Reflect the Light

The people have been waiting.  It has been so silent for so long.  It feels as if God has left them.  That He has deserted them.  They remind God of his promise day and night.  Begging to be remembered by the One who spoke the world into being.  Who rescued them.  Who brought them out of captivity.  Who made for himself a people where there was no people.  Who called them his greatest treasure.  How could one who has such a great love be silent for so long?

And so comes a man who breaks the silence of the wilderness.

His followers see that God is moving.  But they misunderstand and spread rumors that the Messiah has come.  In a day and age where the people’s need for freedom boils up to the surface, where they are so desperate to rid themselves of oppression and be the people God has made them to be…  There are always endless rumors of such.

The leaders of the church hear the rumors.  There are some that are so tired of the endless ridiculousness of the “new” claim of the week, they absorb any such news with cynicism, because it can’t be true.  And there are those that dare to dream.  Dare to hope.  Dare to believe.  But this man…  His father was one of the most prominent priests.  So regardless of the rumors spreading, they are dispatched to investigate one of their own.

When they arrive they are shocked.  This man is baptizing.  But not the Gentiles.  Not in the way of the tradition of the church.  If it would have been the Gentiles who were being washed clean, who wanted to be called God-fearers, to be grafted into the kingdom with a new identity – that would be understandable.  But here stood this man baptizing Jews.  Any preconceived notions they had disappeared as they were so discombobulated, they stood with their mouths aghast and hanging open.  So they ask the only questions of John they could think to ask.  Questions of great importance.

1.      Are you the Messiah?  In this day and age – a normal question.  It would be easy to dispel the rumor that some disciples were spreading.  Or the people had heard.  What did they expect?  Another crazy fool claiming “yes?”  John stuns them with his answer.  You can almost hear his low voice echoing, the resonance as he says: “I am not.”

2.     Fine, then are you Elijah?  It was a commonly held belief that before Messiah would come, Elijah would return.  Because before Messiah would return – Elijah would come to settle all disputes, to help the people prepare for the coming king.  He would sort out the clean and unclean, who were true Jews and who weren’t, bring together estranged families.  It was such a commonly held belief that if there was a dispute in court and a decision couldn’t be rendered, the ruling would be: ”we must wait until Elijah comes…”  For it would have been a matter too complex or too confusing for the average judge.   For Elijah must come according to the understanding of Malachi 4:5 to anoint the King and would even raise up the dead to share in the new kingdom.  And yet, you hear the deep resonance in John’s voice when asked if he is Elijah…  “I am not.”

3.     Are you the prophet?  Some believed that Isaiah or Jeremiah would return to mark the coming of Messiah, but the true reference and promise to which the people held fast came from Moses – “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you.”  (Deuteronomy 18:15)  Still John denied the honor that some would try to grant him.

Finally the leaders threw up their hands and asked: “who are you?”  And John’s answer could not have been more confusing to them as he explains that he is not the King, but the King is on the way.

The leaders shake their heads in confusion – if you are not the King, then why are you baptizing?  If you would have answered yes to any of our other questions, your answers would make sense John.  Who are you John?

“I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worth to untie.”

For there are rules we don’t understand.  When dealing with sandals, no good Jew would ever untie a sandal of another.  Even though a disciple did everything to serve his master, waiting on him – the one thing that would never be done is the untying of sandals, dealing with dirty feet.  Only a slave would do that.  And so John’s answer silences the crowd as he says: “One is coming whose slave I am not fit to be.”

This priest, this prophet is “bound by the wilderness, in the same way we see Jesus bound to the cross.”  Wherever John is – there is the wilderness, not just in geography but spiritually.  He enrages the leaders because he is calling all to repentance.  A new exodus is coming.  Rescue.  John was making Jews do that which was believed to only be meant for Gentiles.  He was telling them that even the Chosen People of God needed to be cleansed.

So too, do we.

And so as this manger that we approach, cradles the King whose dirty feet will be pierced for our sins…  We are not fit to be his slave, and yet the cross and resurrection make us co-heirs of the Promise of God.

When the world sees that we are different – not because we are trying to be – but because being a son or daughter of the King inherently changes our identity.  We have the joy and privilege to reflect the Light of the World.

The Word of God comes and we are privileged to follow in John’s footsteps and cry out in the wilderness: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”  For there is none of us who can claim any righteousness, any goodness in and of ourselves.  Yet we find ourselves counted among the rescued.  And we all await the day where there will be no more sin, no more sorrow, and no more tears.  As eagerly as our family waited for the coming Messiah, we wait with eager anticipation for the day when Jesus will return.  You are not forgotten.  You are not alone.  For He who has promised will be faithful.