Is
49:3, 5-6; I Cor 1:1-3; Jn 1:29-34
There are many
signs in nature that foreshadow the natural events. When the Scarlet Pimpernel
opens people know that the weather will be sunny; when it closes tightly rain
is expected. So, this flower has been called the "poor man’s weather
glass". When the petals of the Morning Glory open it indicates fine
weather, and the shut petals predict rain and bad weather.
Dust storms are
common in desert areas. When strong winds pick up large amounts of loose sand,
and travel on the horizon looking like a solid wall of debris and dust the
desert dwellers know that there is an impending dust storm. When there is large
thunderhead clouds and wind picks up, people expect a thunderstorm.
There was a
great turmoil in the desert of Jordan raised by a man who lived there, John the
Baptist. In the Jordanian desert Very
few plants grow. Very few animals live there. It has bad soil. The soil has
chalk in it. Stones and rocks cover the ground. Still, multitudes of people
crossed it. They went to see the new prophet, John the Baptist, who began his
work suddenly. There had been many prophets since Moses. The Jews knew this.
But after the time of Malachi, no prophet had spoken for 400 years. People
wanted very much to hear from God. So, People began to talk about him. John
wore simple clothes. He ate ‘wild honey and locusts’. He lived a very simple
life. He did not have a home. He did not have any possession. He shouted out
his message (Matthew 3:2), and his message raised a storm of conversion.
Sending envoys
to prepare the way for the arrival of a king or a dignitary is not unknown to
us. That practice is as old as the establishment of the monarchy. There is
nothing unusual in that. So, when the “King of kings” and the “Lord of lords”
came into the world, He sent an envoy to prepare a way for Him: John the Baptist.
However, the kind of envoy that was sent was as different and unusual as the
kind of King he was supposed to announce.
God already had
prepared the way for this envoy some 800 years ago when the prophet Isaiah made
this announcement about his coming:
A voice is
calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the
desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain
and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged
terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all
the flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah
40:3-5).
A few hundred
years later came the prophet Malachi, who made a similar announcement:
“Behold, I am going
to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom
you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant,
in whom you delight, behold He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts (Malachi
3:1).
Mathew describes
the storm raised by John. “Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and
all the districts around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the
Jordan River, as they confessed their sins” (Matthew 3:5-6).
The message of
John the Baptist was essentially– prepare and repent.
Prepare for the
coming of God’s Messiah. Prepare for the coming of your King. Be washed, be
cleansed, become pure in heart; in your thought, and in your mind. Repent, turn
around, and change your life. This was the message they found – get ready! So
that Jesus can come into you and live.
As a dramatic
sign of the inner change that John was demanding, he offered the outward sign
of baptism, plunging a person desirous of a new life into the deep waters of
the River Jordan. It was the first time in Jewish History that the Jews
received Baptism.
John’s fearless
denouncement of evil, and summon for righteousness prepared the way for Jesus
to make His entry. Then, John pointed beyond himself. John was not only a light
to illuminate evil, a voice to rebuke sin, but he was also a sign post to God.
It was not himself he wished men to see, he wished to prepare them for Jesus.
John said of Jesus, “He who comes after me was before me. He is the one who is
going to baptise with the Holy Spirit.”
When the Spirit
takes possession of a man a transformation takes place. First of all, his life
will be illumined. There comes to him the knowledge of God and God’s will. He
knows what God’s purpose is. He knows what life means. He knows where duty
lies. God’s wisdom and light comes to him. The first parents were tempted with
this light, “When you eat of it, you will be like God knowing good and
evil.”(Gen 3:4).
Ten 20th century
Christian martyrs from across the world are depicted in statues above the Great
West Door of Westminster Abbey in London. They were Unveiled in 1998 by Her
Majesty, The Queen of UK.
Esther John
stands in the centre of these statues, with the following inscription.
"In an age where conversion to a new faith
provokes fear and hatred
"Leave all
other ties, Jesus is calling."
Esther John was
born in Qamar Zia, India, on 14 October 1929, one of seven children. As a child
she attended a government school and, after the age of seventeen, a Christian
school. There she was profoundly moved by the transparent faith of one of her
teachers, and she began to read the Bible earnestly. She was suddenly overtaken
by a sense of conversion to this new religion.
Her Christian
faith grew privately, even secretly. Then, seven years later, she ran away from
home, fearful of the prospect of marriage to a non-Christian husband. In April
1959 she completed her studies there and moved to Chichawatni. She evangelized
in the villages, travelling from one to the other by bicycle, teaching women to
read and working with them in the cotton fields. On 2 February 1960 Esther John
was brutally murdered. Her body was taken to the Christian cemetery at Sahiwal
and buried. Later, a memorial chapel was built in front of the nurse's home in
the grounds of the hospital there. Today, Esther John is remembered with
devotion by the Christian community with whom she lived and worked.
21 centuries ago
John pointed out Jesus to the world. In the last century, when the Spirit had
taken possession of Esther John, she was able to point out Jesus to our world.
Secondly, when
the Spirit takes possession of a man, his life will be strengthened. Knowledge
without power is a haunting and frustrating thing. But the Spirit gives us not
only knowledge to the right but also strength and power to do so. The early
Christian community experienced it. So, when their faith was challenged, and
their life was threatened, the Spirit strengthened them. Hence, many of them
courageously embraced death. So did, Esther John, in the last century.
Thirdly, when
the Spirit takes possession of a man, his life will be purified. Jesus’ baptism
with the Spirit was to be a baptism of fire. All the evil in life will be
burned away until we become clean and pure. Hence, the apostles were able to
challenge their enemies, when they were presented before the rulers to be
condemned, guilty.
The Church,
today, admonishes us to allow the Spirit to illumine, strengthen and purify our
lives.
-Satish