews of his day, even though he clearly believes that God is doing something different now compared to what he was doing with John. According to Jesus, John had his role to play—and indeed it was a very profound role. Yes, Jesus has moved on, but he continues to paint John in a good light. I wonder how we might learn from that and do something similar. For myself, I think of the Christian tradition I was introduced to as a child, which happens to be represented by the church kitty-corner to us on 5th Street—known as the Christian Brethren, or Plymouth Brethren. This was the tradition I was brought up in, and to it I owe much: a love for the Bible, the idea of ministry shared among the members of the church, the profound importance of the Lord’s Supper, among others. But for various reasons, I’m not there anymore: I have some important disagreements with how to interpret and apply Scripture. But that doesn’t mean I need to speak badly of them. Some of you may have had similar experiences. Others have been hurt in other churches, and you are here hoping to find something different. My prayer for you is that here you might connect with the grace of God and find wholeness. But also, perhaps what we learn today is that one of the effects of living in the grace of God is that we might think well of the people—at least some of the people—we now disagree with.