CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Preparing the Way
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
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.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
- John 1:6-8, 19-28
As we walk the way of love with Jesus, we aspire to share his love with the world. Sometimes we do this through praying for others or in unheralded acts of kindness, sometimes by sharing our faith and sometimes by marching in protest.
There must, however, be no confusion of ourselves with God. God’s way of loving infinitely outstrips ours. When we have experienced something of how God loves, we will know in our bones that the power and depth of God’s loving is impossible for us. We are creatures. God is the creator. We have no ability to do what God does. God’s love grounds and infinitely outstrips our loving actions. God’s truth grounds and infinitely outstrips our attempts at truthful speech.
This humble awareness of how we are intimately connected to God, yet how God is infinitely greater than we are—this is precisely the awareness that John the Baptist bears witness to in the Gospel for this Sunday.
[John] said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. Now [those questioning John] had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”
So great was John—and so powerful was the symbol of baptism—that people thought he might actually be the Messiah, the one who would make real God’s community on earth and fulfill God’s ancient promise to redeem all creation. To many it appeared that John himself was the Light, the very breaking-in of God in the world.
But John, whom Jesus called "the greatest ever born of woman," had enough experience of God to know he was infinitely small when compared to Jesus. John knew he was not worthy to untie the thong of Jesus’ sandal. John baptized with water; Jesus baptized with Holy Spirit. For all John’s undoubted greatness, for all that he was filled with the Spirit, John could not do God’s own work. At best he could prepare the way for God, making straight the way of the Lord, who would accomplish infinitely more.
Such humility is salutary for us. We cannot love as God loves. We cannot show truth with the depth and wholeness that God shows truth. The greatness of God’s love and God’s truthfulness is our joy and celebration, but is not for us to execute. But at the same time, our small acts of love, our small attempts at greater truthfulness, are precious. They are not meaningless. Our human striving for love and truthfulness, our small acts of kindness and courage and justice—while they do not deliver God to humankind, they do prepare the way for God to come to others in God’s time and in God’s way.
This is our human role. It is simple. It is humble. It bears a special, even exquisite joy of knowing how infinitely greater God is than us, how God’s promise to redeem us is inevitable, and yet how we prepare the way for God’s redemptive work in other’s lives even now.
The Rev. Robert Fruehwirth is the rector of St. Matthew's, Hillsborough.
Tags: Caminando with Jesus
