16 December 2013 - the baptist's cry

16 December 2013 - the baptist's cry

Where was John’s baptism from?
Was it of heavenly or of human origin?”
John's baptism is indeed of heavenly origin.  But if we admit to this we have to admit that his cry to repent is legitimate.  We admit that we need to change.  No matter how nice and OK we think ourselves to be, if we acknowledge that the Baptist is sent by God we acknowledge that we are still works in progress.  Acknowledging John the Baptist is possibly only by simultaneously laying down our pride.  If even John himself must decrease so that the Messiah can increase than we must decrease all the more.

Jesus is one who teaches with authority and not as the scribes (cf. Mat. 7:29).  The baptism of John and the authority of Jesus are both part of the Father's plan.  If we get one wrong we will miss the other in turn.  We can't pick and choose.  If we try to only accept the comforting from God we will find ourselves rejecting him.  The cross is not an immediately comforting sight.  Yet the centurion standing before the cross recognizes God's plan in action when he says, "Truly Man this was the Son of God." 

If we are primarily concerned with our own authority we find ourselves in the situation of the chief priests and the elders.  They approach Jesus because they are concerned about what the crowds think.  They worry that he is becoming more popular than them and that the crowds regard him as having more authority than they do.  From this competitive mindset we are unable to perceive the truth about the identity of Jesus.  "No one ever spoke the way this man does," others say, but we are unable to hear it.  We question Jesus like Pilate to see if he is indeed a king.  But hearing his answer endangers our kingdoms and projects in this world.  Jesus asks us, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?"  Jesus wants us to ask who he is of our own accord.  To do so we need to lay down our willful insistence on our own supposed rights.  We need to come before him with open hearts.

Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.

He guides the humble to justice and teaches them his ways because only they are open to it.  Only those who humble themselves can truly perceive that the authority Jesus manifests means he must indeed be the Son of God.  It is the humility of Balaam that allows him to hear what God says and to know "what the Most High knows".  He "sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured, and with eyes unveiled" because, as Jesus tells us, the pure of heart see God.  He is therefore blessed with a vision tinged with messianic expectation.

I see him, though not now;
I behold him, though not near:
A star shall advance from Jacob,
and a staff shall rise from Israel.

His vision sounds lofty.  But God's plan for all of us is to see him enraptured and with eyes unveiled.  As John tells us about our ultimate place in God's plan, "what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (cf. 1 Joh. 3:2).  Only with pure hearts will we be able to see God enraptured and with eyes unveiled.  Only this vision is enough to change us from one degree of glory to another (cf. 2. Cor 3:18) so that we can be like him as he truly is.

Let us clear our eyes so that we can see the staff of Jesus, the good shepherd, rise from Israel.  Let us purify our hearts so that we may see his star advance from Jacob, just as the Magi see it.  We recognize that we cannot do this on our own.  Only the Spirit can produce humility within us.  So we are brought full circle to the cry of the Baptist: "Repent!"  We must repent of our attempts to do this on our own.    May this Christmas be a time when we more fully realize the identity and authority of our heavenly king.

His king shall rise higher,
and his royalty shall be exalted.