The mark of a great teacher is to put students directly in touch with the thing taught. It is important for the teacher not to interpose his own personality or pet ideas onto an existing body of knowledge. No matter how good these ideas may be they are never the same as direct contact with the subject itself. This is difficult for most, because it is just there, in that which they perceive to be their unique contribution, that they feel they have value. This temptation is at least as great for preachers of Christ, and the damage done when they succumb to it can be far greater, a version of Christ in their own image and likeness. John the Baptist is an example of one who never gave in to this temptation.
He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted,
“I am not the Christ.”
John was one whose whole life, value, and mission was found in being a voice preparing the way for another. He built anticipation for the one whose sandal strap he was not worthy to untie. He pointed him out as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (see John 1:29). He rejoiced to hear the bridegroom's voice, to himself decrease, so that Jesus would increase (see John 3:29-30).
In John's shoes, we might grumble. 'Where's my part?', we might ask. 'What part of my life is my own?' We often believe that if we aren't curating a private interior space which is entirely our own we cannot be happy. We balance obligation to speak the word and point to the Christ against this imagined font of our happiness.
The more we try to create happiness for ourselves the more elusive it becomes. Though we are not called to automatically seek those things which are hardest for us, or to remove from life the natural pleasures we enjoy, nevertheless these things cannot become an end in themselves if we want to continue to enjoy them. Only when we seek first the Kingdom and allow the rest to be added to us by God can we truly enjoy and appreciate the things of this world for what they are (see Matthew 6:33).
We only find life when we give it away. We only discover ourselves in a complete gift of self. This is not a call to think poorly of ourselves or to treat ourselves badly. We are indeed called to love ourselves as God loves us. But just as Jesus was able to forget his own rights in order to come to save us we too are called to self-forgetfulness in the service of others.
The world wants to deceive us about where true happiness can be found. Every lie of the enemy is a promise of fulfillment that will fail or a seed of mistrust against God's own design for our fulfillment. We need to let what we have heard from the beginning remain in us.
If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,
then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
John shows us that letting the doctrine we learned once continue to impact and direct our lives, to continue to protect us from the new forms the lies of the enemy continue to take, we need the anointing that shows us how to live the truth we know in any circumstance with which we are faced.
As for you,
the anointing that you received from him remains in you,
so that you do not need anyone to teach you.
This anointing sometimes makes us seem radical. It may cause us to do things which to the world seem to be the opposite of happiness. Jesus manifested the anointing of the Holy Spirit at his baptism, as the Spirit descended like a dove, but was immediately drawn to the desert.
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness (see Mark 1:12).
The anointing of the Spirit teaches us to seek true and lasting fulfillment over and against illusions. The anointing shows us how to walk in faith even when what we are called to do something which seems dangerous or unreasonable. It will turn out to be above reason and not below it, but at the time our only guide is the anointing we have from Christ.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19).
Our baptism is the reason why we share this anointing with Jesus. Just as the Spirit descended upon him at his own baptism and the Father acknowledged him as his Son, so too do we receive the Spirit, so too does the Father call us sons and daughters.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit (see Galatians 5:25).
Finally, let us remember who receives an anointing: priests, prophets, and kings. The words Messiah and Christ mean anointed one. The Holy Spirit is himself the anointing on Christ, and it is an anointing which we share by his mercy. Let's stop living like we've been left to our own devices. Let us walk by the Spirit we have been given.
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