JUNE 24TH, 2018: BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIZER Isaiah 49:1-6
Acts 13:22-26
Luke 1:57-66, 80 It’s almost impossible to imitate biblical saints, mainly because our sacred authors rarely portray them in ways that can be imitated. Since these unique writers depict these saintly people against the background of faith, they traditionally emphasize some characteristics and completely omit others. We’re left hanging in mid-air, convinced there’s nothing in their lives that pertains to mine. John the Baptizer provides a classic example. How can we imitate someone who’s been set apart from all eternity to be the precursor of the Messiah; his birth announced by an angel, his mission in life determined by God before his conception? Reading today’s gospel and second reading, it’s clear that John, unlike ourselves, never had the slightest doubt of what he should be doing in life. Day by day he just had to step up and fill in the blanks. Yet historians and Scripture scholars tell us that ideal picture isn’t the actual John. It’s the image which Christians gradually formed a generation of so after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Not everyone in first century CE Palestine shared that image. There were still disciples of John centuries later who believed he, not Jesus, had been the Messiah. If the historical Baptizer had said the exact things the evangelists claimed he’d said, how could there be any doubt about who the Messiah was? Obviously Jesus’ disciples looked at John from a different perspective than most others looked at him. For them, he was Jesus’ precursor; the person who plowed the field this Galilean carpenter would later plant. Christians put John in a category most of the people he actually encountered never noticed. That’s why, as far as imitation goes, today’s Deutero-Isaiah pericope is “where it’s at.” Today’s first reading is the second song of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh; a reflection by the prophet on how he personally looks at his own ministry. It’s completely unfiltered. I have no doubt John the Baptizer could have easily identified with this 6th century BCE prophet. The song begins with Deutero-Isaiah stating his belief that he had totally failed at the mission he presumed Yahweh had given him; to bring the Chosen People back to their God. “I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength.” Though convinced Yahweh had called him “from his mother’s womb,” given him unique gifts, and sent him to the depressed Jews in exile, he was never able to fulfill God’s trust in him. But much to the prophet’s surprise, Yahweh rewards him for his failure! “It is too little for you . . . to raise up the tribes of Jacob; . . . I will make you a light to the nations (Gentiles), that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Instead of getting punished, he’s given a promotion! I presume, just before his beheading, the historical Baptizer must have also thought he failed. He certainly didn’t convert Herod, nor did he turn huge numbers of Israelites back to Yahweh. Knowing nothing about his role in Jesus’ ministry, he simply presumed he’d screwed things up. The followers of one of his disciples eventually gave him a promotion he could never have imagined. Rarely do we succeed in the work the risen Jesus gives us. Usually we’re not even certain what that work consists in. We simply plod along day by day, discovering what God expects of us on that particular day. Just as John only discovered the part he actually played in God’s big picture, so we’ll probably follow the same path. There’s a lot we can’t imitate in his gospel life, yet the most important aspect of John’s life – his dedication to God in thick and thin – is right down our alley.
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