The Baptizer's Testimony

January 18, 2026. First Lutheran Church of Throggs Neck, Bronx, N.Y.

 If we only had the Gospel of John, we’d have no idea what John the Baptist looked like.

We may think of John as an eccentric preacher who secured his camel hair wrap with a leather belt while munching on locusts and honey. But all those images are in the other three gospels.

In John’s gospel there is no mention of the Baptist’s parents Elizabeth and Zechariah, no visit of the mother of Jesus to her pregnant cousin, no baby leaping in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary approaches.

In John’s gospel, the Baptist appears fully formed in the wilderness, freshly showered as far as we know and dressed in a clean muslin robe. It falls to the priests and Levites to ask, “Who are you,” and John responds by quoting Isaiah, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”

His testimony made him famous because John appears in sources that are not the bible. In his Antiquities written around 70 C.E., the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus noted John’s prominence in Jewish history:

(John) was a good man and had urged the Jews to exert themselves to virtue, both as to justice toward one another and reverence towards God, and having done so join together in washing. For immersion in water, it was clear to him, could not be used for the forgiveness of sins, but as a sanctification of the body, and only if the soul was already thoroughly purified by right actions.

Josephus misses an important fact about John: his testimony about the coming of the Messiah:

I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.” (John 1:33-34)

On January 11 many churches celebrated the baptism of Jesus, one of the seminal events in Jesus’ life and in our church year. The Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke, inspire a profound meditation on baptism, the sacrament that marks when our life in Christ begins.

Dr. Cody J. Sanders of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., notes, “the portrayal in John’s Gospel opens space … to address the role of testimony in Christian life, and the role of John as testifier to Jesus’ identity.”

Let’s address a common trope. Baptism is easy. Testimony is hard.

It is very hard for me, as a closeted introvert, to tell people about my faith. This was a special burden for me as an erstwhile Baptist because so much stress was placed on “witnessing.”

Baptists tend to lob Jesus’ own words at those of us who preferred to silent:

“Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.” (Mt 10:32-33)

When Billy Graham invited persons in his audience to “get up out of your seat and come forward to accept Jesus,” he had a special admonishment for people who didn’t want to attract that kind of attention. “Remember,” Billy would say as the choir crooned Just As I Am, “everyone Jesus called to follow him he called publicly. If you feel him calling you, get out of your seat.”

And I assure you that Baptists understand the awful tug and pull of conscience as they sit paralyzed in their seat, saying, “I should get up and ask Jesus to be my personal savior. But not yet.”

Most Lutherans don’t experience this dilemma. Whenever someone asks us if we have found Jesus we may respond, “No, because Jesus has found me.” Martin Luther taught us that we were saved when Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected. Jesus is not asking us to make a “personal decision” to follow him. It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to have the saving grace of faith and we should stop worrying about it. If someone says to you, “Hey, when did you get saved,” the Lutheran testimony is this: “I was saved 2000 years ago when Christ died for the sins of the world.”

Another uniquely Lutheran testimony is that we’re not perfect. Martin Luther said that all of us are simultaneously saints and sinners. And he said it in Latin, Simul Justus et Peccator.

John’s testimony about who Jesus is and what Jesus did for the world is one we should emulate every day of our lives. When we are baptized, when the Holy Spirit has ignited our faith, we should tell people about Jesus. This should be as natural to us as dissecting the finale of Stranger Things around the office water cooler or appraising the Yankees with friends at the local bar.

Even so, it remains true that chatting with friends is easy; telling them what you think about Jesus is hard.

The testimony of John the Baptist included a more dangerous note than his declaration that a messianic figure greater than himself would soon follow. I don’t suppose that predicting a messiah disturbed the authorities very much because preachers had prophesied the coming of the messiah for years. What got John in trouble – and this should be of particular concern for each of us – was his habit of speaking truth to power.

This story is told in Matthew’s gospel:

For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her” .... But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” ... (Herod) sent and had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who brought it to her mother (MT 14:1-12)

Do you know important politicians or business titans or church leaders who have abused their power? And have you resolved to confront them about it?

The great Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer left a comfortable position at Union Seminary to return to his native Germany to oppose the Nazi regime. He was accused of being associated with the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler and was hanged in April 1945 at the age of 39. How many of us have Bonhoeffer-like courage to openly oppose evil at the risk of our lives? Not I.

In the 1960s I joined a veteran’s group to oppose the Vietnam War. But it was a safe kind of protest, marching with thousands of like-minded people in Washington, singing Pete Seeger ballads, raising my fist in power-to-the-people salutes. But despite sniffing occasional wafts of tear gas, I knew my life was never in danger.

What opportunities do we have today to go to people in power and warn them they are acting against God’s law? And how can we be sure we know what that law is?

We can be sure because we have heard the Messiah whose coming was foretold by John the Baptist:

“In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets.” (MT 7:12)

The notion didn’t originate with Jesus. There is a story told of the great Rabbi Hillel, who died about the time Jesus was a little boy.

One doesn’t have to be a scholar or even particularly religious to know God’s rule for basic human behavior. Do to others what you would have them do to you. This is the rule of love. This is the basis for human decency. This is the source of compassion, of empathy, of kindness.

Sadly, so many people haven’t got the message.

For more than a year it has been the policy of our country to chase, bind, wrestle to the ground, and deport anyone who is suspected of being – as the calumny goes – “illegal.”  Too often this includes our friends, colleagues, spouses, family members, and neighbors who do not possess a Green Card or who are not regarded at first glance as legal residents.

Reports from ProPublica and other sources detail numerous cases of U.S. citizens, legal residents, and even elected officials detained by ICE agents in 2025.

Despite a stated policy that only the worst criminals will be deported, data shows that thousands of people arrested by ICE have no serious criminal records.

According to The Guardian, thirty-two people have died in ICE custody. Some had arrived in the U.S. recently, seeking asylum. Others had arrived years ago, some as young children. Some had been picked up in the administrations’ indiscriminate ICE raids.

Earlier this month, a masked ICE agent shot a woman through her car window. Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the woman had “weaponized her car” to threaten the agent, despite public videos showing the agent shooting the woman several times as she attempted to drive away.

How are patriotic Christian Americans to respond to these people in power? What is the truth we should speak to them? What is our testimony?

Some of us may question whether it is appropriate even to raise these questions in worship when we would rather seek God’s solace.

Others will say it is our responsibility of Christians armed with an understanding of God’s justice, secure in our understanding of Christ’s Gospel of unconditional love, and encouraged by the audacity of John the Baptist’s testimony to, challenge the powerful. We must speak out.

Our testimony is this:

This is not what our God expects of us.

This is a sin.

This is wrong. 

This is not America. 

And many consciences s are crying out:

In the name of God, this must stop.