"Batteries not included." Watch for this printed on the box of any electronic gizmo you might think of getting. A toy or tool may be terrific, but it serves no purpose if not powered.
What about sinners? Are we otherwise terrific people who simply lack the right spiritual power source?
No, the power in man is haywire right out of the box. The only power in fallen man is the power that kills. People are hazards. This is far worse than just a thing that doesn't work for lack of batteries.
Injuries, grievances, injustice, neglect, cruelty, and abuse are all inhuman monstrosities with the power that kills.
Hopes are killed when we refuse to apologize and repent. Ministry is "fried" by pessimism, criticism, and indifference. Families and friendships are electrocuted by those plugged into the values of the world. The operative word is "defective."
And the malfunction of humanity is not even the main problem.
The problem is the total malformation of man. The very nature and core of man is corrupt. The inability to function is but a warning bulb showing the whole system is infected. This is why our confession in the Divine Service begins with "I, a poor miserable sinner" before speaking of "sins."
But just how rueful are we over the sin in us? We read about wrongs every day in the paper and nearly yawn. A murder in Saginaw, a truancy from school, a terror outrage in Mumbai, a divorce in the neighborhood, a DUI incident, deer baiting, shoplifting, sass, and the finger. All these have the same moral equivalency. Yet, most of the time we are unmoved by them even though these are nothing compared to the rotten source from which come my sins and yours.
The voltage of sin is so deadly that the damage cannot be restrained. Against it we have no natural insulation. God help us. We are powerless to halt it. The hearts of fathers are turned against their children and the disobedient go wildly along the way of prejudice and excess. God saw the world before the birth of John and it was - bluntly said -- a people unprepared for the Lord.
There is no power in man for righteousness, no strength for good, and no capacity to love. Yet, how easy it is to dismiss this fact when human beings are so amazingly constructed. People are so fascinating and talented. Many are so learned, cultured, or accomplished that the hopelessness of our sin is soon put out of mind.
But don't be fooled by the box.
Good we are not, neither in whole nor in part.
There is no residual decency in fallen humanity no matter how one may be packaged. The idea that people are born a mixture of bad and good is a lie. Even the newest model of our human race, version 20.11, rolling off the line next month will be just as corrupt, just as morally misshapen, and just as dead in sin as we or our ancestors.
And just like every previous human being, each subsequent person is desperately in need of the Holy Spirit exactly like every other man, woman, and child conceived in this world.
But how about John in this regard? What about this son to be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth?
Could he, perhaps, be the "exception that proves the rule?" Is John perhaps the "exception" that demolishes the doctrine of original sin? Might we have here the one human being who tests the reign of sin?
The angel told Zechariah that his son "will be great before the Lord." Jesus later said of John, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist." (Matt. 11:11)
Even the pre-natal John leaped in Elizabeth's womb at the sound of the Virgin Mary's voice. (Luke 1:44) St. Luke states He was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. John is the closest thing to a miracle child. Even though the biological clock ceased to tick with Elizabeth, still John is conceived. His birth is astonishing. His whole life is consecrated. He follows the canons of a lifelong Nazirite abstaining from all wine and strong drink. He lives a ceremonial clean life, eating locusts and dressing in camel hair.
How can a man of such pristine credentials and saintliness not be called good? John could be the poster boy for all those who, while admitting themselves not perfect, insist they cannot be totally corrupt. After all, look at John. Isn't it possible that at least somewhere down deep inside us is a magneto with just enough current to generate a spiritually worthy life? If we can justify the possibility of that, then we retain at least a scrap of self-respect. Then, we confess our mistakes but not our sin. Then we may acknowledge ourselves imperfect though not entirely rotten to the core.
What was the greatness of John? Was it his spic and span life? Was it his discipline and abstinence? Was it the ascetic lifestyle and accomplishments, that he turned many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God? Was it his notoriety from birth or his popularity among the people? Was it his martyrdom?
No, it was the "spirit and power of Elijah" given to him. There was no innate goodness in John to make him heroic. He too was born of sinful parents. He inherited the same original sin as you and I have, and no one could have been more acutely aware of it. John, you see, above all others was the preacher of repentance. His great task was to preach stern contrition and repentance.
His greatness was precisely akin to the fact he was utterly unworthy even to untie the shoe laces of the coming Christ. His greatness was the testimony that I am nothing but Christ is everything. "[Christ] must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30)
John was filled with the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit was the force of life in John. Far from "plugging himself into God," it was the Spirit of the Lord who animated John. The Spirit came to him. The Lord gave him his name. The Lord gave John his life even in a womb that had been dead. It was the incarnate presence of the Lord Christ that caused John to leap, and it was the Holy Spirit who chose John and led John "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared."
It is this same Holy Spirit who has absolved us of our sin, both original and actual, in Holy Baptism. In the sacrament, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, we are not merely given a set of batteries to enable us to function acceptably. And most certainly, baptism is nothing we do.
Baptism is God, the Holy Spirit, granting us the brand new life. He comes that we be more than just functionally Christian but indeed flesh and blood members of Christ Himself. The depth and power of the Spirit's work is not a mere shot in the arm or jump-start for our battery. It is the power of the cross and resurrection which trans-forms the baptized into people fully prepared, fully justified before God, and fully equipped for the coming of the Lord and eternal life.
