Scripture: A Holy Man, or Just a Voice
19 This
is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from
Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but
confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 21
And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you
the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us
have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He
said,
“I am
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Make
straight the way of the Lord,’”
as the prophet Isaiah said.
There is an old tale from eastern Europe about a group of Jewish people making a pilgrimage to see a holy man. Before they leave, one of the pilgrims asks their local rabbi, “How can we know for sure that this holy man is not a fraud? How can we know that he is truly a righteous man.” The rabbi responded, “You shall know in this way: if he does not tell you what to do. But if he does tell you what to do, then beware.”
I can’t know for certain why the rabbi gives this advice, but I think he is warning his flock about leaders who are power-hungry, who want control over their followers. Wisdom is something to be shared, not something to be enforced upon others. Wisdom is a gift for others, not a means of stroking one’s own ego. “Take what you like and leave the rest,” as they say in many 12-step programs.
By all accounts, John the Baptizer was a holy man. We can see this, perhaps, in his humble disposition. “Who are you?” the religious professionals from Jerusalem ask him. His response is not to claim some greatness or some authority. Rather he freely acknowledges that he has no special credentials. He is neither the messiah, nor Elijah, nor some long-awaited prophet. He is simply a voice in the wilderness, as Isaiah had once prophesied about.
I’m reminded of what we read at the beginning of the gospel of John last week, where we learned that all creation comes into being through the Word, which is God. Which is all to say, all the goodness of life begins with a word. A voice. An invitation. Last week I suggested that the Word that is God is most like a proposal, God on bended knee. In his own way, John the Baptizer is echoing that proposal. He’s a voice echoing the Word. He’s rough around the edges, sure, and he tends to focus on the pitfalls of missing out on God’s proposal—but at the end of the day, he’s there to proclaim that God’s kingdom is coming near and everyone is invited.
Scripture: It’s Like This
24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
Do you remember how it felt as a child, spending a day at the river or the ocean? I remember losing track of everything in the water—time, grudges, grievances, worries…everything would recede. The water had a cleansing quality. It could wash away, at least temporarily, the many burdens I carried, the many emotional stains that plagued me. And when I was done, when I got out of the water, the return to life felt a little bit like a fresh start.
Historians speculate about baptism meant for the people who came to be baptized by John. Similar rituals were used for a variety of purposes: from conversion to the Jewish faith to purification before worship at the temple. All that we know about John’s baptism is that it was a baptism “of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”(Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3; cf. Matt 3:6, 8). In other words, it marked the moment when an individual repented (or changed his or her mind) and felt afresh the reality of God’s forgiveness.
Personally, I think John chooses the ritual of baptism because he, like God, is not content with simply being a voice. Just as God is not content remaining a word but becomes flesh and dwells among us, John must find a way to enflesh his message, to ground it in real life experience. Instead of just saying God forgives you and you can begin again, he says, “It’s like this!” And he dunks you in a river, head to toe, submitting you to a rapturous chill that sweeps away time, grievances, grudges, worries, everything.
Scripture: Bearing Witness
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 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.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
The teachers and mentors from whom I have learned the most, whose wisdom I seek whenever I am conflicted or in doubt, are people like John the baptizer. They are people who do not claim to have any answers themselves but instead act as signposts or pointers. John the baptizer, who claims to be nothing more than a voice, ends up pointing to Jesus, “Look! Behold! Here is the person who changes everything.” And what’s fascinating to me, is that Jesus will actually do the same thing himself. He doesn’t drink in all the praise and honor, pointing to himself, saying, “It’s all about me.” His primary message is not about himself but about the kingdom of God. His desire is not that everyone wear his colors or carry his flag, but that everyone live the way that he is living, and he makes clear that the way he is living is simply the way that his father (God) lives. Multiple times in the gospel of John, he says, “I can do nothing on my own, nothing apart from God” (John 5:19, 30). In other words, just as John points to Jesus, Jesus points to God.
There is a word for this pointing in the Christian tradition. It is called “witness.”
Witness is not telling others what to do or think. Witness is not about winning people to your side. It is simply sharing your experience. It is simply pointing out what has worked for you.
You may have heard it said that a Christian is no more than one beggar telling another beggar where they found food. That’s what we see in John the baptizer, the first witness to Christ. “It’s like this,” he tells people, dunking them in the water to try to get across that visceral sense of cleansing and newness. “It has nothing to do with me,” he says, “but everything to do with what’s been given to me from God,” and so he points not to himself but to God.
This first Sunday of Christmas, the invitation I hear in today’s scripture is to be more like John. The temptation of religion, I think, is to confuse ourselves with God. To take God’s place rather than make space for God. To become spokespersons for God rather than honest individuals sharing our experience. What John does instead is say, “I’m just a voice. It’s like this, but don’t just take my word for it. Look over here! Behold! Come and see for yourselves.” Instead of taking God’s place, he invites folks into a space where they might encounter God themselves.
A few weeks ago, faced with a difficult experience and decision to make, I called a mentor, an older man in the faith. I shared my dilemma. He quietly asked me a series of questions, inviting me to consider how God was present in the situation and what loving thing God would have me do next. He never told me what to do. He had faith that God would do that. Reflecting on that conversation, it feels very holy to me now. I heard God. Not because my mentor spoke God’s words, but because he pointed to God. He made space for God. He bore witness to God. I hope I can do the same for others.
Prayer
Holy God,Word made flesh,
Whose life in Jesus
Was itself an honest witness
To your undying love for us—
Inspire us to become witnesses
Who do not take your place
But instead point to you
And make space for others
To have their own encounter with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment