More Than Skin Deep

December 12, 2021

Hope Lutheran Church

Rev. Mary Erickson

Luke 3:7-18

More than Skin Deep

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

When composer Leonard Bernstein was the director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, he was asked a question. “What is the hardest instrument to play in an orchestra?” Bernstein replied, “Second fiddle.”

For sure, every instrument is essential to an orchestra. The overall sound would be thin and lacking if the bassoons or the timpani or the violas were removed.

That being said, the first violins get the glory. They play the melody line. But without the second violins adding their essential harmony, the orchestra would lack.

You might say that John the Baptist played second fiddle to Jesus. Jesus is certainly the main thing in Christianity. John plays a peripheral role, but essential nonetheless. John fulfills the very important role of preparing us for receiving the Christ. John opens us to God’s reign transforming our hearts.

John the Baptist is a very unique individual. You get the sense that even in his time, people knew something very unusual was going on. He hangs out in the wilderness area along the Jordan River. That’s the same location where Israel passed into the Promised Land following their 40-year trek through the Sinai Peninsula.

The way John dresses and eats also makes him stand out. He wears clothing made from camel’s hair. He eats wilderness food: locusts and honey.

People take note of this very unusual minister. Crowds travel to see and listen to him. They come to be baptized. Most ministers would be happy that people were attracted to their message. But John is unsettled by it. He seems to think they’re coming for the wrong reasons. John challenges them.

John’s baptism is meant to be something more than skin deep. This cleansing doesn’t just get them wet on the outside. This baptism is meant to transform them inwardly. John wants them to be changed through and through.

He questions their motivations. Why are they coming to see him? He gets the sense that their motivations are superficial. Coming to see John and take a dip in the Jordan River isn’t much more than a religious spectacle for them. They go to the wilderness, they get baptized, then they return home feeling good about themselves for participating in this holiness ritual. It’s back to life as usual. Except now they feel good and righteous about themselves.

It begs us to ask the same thing about ourselves. Why do we come here? Why do we come to worship week after week? Why do we engage in Bible Studies and send our kids to Sunday School and confirmation? Why are we members of this congregation?

John calls you and I to something much deeper that a superficial religious experience. His baptism is about changing the way you live. It’s about bearing fruits of repentance.

That word “repentance” is metanoia in the Greek text. Metanoia has the sense of changing direction. It’s like a U-turn sign for our lives. We were headed in one direction. We were motivated and led by certain earthly goals and aspirations. Wealth, protection, the pursuit of happiness, desires and lusts.

But then we had a holy experience, we had this righteous encounter. What do they call it – a “come to Jesus” moment. And it stopped us in our tracks. What is it we’re about here? What’s the purpose in all of this, in my life? And in that moment, the vision of a still more excellent way emerges.

That’s what John wants. That’s why we hear his story year after year during this Advent season. Because what is coming in Jesus isn’t some superficial phenomenon. It’s meant to reach to the core of our being.

And when we are so touched, we bear the fruits of repentance. In Jesus we encounter the full essence of the divine. The writer of Hebrews put it this way: “He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.” In Jesus’ incarnation, we see that he didn’t consider equality with God to be something to be clung to or exploited. But willingly he poured himself into humanity. He took on our human form, to dwell among us, to identify with us, to wonder and struggle and suffer with us. We see in him the full depth and breadth of divine love.

His incarnation was his baptism into our flesh. He didn’t become just like one of us, just a skin-deep humanity. He was fully one of us, and yet fully divine at the same time. In that way, divine love drew near to dwell with us. In Jesus we see the perfect reflection of divine love.