Today is the feast of St. John the Baptist, and I thought that I should write a small homily for the day, though we are not celebrating a mass in my parishes. I have decided not to follow the readings for the day in the Church of Norway, which may be found here, but to just reflect on the day itself, taking John 3:22-36 as my starting point.1 And today I choose to quote the collect from the Church of England,2 as the collect of my own church does not even name the saint:
Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Saviour by the preaching of repentance: lead us to repent according to his preaching and, after his example, constantly to speak the truth, boldly to rebuke vice, and patiently to suffer for the truth’s sake; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Last night people all over Norway, and probably other places, lit fires in St. John the Baptist’s honour, though I suspect that the Christian element has been forgotten for many people. Yes, many have forgotten St. John. But in a weird and paradoxical way, that is very appropriate.
Reading the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, we see that he is a relative of Christ. We do not know exactly what relation they had, as his mother, Elizabeth, is only described as Mary’s kin or relative. But often he is called his cousin. St. John was born roughly half a year before Christ, and therefore we celebrate him in June. We do not hear much about him but what we hear is important, and it is the opposite of what you would expect of a “celebrity preacher” (which he was, to a certain extent). Take the John 3:22-36. There we read that St. John was baptising people, before he was thrown in prison. It says that his disciples had a discussion with a Jew over the concept of purifying, probably the Jewish concept of baptism, the Mikveh. They came to John and said: “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here he is, baptising, and all are going to him” (John 3:26). The man was Jesus. St. John’s disciples were clearly distressed and upset that Jesus was “stealing” people from John. But the Baptist knew better, and replied (John 3:27-30):
No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.
St. John points away from himself to Christ. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” So yes, it is weirdly and paradoxically appropriate that many have forgotten St. John. Unfortunately, many have forgotten Christ as well. But let us dwell with those words, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is something we can see in St. John’s very life and work. He criticised the authorities, especially King Herod, and was taken prisoner. And there in prison, he lost his life. He became a martyr. The martyrs, of which there have been many throughout history, and to whose ranks many more will be added, show us precisely this, that Christ will increase, while we must decrease. They sacrifice everything, but in that sacrifice they also gain everything, for they gain unity with God, who is the ultimate end of all things. But we also see this in the fact that we celebrate St. John on his birthday, not his martyrdom day, which is the usual practice. Because there is a special relationship between St. John’s feast and Christmas. It is not important whether or not John was born in June, but it is not improbable either. We do not know exactly when Christ was born, but I have read enough to conclude that it was actually not improbable that he was born in December. But that is not so important here. What is important is what these two times of the year tell us.
Where I live, tonight the sun will set at 11:03 PM, while it will rise again at 04:13 AM tomorrow. The light and the sun are usually images of Christ, but they can also be image of us, and St. John, when we share in Christ.
As Christ says, we are also the light of the world, because He shines through us. But the point is not that we should point to ourselves, but to Christ. But if the sun is an image of St. John, then we see something interesting. Because now the sun is at its strongest. We celebrate St. John and we look to him. He shows us the way, he is a witness, he reveals Christ to us. But he also reveals that we, and he, must make room for Christ. The closer we get to Christmas, the weaker the sun becomes. And then, around Christmas, it is at its darkest. Then Christ is born. For Christ must increase, we must decrease. In this way, creation can tell us something about Christ as the centre. We must become more and more like him. We can call this sanctification, deification, or theosis. This is an important theme in the Bible. Here is a small excerpt of passages:
1 Corinthians 1:30: “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.”
Ephesians 4:22-24: “Put off the old man that belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
2 Peter 1:3-4: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.”
Yes, we are to become partakers of the divine nature. The forgiveness of sins is important. But that is not all. God also wants to work on and transform our lives. Salvation is not just having sins forgiven, but God restoring His image in us. As I read from Ephesians 4, we must “put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” This new man is, essentially, Christ. Christ is the new man. He is the perfect man and salvation is to become like Him. We put on Him and we become more and more like Him. In Romans 8:28-29 it says: “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.”
We are meant to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, to become like Him, and that is precisely what St. John reminds us of. Christ is to increase, we are to decrease. But that does not equate to having a bad self-image. As Peter Kreeft notes, echoing C. S. Lewis, to be humble is not about having a low view of yourself but no view. We are created in the image of God. That fact alone shows that we should have a high view. But we should nit focus on ourselves. As Kreeft says:
Having a low view of yourself is miserable; psychologists know that. And that’s also the solution to the problem of introspection. If I ask myself “How am I doing?” I come out with one of three answers: “well”, “terribly” or “so-so”. If I say I’m doing well, I’m a proud, self-righteous, arrogant, self-satisfied priggish Pharisee; if I say I’m doing lousy, I’m a miserable worm with a guilt complex and I need some psychiatry; and if I say I’m sort of fair to middling, then I’m dull, wishy-washy Charlie Brown. So what’s the solution? Don’t look at yourself. Take your temperature when you’re sick; otherwise, look at other people and God. They’re much more interesting.
The first step is to try to forget about yourself altogether. Your real self, your new self, will not come as long as you’re looking for it. It will come only when you’re looking for Him. Does that sound strange? It shouldn’t be. The same principle holds for more everyday matters. Even in social life: you can never make a good impression on other people, until you stop thinking about what sort of an impression you’re making. Even in literature and art: no one who bothers about originality can ever be original. Whereas if you simply try to tell the truth, without caring two pence how often it’s been told before, you will nine times out of ten become original, without ever having noticed it. This principle runs through all of life from top to bottom: give up yourself and you’ll find your real self. Lose your self and you’ll save it.
That is the logic of St. John, the logic of deification. Instead of being curved inward on yourself, which is the definition of sin, you should focus outwards, fist to the One, to God, then to the Other, to creation and other people. And in humility, which we must learn every day, as we struggle with sin, we see what we are made for, that we are made to become one with Christ, who sacrificed Himself for us, who is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” to quote St. John (John 1:29).
By being baptised for us by St. John the Baptist, Christ took upon himself our sins so that, by being baptised into Him, we would receive all that is divine as a gift. And then we see, paradoxically, that we should not only decrease, but also increase. For as we decrease, we grow. We do not become less ourselves, but we come closer and closer to what we were created to be, to be one with God. For the more we become like Christ, the closer we come to what we were created for. And then we grow, but we grow outward, toward others, toward God, not inward into our own self-righteousness. We grow in likeness to Christ and we become more ourselves, more what we were created for, and more concerned with others. And we receive all this because Christ came as one of us and gave us a share in His, and was baptised into our death. We are saved because Christ took on our sin and judgment, because He died for us, and because He was raised again to new life, as we also receive in baptism. The wealth we become partakers of through baptism is precisely Christ Himself. In Him all things are transformed. For He shall increase, we shall decrease – and then, paradoxically, increase.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, who was, is, and will remain, one true God, world without end. Amen.
As usual, unless otherwise noted, when quoting Scripture, I will use the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition (RSV-2CE), corrected to British spelling.
Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England (London: Church House, 2000), 434.
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