John’s ministry begins about the year 27 C.E. (Common Era). Out of the desert wilderness, John is called by God as the last of a long line of Hebrew prophets. He is compelled to speak for God to God’s people – not as opinion or as commentary but with authority. In his preaching, the intensity of the desert sun burns; his soul is on fire. In John’s ministry the valleys of ignorance are filled with truth. Mountains of pride are brought low. The crooked paths of corruption are found wanting and the rough road of despair is paved with hope.
John’s message was clear. The old world is passing away, the New Age is near. The Kingdom of God on earth is at hand. Repent! Now this is not our Christian understanding of the word “repent” – to feel sorry. Repent, in those days, meant to “return.” The image was as if one was walking the wrong way, realized it, and then turned 180 degrees around and came back to God’s ways. I’m reminded of our original Garman GPS, which always gave me directions to turn seconds after missing the turn and then angrily declaring “recalculating!” and having me backtrack.
The message was to seek forgiveness for wrongdoing. For the Jews, the word “khata”, sin, meant things done which missed the mark. The image was one from archery, right? It was to go astray from how God would have us live our lives. We need to change.
As the penitents gather, he warns them to come with sincerity, not just out of fear of a coming judgment at the close of this age. Nor should you presume on the righteousness of your ancestors; their sanctity will not save you and your racial arrogance is no security.
Don’t tell me about your roots; tell me of your fruits!
God will still be God if all the Hebrews perish from the earth. Indeed, God can raise up a New Israel from the stones on the road. But if you come with sincere hearts – come and wash!
Now there were two kinds of ritual baths in Jewish practice. One was for proselytes. Gentile converts to Judaism were required to wash away their Gentile-ness. The second kind were those required by The Law of Moses to wash away impurity so that one could be restored to the community of God’s chosen people. For example, a ritual bath after sex, after a nocturnal emission, after menstruation, after childbirth, after any contact with human blood or a person with skin lesions, a corpse, a foreign idol and so on. But John’s immersion seemed to emphasize sanctification – the forgiveness of a debt owed to God for our wrongdoing.
But it was not magic, right? It was rather symbolic of a desire to be realigned to God. Those who heard John’s message asked, “What shall we do?” John told them to confirm their repentance, their turning, by behaving in observable ways.
To the peasants he said, “If you have two tunics,” – tunics were the undergarment, cloaks were the outer garments. “If you have two pairs of underwear, give one to the person with none. The same with food. If you have enough to eat, give some to your neighbor who doesn’t. Stop being so greedy.”
Tax collectors also came. The word “tax” is misleading. A better word is “toll.” Rome wisely bid out the privilege of being chief toll collector for a region. Zacchaeus was one of these. You remember the story, he was a short, little man. Wanting to see Jesus, Zacchaeus climbed a tree – a safer place to see Jesus than in the midst of a crowd. These chief tax collectors recruited, typically, homeless men who could get no other work, to collect the tolls. Tolls for crossing boundaries – goods entering or leaving a district, the use of a main road, crossing bridges, boat landings – it was a system ripe with corruption. To them, John said, “Be content with your commissions.”
And finally, soldiers. These were not Roman troops, but Jews employed by the Puppet King Herod Antipas, who ruled the Galilee. These men were despised for supporting the oppression of the Jewish people. To them, John says, “Stop extorting folks and blackmailing them by threatening to turn them into the Roman authorities. Be content with your pay and your rations” – an ideal the Roman Emperor advocated as well.
This is not radical stuff. John does not condemn an unjust tax system or challenge men to be conscientious objectors. Asking folks to be a little less obsessed with their own survival and to share with others also suffering was not a new thing.
But the people were intrigued by John. In his fearlessness in condemning the hypocrisy of the powerful, John became a hero and the people wondered if he might be The One Who Was to Come. But John says, “No, I am not worthy to be a slave to Him in tying His shoes. I baptize you with water. He will baptize you with fire.”
The gospel writers added the words “and the Holy Spirit” to reflect the experience of Pentecost, but for John, who was so strident, only one more severe than himself would make sense. No, for John, The One Who Comes will burn the world with an unquenchable fire.
Jesus became a disciple of John and shared with him a passion for the Kingdom of God – but over time, their paths would diverge, even if John had not been executed. In Jesus’ ministry, water immersion for purity was replaced with meals shared together celebrating that, by grace, we are already pure.
John frightened the people to repent. Jesus loved them and invited them into a new imagination. John spoke to the individual while Jesus called people into deeper community. John anticipated a great cataclysmic event which would change the world. Jesus sensed that the Kingdom would be built by persuasion – soul by soul – of those willing to live, give, love, suffer, and even die for it. For his disciples, it meant celebrating partial victories and suffering temporary defeats – but always persevering in hope.
So, John’s role as a forerunner was limited but certainly not irrelevant. The gospels are not biographies of Jesus but are rather the drama of God’s call to transformation of ourselves and the world – and in that play, someone must set the stage so that when the star enters stage right, all is ready. That someone was John The Baptizer.
And this is the question which remains throughout the ages: What do we need to be converted from and converted to. What is the amendment of life needed in us as we prepare the stables of our hearts to receive the Christ child again. Amen.