Download Advent 2A – 2016 edit

John the Baptist is a very important figure in the
Gospel narratives – he is a major character in the
Gospel three Sundays each year and he also has a
major Holy Day. My hope today is to give you some
background on John and explain how his life and
witness to Jesus is relevant to Christians today. Let’s
start by looking at who John is.
Saint Matthew tells us that “John wore clothing of
camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and
his food was locusts and wild honey.” For the record,
this was eccentric behavior even back then. John was
literally a sight to behold and that may have been part
of the reason why, as Saint Matthew says: “the people
of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and
all the region along the Jordan…”
I lived in Times Square for five years. If that was all
you told me about John the Baptist, I’d assume he was
some sort of ancient version of a Times Square
attraction – like the Naked Cowboy – that anyone
visiting town had to see and snap a photo of – or
better yet, take a selfie with!
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The picture that Saint Matthew paints is extreme, but
his description of John serves an important purpose.
If you know your Scriptures and Saint Matthew does –
you will recognize a parallel to a major figure from
Israelite history. In Chapter 8 of the First Book of the
Kings we get a vivid description of the Prophet Elijah:
He is described as “A hairy man, with a leather belt
around his waist.” That should sound familiar: “Now
John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt
around his waist.”
That diet of locusts and honey doubles down on the
image of John as an ascetic – aka “a person who
practices severe self-discipline and abstention for
religious reasons” – an ascetic straight out central
casting from the ancient Near East. In short, John is
not just a Wildman, he is a holy man who is on par
with Elijah, and that is something that Saint Matthew’s
readers would probably have understood well from his
description – and if they missed this implicit
comparison to Elijah, the evangelist makes it explicit
in Chapters 11 and 17 when Jesus states that John the
Baptist is indeed the new Elijah.
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Knowing that, I think, allows us to begin to make
sense of why all of the people “were baptized by him
in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” It is clear
from all four Gospel accounts that the people really,
really believed that John the Baptist was a holy man
and an Elijah-like prophet. When he told them to
repent and be baptized, they did it.
Among “all the people” are the Pharisees and
Sadducees, who are making their first of many
appearances in the Gospel and who also have arrived
in the scene to be baptized by John. As a 21st century
Christian who grew up with and has gotten used to the
Pharisees and Saducees as the “bad guys” the words of
John the Baptist don’t surprise me. I think though,
that a first century pious Jewish person who was
reading this Gospel for the first time would probably
find John’s treatment of them jarring. Elijah was most
certainly a Holy Man. But the Pharisees and
Sadducees were supposed to be the then present day
holy men.
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And John doesn’t mince words. Not only are they “a
brood of vipers”, they are religious leaders who have
the gall to presume their own salvation based simply
on their ancestry. They are caretakers of the law who
do not bear fruit of repentance, and for that they will
be thrown like chaff into the unquenchable fire.
Not only that, one who is greater than John is coming
who will bring the Holy Spirit and the fire of
judgment.
These are fighting words and it prepares anyone
reading the Gospel for the first time or reminds
anyone who already knows the story, that the
Pharisees and Sadducees are adversaries, and in fact
they turn out to be enemies.
This scene sets the stage for one of the main narrative
questions of the entire Gospel – how could it have
been that the recognized holy people were against
Jesus of Nazareth, who was not just a holy man but
the living Son of God?
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That question is answered over and over again
throughout the Gospel:
 the various religious leaders rebuke Jesus’ merciful
words and deeds toward those who are
marginalized or oppressed,
 they hold a literal and legalistic view of the law
rather than and one that interprets all scripture
through a lens of love,
 and finally they determine to kill him.
They may look and sound pious, but their actions are
the opposite of God who commands us to “love one
another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love
one another. By this everyone will know that you are
my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
What might that mean for Christians today? Two
things: We are called to true repentance by John and
commanded to love by Jesus.
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John’s call to repent goes unheeded by the Pharisees
and to anyone who refuses to prayerfully consider the
affect that their words and actions have on others.
And it doesn’t make it any worse that they did it to
Jesus. The last parable that Jesus tells in Matthew’s
Gospel is the parable of the Last Judgment. You
know the ending: “Lord, when was it that we saw you
hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in
prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will
answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it
to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’”
It’s easy to sit back and pat yourself on the back and
say “I’m one of the good guys”. Are you really? Am
I? That’s the question John asks us all.
True repentance requires examination of the things we
say or write or do, and identifying specific sins,
specific things that impair our relationship with God
or our neighbor.
Repentance requires taking action to stop doing those
sins we have identified.
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Ah, but what if my neighbors are trying to hurt me or
what if they hate me? It certainly is easier said than
done to say “Turn the other cheek” or “go the extra
mile” but if Christians are honest, we should
remember that both John the Baptist and Jesus
remained in dialogue with those who hated them, and
that continued all the way until each of them was
killed. And there are many examples of people of
faith who have followed in their footsteps.
A Christian journey of faith involves walking that line
between “making no peace with oppression” as our
prayer book says so eloquently and “loving your
enemy” as our Lord commanded us to do. I can’t tell
you how to walk that line – I have a hard enough time
with it myself. But I think the life and witness of both
John the Baptist and Jesus Christ is a good reminder
that walking in the footsteps of John the Baptist and
Jesus Christ requires that we continually strive for true
repentance and do our best to love even those who
might mean us harm.
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