“Come and See…”

It must have been rough, being John the Baptist. I think all of us would like to be good at our jobs, and it is only human nature to measure “goodness” by tangible, numerical success. If we sell widgets, we want to sell more than the other workers in the office. If we do brain surgery, we’d like have more of our patient survive and thrive than the other surgeons. If we are students, we’d like to make better grades than others. It gives you a sense that you are not wasting your time.

Which is why I say it must have been rough being John the Baptist. He had a very important job: prepare the way for Christ, make a straight path to Him for all Israel.

And it started off very well. All Israel was coming out to the Jordan, in the wilderness, where John was baptizing. He drew record crowds and had to feel like things were going extremely well, much better than he could have hoped. After all, if your job is rebuking people as sinners and directing them to a baptism that identifies them even more deeply as sinful and in need of redemption, you would have to think this is going to be a tough ask, that there will not be lots and lots of people who go: “Yes! I’m a sinner! You are so right, John! I never really thought about it in those terms, but you hit the nail on the head, man. My greed, selfishness, lusts, slothfulness, idolatry—what is it but sin? And for sure, God should wack me eternally for that. So repentance, a baptism of repentance producing a new posture towards God, oh, my Yes! This is just what I need!”

No. You would bet against that kind of result. I would have. At least, I would not have wagered that he’d draw any but the most paltry crowds. Yet, against all sense and rational expectation, John’s fairly gloomy message was a huge hit. It started as a trickle, but pretty soon all Israel was flocking to the Jordan for the sinner’s baptism. It became all the rage. Even the Pharisees and Sadducees, who set themselves up as moral exemplars and real holy rollers came out for the sinner’s baptism too. Astonishing. Yes, sir, things were going great for John. He had to feel good about such a great start to his work.

So why do I say it must have been terrible being John? Isn’t he a great success? Well… um, no. Actually, no. He got off to a great start for the first phase of the project. He got people confessing their sin and being baptized for repentance. But you know, when you read the bible, you realize this was just stage one of a two stage job. It was phase two that was the crucial part of the whole thing—directing people to the Christ. Making a way that led the sinners to the Savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That was the thing and John didn’t do so well at all at that. Numerically at least.

After His Baptism by John, Jesus goes walking among the crowds who are still thronging after John, and John goes: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is the One!” And how many takers were there who thronged after Jesus that day? Uh, apparently… none. Right here, where you would expect all the crowd to mob Jesus and throng around Him, and John and his disciples to take important places in the Kingdom of Christ as His right hand men, promotions, see, for a job well done, there is, well, nothing going. Apparently, the first day, after John’s dramatic declaration “There is the Lamb of God, the Savior!” Everyone went, “Okay. Great. What time is the next round of baptizing? We came a long way to see you John…” And well, phase two just kind of… flops.

The next day, surely a bit deflated, John grabs two of his more promising disciples, Andrew and John (the future apostle John) and tells them “Behold the Lamb of God!” And as they are about to ask John to explain “In what sense exactly is He a Lamb of God and why should that be interesting to us?” John just kind of shoves them on down the road after Jesus without further discussion or commentary.

Andrew and his chum aren’t sure what to do. It’s a pretty awkward scene. Why are they following this Lamb of God guy? What will He do for them? What should they say to Him? Suddenly Jesus turns around and sees two—not a throng, you notice, but just two—perplexed and confused guys following Him at a distance. He goes: “What do you seek?” They don’t know what they seek, honestly. They were just hanging with John, helping him out with his big baptism project, and John said this Guy was some Big Deal—they don’t really know why. But that sounds bad, so they hem and haw, and go: “Uh, well, um Rabbi, Teacher, uh… where are You staying?”

It’s a really stupid line, but Jesus smiles and says: “Come and see.” One of my favorite verses in all the Gospels and so telling, really.

What it tells me is this is the only way you get attached to Jesus. You have to come and see for yourself. Second hand information, the testimony and urging of other people, no matter how well meaning, will not make you a disciple. It will not help you “get Him”. Nope. Everyone must finally take a page out of Andrew and John the Apostle’s playbook: you must come and see for yourself what this Jesus, this Lamb of God Person is all about. Otherwise you’ll just hang out by the Jordan all day mulling over sin and big questions and you’ll never find the talk about Jesus terribly compelling. You must come and see. For yourself.

Which is why John should not have been disappointed, though I suspect he was. You can prepare a wonderful way for Christ, set the stage, convince, rebuke, and exhort people concerning sin and repentance and you can draw a lovely crowd. But you can’t finally get people to believe in Jesus. You can’t make them disciples by anything you do. Only Jesus can do that. And only by inviting us one or two at a time to come and see where He is staying and what He is all about. Only this gets you in with Jesus. Only this makes you a Christian.

Later, we read that it was not John, but Jesus baptizing that drew people to Him and away from John. John the Baptist never got an apostle spot with Jesus. By human standards he ended a failure. But it didn’t bother him in the end. Success, he came to realize was not the thing with this gig. Jesus must increase. We must decrease. John saw the Christ and believed. He found his place with Jesus. Any seat in that house is just fine.

It’s fine for you and me too. We can hear what others think about Jesus. They can be very eloquent. But finally, each must “come and see” for him or herself. Which is why Jesus comes to you this morning, Personally, in His Gospel Word and Sacrament. This is not second hand stuff. This is Jesus Himself, in Person. What He said to the first two disciples’ question, He says to you for all of yours: “Come and see”.

And when you follow Him, by faith, you’ll see where He’s staying: He’s come to stay with you, to live in you, to forgive all your sin, to share with you all His life and Kingdom. Come and see. See for yourself, and the Peace that passes all understanding, which the Lamb alone can give, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Kevin Martin