Not the Guy
Imagine for a moment that your claim to fame is that you are not the one, not the important figure everyone is anxious to find.
Such is the case with the man we remember today, John the Baptizer.
John answered, 'No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, "I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him." - John 3:27-28
Now there are many reasons we might not want to be the guy, the one in charge, the leader, the target. But for John, it was more a matter of humility and grace than of not wanting the responsibility or not wanting to be the one the authorities would go after.
In fact, it was John's criticism of authority that got him arrested and put to death.
Luke sets the stage for John by describing his birth, defining his relationship with Jesus, as the son of Elizabeth, Mary's cousin. The aging Elizabeth and the virgin child Mary gives us a kind of old ringing in the new symbolism that is hard to ignore.
From the beginning, we know John is going to be different. His father, Zechariah, loses his voice and is prevented from speaking until he declares John's name and accepts him as one given a special mission in life.
John is described as a wilderness man, someone who dresses and eats strangely, living on the edge, though he may have been an Essene, a member of a secluded Jewish sect living in Qumran, the place of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
We see him as a prophet, one speaking for God about the arrival of the Messiah, the one to come after him who was greater than he.
Yet Jesus tells us that among all the angels in heaven there is none greater than John.
Despite all of John's preaching, his followers saw him as someone special, the guy who would help them get a handle on their lives, to repent and turn back to God.
We need more Johns in the world, people who claim no fame for themselves, but seek to help others find their mission, their presence, their closeness to God.
Perhaps on this day that marks the remembrance of his birth, we can find a little time to do just that, to be the voice in the wilderness for someone we find wandering there in need of being found, being loved.
So, let us go out today and not be the guy. It may just help someone else be themselves.
More to come...