Toward the New Horizon

Hebrews 2:8b-11                 1 Corinthians 15:20-28                       John 3:22-36

Toward the New Horizon

Life is full of transitions. From conception to resurrection, every human being goes through changing phases. When at first the male seed fertilises the female egg, the multiplying cells look very little like the baby that will be born after nine months of multiple transitions in the womb. The baby, in turn, despite what doting grandparents might claim, looks very little like its adult parents. But there will be modifications and transformations taking place inside the developing child that will eventually produce something that looks very different from those first two cells. 

The life of a frog is another wonderful example. From an egg, something emerges that looks more like a fish than an amphibian. And yet, as time passes, the tadpole that at first appears to be nothing more than a little blob with eyes and a wiggly tail, grows legs, first at the back and then in the front and then it loses its tail and begins to look more like a frog.

Or think about a butterfly. This transition is perhaps even more dramatic than the frog as it is the crawling caterpillar that becomes a flying work of art. 

We tend to take all these sorts of transitions for granted, but when you stop to think about it for a moment, it really does blow your mind. As different as the forms may appear, they will always be the same organism…transitions are just different stages of the same life. A baby human is always a human being even when it is a fertilized egg or an embryo or a foetus. A frog is always a frog even when it is a tadpole. A caterpillar is simply a butterfly in the making. 

As with life itself, there is a movement in the Scriptures that sweeps us onwards towards something that at surface level appears to be different. From the dividing cells in the opening pages of Genesis, we go through different stages as history travels forward towards fulfilment. The Scriptures speak of a great transition – from an individual to a collective body…from symbol to reality…from national to international…from localized to globalized…from old to new…from broken to restored…from estranged to reconciled. 

Just as the developing embryo presents us with glimpses along the way of what is to come, so the Old Testament grants us images, verbal and material, of a glory yet to be revealed. 

In many ways the Old Testament can only be fully understood when seen through the lens of the New Testament…and, if truth be told, the opposite is just as true. The New Testament can only be fully comprehended once we fathom the depths of the firm foundation upon which it is built. They are inseparably linked even though they seem to be so different. Just like the foetus and the mature person they will become…the caterpillar and the butterfly…the tadpole and the frog. They may seem to be dissimilar and yet, in essence, they are the same.

Many folks still struggle with this. To them the Old and the New Testaments are mutually exclusive and, perhaps, John the Baptist’s disciples were struggling with something similar in our Gospel passage for today. We are told that Jesus and his disciples were somewhere in Judea, spending time together and baptising people. Now while it is true, as John tells us in the very next chapter, that it was the disciples who were baptising, not Jesus…he clearly did not object to the practice. It is only later that we learn that this preparatory baptism is no longer sufficient, and that believers need to be baptised into Jesus, in the Name of the Triune God. Remember, John the Baptist’s baptism pointed people forward to the kingdom while Jesus’ baptism points people back to the fact that the kingdom has come. Here is yet another transition from preparatory to fulfilment.

But John’s baptism itself marked another moment of transition. Remember, John was a priest and as a priest he would have done the tasks priests were meant to do…and one such task was baptism. We think of baptism as an exclusively New Testament rite, but it has its roots in the Old Testament. Baptism in the Old Testament had to do with ritual cleansing before a believer could come into the presence of the Holy God…and that’s exactly what John was doing. Calling people to repentance and applying the ritual signs of cleansing as he prepared the way for them to meet their Messiah. 

As I said earlier, John’s baptism transitioned into Jesus’ baptism, but all preparatory things must continue until the time is right. If the butterfly is released from the cocoon too early, it will die. If a human baby is untimely removed from its mother’s womb, it will die. All through his earthly ministry, Jesus was very conscious of time…he moved according to God’s timeline, not his own. Throughout the Gospels he repeated over and over again that his time had not yet come, right up until just before Holy Week.

All things must end at some point, but there is such a thing as a transitional period. The caterpillar spins the cocoon for the butterfly to emerge. The movement from John’s preparatory ministry to Jesus’ fulfilment ministry is gradual. But change always seems to be difficult for humans, and John’s disciples were no different.

What is interesting to note here is the identity of the instigators of this dispute. John simply called them Jews, which usually indicates Jews who did not believe in Jesus and who were often in opposition to his ministry. This seems to be a tactic the evil one uses to this day. The world comes and plays off one church against another or one believer against another believer…and the saddest part about this is that we all too often fall for it. 

Listen to this: “Rabbi,” John’s disciples complained, “that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan – the one you testified about – well, he is baptising, and (here it comes) everyone is going to him!” I think this statement carries the full weight of a satanic attack. John the Baptist was just a man…a remarkable man…but just a man nonetheless with doubts and fears and feelings like all of us. In this particular passage, he sounds so sure of himself, but later, remember, when he was languishing in Herod’s prison, he began to wonder if he had been right after all. If Jesus was the Messiah, why wasn’t he doing what was expected of him? No one was expecting a suffering servant type Messiah…everyone was expecting a warrior king like David. 

Now, I’m sure everyone of you have faced doubts like this. When God didn’t do what you expected him to do, didn’t your faith waver, even just a little bit? Many have faced spiritual earthquakes that have shaken the foundation of their belief. 

But this is what I love about the Bible…it doesn’t present us with a gallery of superheroes. No, it clearly shows us that there is only one who is without sin and that is Jesus…the rest of the characters are people just like us. Failures, stumblers, sinners saved by the amazing grace of God. We all make mistakes…we all give in to temptation from time to time…

And here, for John, the temptation was to be jealous…just a little bit envious. “I had a great ministry growing until he came along. Now my popularity is dwindling.” You know, I think older folks often feel that way when the younger generation begin to climb the ladder so to speak. They feel they are no longer necessary…that they are superfluous…unneeded…unwanted. Remember, all humans want to be wanted…the need to be needed…they love to be loved. How often haven’t we asked the all-time favourite question “why”? Why are they advancing while I am not? John could have taken that approach, but he didn’t and there’s a lesson to be learned from his response.

First, he acknowledged that all of humanity is under the sovereign control of Almighty God. We can only receive what is given to us from heaven. John knew that he was who he was because he had received his ministry from God. He also knew that Jesus was who he was for the same reason. 

Jesus said something similar to Pontius Pilate during his trial…that he (Pilate) would have no authority over him unless it had given to him from above. We need to remember that. God raises up different people at different seasons for different roles and different reasons…some for blessing, others for judgement. Our reaction to these people may reveal what we think and believe about God…that God is either impotent, indifferent, or wicked and therefore not worthy of our loyalty. But John teaches us, that this is not the case. God is in control of all things, whether we can comprehend that or not. 

Second, the Baptist repeats his previous public declaration. He had told his disciples and other that he was not the Messiah…that he was a voice, a messenger, a forerunner, a herald. He knew his calling…he knew his vocation and he was not about to deviate from the path God had given him to follow. He knew his ministry had a sunset clause etched into it. John was the friend of the bridegroom…he knew that when the bridegroom arrived, he would need to step out of the picture. I believed that John knew that the transitory phase of the Old Testament was coming to a head and as such the decline of his ministry was inevitable. But there were no retirement hysterics…no tantrums…no sulks…no crisis…just simple trust that God would bring to completion what he had begun.

You see, the Baptist’s trust was founded squarely on the holy Scriptures. I do not believe that John ever came to grips with the divinity of Jesus as we understand it (if we really understand it)…but he did believe what was written…he believed what was revealed about his temporary role in salvation history, and that was enough. He knew that Jesus had to become greater, and he had to become less. 

But while the Baptist may not have understood that Jesus was God incarnate, the author of the Gospel did and so he continued to explain the difference between John’s ministry and the ministry of Jesus. Jesus was the one who is from above and therefore is for all eternity above all. John the Baptist was from the earth and consequently he and his ministry were temporary. John quoted from the Word, but Jesus is the Word and, as such, he spoke directly from God and as God. John baptised with water, but Jesus baptised with the life-giving Spirit. 

Like the prophets of old, the Spirit of God was with the Baptist for a season. But Jesus is the dispenser of the Spirit and, as such, his ministry is for all time. A ministry, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, that will continue until he has placed all his enemies under his feet…and then the end would come when Jesus, as the victorious second Adam, would give the kingdom to his Father. 

There is a bond between the Father and the Son that can only be described as love. There is a mutual giving and receiving…an interdependency…that we sometimes struggle to understand. The Father loves the Son and gives all things into his hands. The Son loves the Father and gives his life in obedience to the Father’s will. And God loves the world that he gives his only Son and the son willingly gives his life to remove the barrier of sin between us. That is the goal of Jesus’ ministry and the goal of his body, the Church. To love all creation back to God…God was in Jesus reconciling the world to himself and has subsequently given us the ministry of reconciliation. Another transition has occurred…Jesus has ascended and is enthroned as universal king at the right hand of God the Father…and he has poured out the promised Holy Spirit to empower us to continue to announce to the world what he has accomplished for the world. Salvation and eternal life for all who believe in Him.

As it was with John the Baptist, so it is with us. We are messengers…he announced that Jesus was coming, we announce that he has come. John was not the focal point of his ministry…nor are we…Jesus is the focal point. Like John, we live as witnesses so that Jesus might be known.

The consummation of all things is coming as sure as the sun rises in the East. True, we do not see all things under his feet yet. True, we struggle to understand how he will bring all things to completion. It is hard for us to comprehend the new creation when all we see with our physical eyes is brokenness and destruction. But by faith in what God has spoken in his Word…what he has promised and fulfilled, we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honour. By faith we acknowledge that it is by the slow but steady advance against the very portals of hell of those who are called by his name and filled with his Spirit, that this momentary and transitory phase of human history will pass into the glorious fullness of redemption. 

Like John the Baptist, we too must realise that we live in a period of transition. At times we too might feel like that butterfly straining to escape from the cocoon of struggle and strife, but as we press onward and upwards toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus we will understand our role in the great sweeping movement of salvation history, the end of which is as certain as the Word of God.

We are all part of one great historic, salvific drama. Each and every one of us has a role to play. We are all part of this one great movement towards the new horizon. So, like John, let us not be tempted to be jealous or despondent when our ministry seems to be less important than another’s ministry…when we are not as successful as others…when we seem to be diminishing while others are rising. Let us use the gifts God has given us, not thinking too highly or too lowly of ourselves. We are who we are in the scheme of things, but big or small, the focal point of our existence is Jesus. And he must always increase. 

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023