Now remember this, the poor guy couldn’t help himself. Yeah, he was a little strange, weird even, in how he dressed and lived. That kind of thing though can be changed with some help from people who care. Then again, his parents were OLD when he was born, so he likely had lived for quite some time on his own. His early years were mostly around the religious kind, so he’d been indoctrinated with all the ancient writings. Again, a little education can give a different perspective. But about this, there was no way around it, away from it, just through it.

JTB was sent. Get that? Sent. And with that, there was a compulsion. He, for the most part, lived in the wilderness, the kind of place where when nothing good is around you, God shows up. In the uninhabitable, forbidding, empty regions of life, God speaks to the soul. To John the Baptist, a message had been given there. He was sent to proclaim it.

In the Bleak Midwinter

Light shines in darkness! Right there, in this bleak territory, John shouted a message that there was light for the people. The One who would change life was coming; One who would bring the hope, peace and even the joy one needs to not just live but thrive in this existence. Light has the unstoppable characteristic of shining in the most dubious places, those parts that are not familiar with truth and clarity. Whatever wrong and negative setting or context sits in the shadows is forced to change, reconcile, reverse itself in the bright gleam—or hide itself deeper in the recesses it inhabits.

Light shines in the darkness! In the dark place of wilderness, people came to hear this message from the one sent by God. They had been waiting for such a messenger, waiting actually for centuries to be delivered from this life that had dashed hope, destroyed peace and held no joy. So they came to hear this strange guy in this wilderness place, to hear and prepare for the One he said would soon come.

Light shines in the darkness! They came to hear the message, and the crowd it attracted was noticed by those for whom this good news was maybe not such good news. For those who held the power, for those who thought they were the ones God should have given the message, for those whose true motives the Light revealed, this was not good news. It was dangerous.

They had to check it out. Now some others were sent, but this time from those who had a lot to lose by John’s message. Oh, they looked like the good guys, priests and assistants in the Temple. Yet, it was in the asking they revealed themselves.

Interrogation

So the grilling began. Their questions come with rapid fire, likely surrounding him with their powerful presence. Anyone who’s been tied to a chair with an intense lamp in the face knows what they were about. This poor guy who’s got nothing to his name except an intense belief in a God whom they will never know is drilled.

“Are you the Messiah?” He flatly denies it.

“Who are you? Elijah? The Prophet?” He insists, “NO. NO.”

They change the tactic. “Tell us, so we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?” Come on, guy. Work with us here. You help us and we can help you.

He tells them what they already know. “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare a straight pathway for the Lord’s coming!’” (Isaiah 40:3)

Make it easy on him. Challenge what he’s doing. Discredit him in front of the people. Reveal him for the lunatic he is. If he isn’t the one the ancient writings said would precede the Messiah, then he’s just a nobody. A nobody with no right to baptize or call people to prepare themselves because there’s no one coming. Forget this guy. “If you aren’t the Messiah [or any of the other prophets], what right do you have to baptize?”

Warning in the Promise

John knows who he is, and John knows the One who sent him. He tells it like it is. The Coming One is here, and you know what, I’m not worthy to even bow to him as a servant and remove his sandals. In other words, if you are threatened by me and this message, if your phony positions won’t stand up in the face of this declaration, if I scare you in the least, then here’s your bad news. Someone is coming after me who’s going to really upset this scene and who will reveal you for what you are not. Light shines in the darkness!

JTB, you won that round. You couldn’t help it. You were chosen and sent so the people would be ready, have it on their radar that God was on the move. The old stories of a new day were about to come true, happen right before their eyes. The season of preparation, expectation, change, and reversal was now! Light shines in the darkness!

Good News/Bad News

Yes. The religious leaders left to give their appraisal of this desert mystic. But. The stage was set, the lines were drawn, the watch began. Good news for those who would find new, abundant, eternal life in God by following the Coming One also meant bad news for his messenger. John would eventually lose his life for this proclamation.

He wouldn’t be the only one. Throughout the centuries of all time, when authority is threatened or when a message is declared that upsets the status quo, the messenger must be stopped. Whoever displaces the influencers and controllers or whatever breaks down the supremacy of one group over another must be silenced. When lifestyle changes are required, when personal self is valued above the greater good, when power must give way to the powerless, that voice must be polluted. Darkness is the fate of those sent with good news that life can be otherwise.

Yet the message itself never does stop. Two thousand years, and Light shines in the darkness still. The message points to the Coming One. Hope, Peace, and Joy still are possible. That is the Good News.

John 1:6-8,19-28 

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