Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 2, 2014 -
[1 John 2:22-28 and John 1:19-28]"What are you then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No." So they said to him, "Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?" He said, "I am 'the voice of one crying out in the desert. Make straight the way of the Lord.'"
John the Baptist was introduced in the "Prologue" to the Gospel of John, so his appearance in the story is to be expected. The prologue also makes it clear that John the Baptist was not "the light." But the messengers from the religious authorities in Jerusalem didn't have the prologue to warn them. So, there seems to be a kind of game of "Twenty Questions" going on. John doesn't seem to fit any of the important figures in the expectations of the authorities.
Scripture scholars tell us that those "expectations" varied widely among the Jews of Jesus' time. We see some of them in questions that the disciples asked Jesus about "the kingdom." Even Pilate had his questions about Jesus' role in the world!
Our questions are important as much for what they say about us as they are about the information they can elicit about someone else! We don't always stop and question ourselves about our own questions! Are we making an honest inquiry or do we have an "agenda" in which the questions are meant to have a certain effect like embarrassment? [Politicians and journalists know this kind very well!] As we read through the gospels, our own faith shapes its expectations about the important actors: Who is he? What do I expect? Why? AMEN