He wore leather and lived off the grid. Way off… deep in the wilderness. He was beyond vegan, eating only locusts, washing them down with wild honey. He was a freak show – and a holy man. Crowds of people came out of the city to find him and hear his often harsh message: Repent! God is coming! Quit whining and return to the ways of your Creator.
They listened, they responded and went into the River Jordan in droves. They wondered if he was the prophet Elijah or even the long-awaited Messiah. They wanted to worship him. But that’s where he drew the line: Listen, I’m not the one you’re looking for. I’m just the advance man for a much bigger show. The opening act.
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.
Even after Jesus began his public ministry receiving John’s baptism, after Jesus began to draw the crowds and even some of John’s disciples, there were some who sought John. I imagine his message was easier to swallow, in many ways. "Stop sinning and start living righteously." Good and bad, black and white, not like Jesus' elliptical stories and counter-intuitive teachings that made no sense. John was simpler.
It can still be tempting to focus on the servants of God when they are really holy, fully devoted to loving and serving God, to confuse worshiper and worshiped. Clergy are taught to be wary of congregants projecting onto them qualities they want to see rather than the real, flawed human leader. Leaders of real holiness have the humility to know their function is to help lead people into relationship with Christ.
And when people are in a relationship with Jesus, they can go beyond the simplicity of “repent” and “be a better person.” They become ready to dwell in the both/and world of the father’s love for the sinner, the sister’s laying aside her needs for her family, the cheating tax collector becoming a great philanthropist, the slave trader becoming a forgiven servant.
John knew who he was, and who he wasn’t, and that makes him one of the greatest saints in history. And yet Jesus said, “the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” John got to usher people to the gates of the Kingdom; we get to live there.
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