12-12-17 - Who I'm Not

It may be hard for us to understand the excitement that John the Baptist’s appearance in the Judean wilderness unleashed among the people of Israel. After centuries of oppression under a succession of foreign armies, years of exile still a distinct memory, the people of God were desperate for a deliverer. That desire became conflated with prophecies about a Messiah. In a time of religious foment, anyone who seemed to have spiritual power drew attention. And any time a spiritual person came into the limelight, the religious leaders needed to check him out. (I don’t know if they were all “hims,” but that’s all we hear about…) So it was that John was investigated and interrogated.

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’  (This Sunday's gospel is here.)

He doesn’t answer their innocuous first question, “Who are you?” directly, but instead answers the question he knows they are asking. “I’ll tell you who I’m not – I am not the Messiah.” That must have been refreshing to hear, in an age when many falsely claimed that title.

They press on, asking if he is the prophet Elijah returned to the life of this world – no physical death is recorded in the Bible for Elijah; we’re told he was taken up in a whirlwind, so people looked for his return and John seemed to fit the bill. “Are you the prophet?,” probably meaning Moses. He answer’s “no” to all these, and never answers the question, “Who are you.” John defines himself – at least to these interrogators – by who he is not.

Is there something in this for us? We’re encouraged to become aware of who we are, in our deepest and truest identity, and there is something holy in that. Yet part of that work involves knowing who we are not. We are not our mothers or fathers; we are not the people we most admire, or fear to be. We are ourselves, with our unique mix of gifts and flaws and baggage and circumstances.

And we need to know who we are not spiritually – not the One in charge; not the savior; not the healer or prophet, though we may be conduits of the power to heal and speak God’s truth. Recovery from addiction and co-dependency often involves stepping out of those false roles.

Self-knowledge is grounded in humility and clarity. Treasuring who it is that God has made us to be, and being clear about who that is, allows us to become even more fully ourselves in God’s grace, and even more fully freed of all that is not.

I will tell again the story of a little girl who stopped on her way home from school every day to chat with a sculptor making a statue in a park. Over the months she watched as the block of stone became a discernible figure, and finally one day, when he was almost finished, said, “Hey mister, how did you know there was a lion in there?”

Who do you say that you’re not?

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