A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
Make straight his paths.
John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor
and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
- Matthew 3:1-12
Can you imagine what it would have been like to encounter John the Baptist? The Gospels paint a very vivid portrait of him: out in the desert, wearing camel hair and eating locusts and honey. If we met such a person today, we would probably think that he was insane and would go out of our way to avoid him. I’m sure many people in his time had the same reaction. Of all of the characters we read about in Scripture, John is definitely one of the most unusual.
But did you ever stop to think about why he was that way? John is the last of the prophets before the coming of the Messiah. His place in salvation history was to call the people of Israel back to God and to look at the way they were living their lives. This meant actually living the life he preached about. John saw a world in which the leaders of the Jewish community were, on the outside, law-abiding models of what it meant to be a follower of the God of Abraham, but in reality they were hypocrites who did not actually practice what they preached and were more concerned with appearing to be good than actually being good. John wanted to show by his outward appearance and actions that what is most important is not the things of this world, but that we are all called to try harder to live a life of repentance and love.
Yet John’s words were not intended just for the people of that time, but are meant for all of us. Each of us has areas in our life where we don’t follow our own advice or do what we know is right. We often say, “Do what I say, not what I do.” John is calling us to reconsider that idea and actually do what we know is the right thing to do. Rather than just paying lip service to the idea of living out the Gospel, we are being called to actively proclaim Jesus and His love to all of those around us. This is the true message of Advent and Christmas. Just as Jesus came to us as a tiny infant on Christmas, we are called to bring Him to those we encounter. So this Advent season, take some time to pray about how you can reform your life. How can you become more like Christ to others? What can you do to produce good fruit? How can I be more like John?