The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Luke 7:18 And the disciples of John reported to him about all these things. 19 And summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” 20 And when the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?'” 21 At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He granted sight to many who were blind. 22 And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. 23 “And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me.” 24 And when the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the multitudes about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 “But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces. 26 “But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. 27 “This is the one about whom it is written, ‘BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER BEFORE YOUR FACE, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.’ 28 “I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (NASB)
Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology wrote that “the world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you.”
For all of our technological marvels, our culture and institutions ignore the foundational questions of human existence; questions of meaning, value, right and wrong, and what is it to be a human being.
A British author, Jonathan Sacks, in a Wall Street Journal article maintains that secularism neglects an indispensable aspect of humanity. Human beings are, he says, “meaning-seeking animals.” It is in our nature to ask “who am I?” and “why am I here?” Even though it is our nature to ask such questions, providing meaningful answers to such questions is something our culture and institutions don’t do.
Our educational systems don’t require our children to study the wisdom and achievements of old; the great works of literature, art, philosophy, civilization, and Christianity. Our institutions and culture focus on “how” and not “why.” We do certain things because we can, without much consideration for whether we should.
We are told to follow the science (usually by people who aren’t following the science), but science and technology cannot offer us wisdom. They do not provide meaning. They cannot answer the fundamental questions — “Who are we?” “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “How then shall we live?” These questions speak to our core identity, beliefs, and our purposes in life.
Without meaningful answers to these questions people are left open to manipulation by the powerful elite. The progressive state makes our choices for us. It tells us how we are to live, where and if we can work, where we can and can’t go, what we are to fear, what we can and cannot enjoy, and what we must think and what we can’t say.
Elites in academia and professional communities believe that you are nothing more than an advance biological machine of chemical and electrical reactions. That thing we call “personality,” just the result of a unique mixture of genetics, chemistry, neurons, and conditioning. You’re nothing more than a moment in the evolutionary process, which has come about by chance alone.
But nature abhors a vacuum. We are meaning seeking creatures. So when the questions of meaning and identity are not addressed in serious ways, human beings will find meaning and purpose in the things below them.
Some find meaning in what they acquire, possessions and wealth (materialism). Others will live by the slogan, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die.” Thus our lives are spent in pursuit of entertainment and pleasure (hedonism and epicureanism). Others find meaning in the pursuit of power for power’s sake. That’s Nietzsche’s “will to power.”
Notice what’s missing? God, especially the God Who exists, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is missing. God the Creator who made man and woman in His image for a purpose.
The absence of God in these and other approaches to human life is not simply an omission in a philosophical system or the absence of a civil regulatory system on human behavior. It’s the absence of God and fellowship with Him which was the purpose for which we were created in the first place.
The problem with Christianity in the West is that Christians lost their Christian identity. They forgot or never knew who they were. This is to say, there are a lot of former Christians walking about in the world today.
To the extent that we adopt secularism’s way of thinking and lifestyles, we are following after Adam and Eve in their effort to become their own masters and be “like God.” (Gen 3:5–6). Luther called this foundational sin incurvatus in se, that is, “turning in on one’s self.”
All the answers generated in the mind of sinful humanity are not only false, they are also reductionistic (over simplifications) and view humans as temporary, “here today and gone tomorrow.”
Here’s the truth about who we were made to be. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27). “The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Gen 2:7).
Human beings were created to be in fellowship with God the Holy Trinity! That is our fundamental purpose. That is humanity’s true identity. God in all His holiness and majesty once walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. The fall into sin destroyed most of God’s image in us and it destroyed the fellowship for which we had been created. “Now they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8)
We no longer bear the image of holiness, righteousness, blessedness, and innocence. Yet, human beings still bear the fragments of God’s image in our spirit, reason, and emotions. That’s why we are meaning seeking creatures. We were created for a purpose. The image of God (holiness, righteousness, innocence, spirit, reason, and emotions) was our God given identity.
Now that was a long introduction to the Gospel text before us this morning. And you might be wondering what all of that has to do with identity. “19 And summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, ‘Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’”
John was sitting in prison awaiting his execution. He had received reports about Jesus’s activities so he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus a question about Jesus’s identity. He wanted to know if Jesus was the Expected One? Th answer to this question is the crucial in resolving humanity’s identity crisis. Humanity’s identity, purpose, and place is the gift that is restored to us by the One Who was to come, the Expected One. (v 19).
Pay attention to how Jesus answered the question of Who He is and what His purpose is. Jesus points John and the rest of us to His actions as proof of His identity. “22 Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. 23 And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me.”
Jesus answers the question of His identity by going to His purpose, which is seen in what He does. He was fulfilling the prophecies of Isaiah (Isaiah 29:18; 35:5–6) the prophecies of the future deliverance that is accomplished in the Promised Messiah. Here and here alone is found the reason for Jesus’s and our existence.
The answer to “who is man” and “who are you” is answered in the answer to the question “Who is Jesus?” Was and is He the Expected the One? Jesus’s identity is the promises of a Savor—the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the seed of David (Matthew 1:1) and the dying, rising, and crushing Satan One.
Jesus reassures John of His identity. When Jesus did this He also assured John of John’s identity as the promised forerunner to the Messiah and the voice of the one calling in the wilderness. Once Jesus did that He turned His attention to the multitude who heard the exchange, lest they have their own identity conflict. Jesus asked, “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces. 26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet.”
Here Jesus reminds these people who they have been created to be. They were hearers of the Word of God spoken through John the Baptist. They were people who had been baptized with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus roots their identity in Himself and in the preaching of His Word. He gives you your new identity in His identity and His work. Thus Jesus says, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (v 23). Remember the word “blessed” does simply mean “happy.” It is a term applied only to Christians, to the people who are in Christ, forgiven and redeemed, and whose identity has been restored. (2 Corinthians 5:17) “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Don’t ever be confused about who you are and don’t let the world or anyone else tell you who you must be. You are to be the person Christ has made you to be. One who trusts in Him alone for the forgiveness of sins. One who fights against sin. You are one who worships your heavenly Father, your Savior Jesus Christ, and Your Comforter the Holy Spirit.
You are who you are, Christ’s, made so in the gifts of the water and the Word in your Baptism. You are one of the sheep who hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him. (John 8:31–32).
You are a person who tastes who you are, Christ’s, in the gift of His true body and blood in His Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23–25).
You are who you are, Christ’s, one who has fellowship with the prophets, apostles, fellow saints, and with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which is the reason you have been called into existence.
The forgiveness of sin and the restoration of the image of God in the Gospel restores fellowship with God. That’s how the Epistle 1 John 1 begins. 3 “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3)
From the moment of your conversion, likely your baptism, you were grafted into Christ. Who are you? You are children of the heavenly Father, in fellowship with the holy Trinity and with the communion of saints. And that is why you do what you do, namely confess your sins and thus they are forgiven.
Amen.
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. Amen.