After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

—John the Baptist, Mark 1:7–8

Where Christmas is concerned, John the Baptist usually lies far from the mind. After all, he’s nowhere to be found in nativity scenes. Advent calendars can hardly keep up with Isaiah’s prophecies, Joseph’s dream, Gabriel’s appearance, and Mary’s Magnificat to make room for John’s life. Can you think of a single carol that mentions him?

But John the Baptist has more to do with Jesus’s birth than we realize. Especially today, on Christmas Eve, as we ready our hearts to celebrate the full force of Immanuel, we have much to learn from the man God sent to prepare Christ’s way (Matthew 11:7–10; Mark 1:2–3; Luke 3:3–4; John 1:23). “Joy to the World” may speak nothing of Jesus’s cousin John, but few men received earth’s King as rightly as he. By the Spirit’s power, he can stir our hearts to prepare the same kind of room that he once made for our Savior.

And how much we need the help! The God of glory and Lord of love wishes to come to you afresh tomorrow, but as with any festivity, distractions abound. Given how prone we are to lose marriage in wedding cakes, the empty tomb among Easter eggs, and Christ himself amid all our Christmas traditions, we could use a guide like John — a man so unconcerned with fanfare that he dressed in camel’s hair (Matthew 3:4). Who better to cut a straight path for us through bedazzled trees to the manifold excellencies of the Son of God?

So, for a few minutes, let’s step away from all the lights, cameras, and activity, from the good gifts of family, food, and presents, and wonder with John at the might, salvation, and worth of Jesus on display in Mark 1:7–8.

God Almighty Became a Baby

Of everything John says, Mark chooses to record this phrase first: “After me comes he who is mightier than I . . .” (Mark 1:7). And of all the words John could have used to accurately describe the man who would follow him — to correctly identify Jesus — the first attribute he mentions here is Jesus’s might.

In drawing attention to Jesus’s might, John directs hearers to Jesus’s strength, and not mainly of mind or body, but of soul. It’s the kind of power that is able to endure bouts with Satan and display divine glory. John wants us to be struck by both the magnitude and the magnificence of Jesus’s might.

Might! The baby born to the little town of Bethlehem. Might! The child raised in dusty and despised Nazareth. Might! The carpenter’s son who owned no home. Might! The man who would die a criminal’s death on a Roman cross. “Might,” John? Really?

For Bible-shaped believers like John, “might” makes perfect sense when it comes to this baby, this child, this son, this man:

To us a child is born,
     to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
     and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
     Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

“Might” is right when it comes to Jesus, our Mighty God in the flesh. Before you celebrate a baby’s birth, remember that an eternity earlier than the first Christmas, an endless age before Mary had Jesus, there was the Son — and the Son was God Almighty (John 1:1). Of all the words you use to describe the man whose birthday you await, follow John’s lead, and make much of Jesus’s might.

From Christmas to Calvary

When it comes to making much of the God-man’s might, we do well not merely to mention it but, like John, to understand it, to describe it, to proclaim it. Jesus is mighty — but what does he do with his might? John explains: “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).

“Is exalting Christ more satisfying to us than celebrating Christmas?”

While men like John can preach powerfully of the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4–5), only one man has ever had the power to actually grant the forgiveness of sins (Mark 2:7). Any pastor can administer water-baptism, but through his Spirit, Jesus alone produces belief (Ephesians 1:13–14; 4:30). The Son is mighty both because he had the power to take on flesh and because of what he planned to do as man. Namely, “He appeared to take away sins” (1 John 3:5) — “to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

When you think of Christmas, does your salvation come to mind? Oh, how it should! The Son of God didn’t come to earth two thousand years ago so that humanity could have two thousand years’ worth of wintry merriment. He came to unseat Satan (1 John 3:8), conquer sin and death (John 3:16–17), and satisfy God’s wrath on a sinful people’s behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21). He came that we might no longer be dead rebels but the resurrected, redeemed, righteous children of God.

Christian or not, most people love to talk about “the meaning of Christmas.” With John’s words in mind, let’s tell them of its real glories. Christmas was made for Calvary: Jesus came to a humble manger to get to a bloody cross — and then from a bloody cross to an empty tomb.

More Satisfying Than Celebration

The first time John encountered Jesus (Luke 1:44), he leaped for joy (though still in the womb!). So, to truly test whether John has readied us for Christmas morning, we should look beyond whether we mentally assent to the divine qualities he ascribes to Jesus. In receiving Christ aright, John does care that our minds grasp truth, but he doesn’t want us to stop there. For he knows that true knowledge of God seeps from head to heart.

That’s why, smack in the middle of Mark 1:7–8, John makes sure to tell anyone and everyone who will listen about the strap of Jesus’s sandals. We might imagine John gesturing toward the ground. “If it belongs to Jesus — to God Almighty in the flesh, who has come to rescue his people from Satan, sin, and death — if that smelly sandal strap belongs to Jesus, then I am not worthy to stoop down and untie it.”

Do we celebrate the birth of One so worthy? Does it dumbfound us that the Son not only allows but actually wants us to sing carols of praise to him and the Father? Can we believe that we might please him with our church services, family gatherings, and even gift-giving? Is exalting Christ more satisfying to us than celebrating Christmas without him?

In fact, our experience of Christmas’s preciousness and power rises or falls to the degree that we love Christ and not Christmas. And if John’s words have had any effect on us, then the holiday itself has decreased, and Jesus — in his might, in his salvation, in his worth — has increased (John 3:30). On the surface, John may play little part in the Christmas story, but the value he placed on the baby born in Bethlehem takes us to the very heart of the holiday.