MATTHEW 3: 1-12 

Matthew in the Margins…Advent 2…Revised 2019

Can John, fascinating character that he is, also be a distraction? Long after his death, there were those who persisted in following him rather than the Jesus to whom JB pointed. Not helpful! 

Is true wilderness a matter of interior, spiritual geography? If that’s true, & I believe it is, is there any point in desperately seeking physical ‘Jordans’ of one kind or another to cross in the hope of deepening our spirituality? 

JB speaks to the people in heart language, not head language. Heart language is directed to the heart of our human problem: sin (separation from God) through disobedience, rebellion. Are we ourselves speaking ‘heart language’ or just the old head stuff? 

Without pre-empting next Sunday’s Gospel, is Jesus a ‘puzzlement’ to JB, as the King of Siam might have said to Mrs. Anna? And, maybe, vice-versa? How much is either Jesus, or JB, a puzzlement to the other? Or, to us & those round us today?

I think it was Dom Crossan who said somewhere that JB preaches God as coming where Jesus models God as already present. What JB is on about out there in his wilderness is telling people about God, & preparing us for God, whereas Jesus is showing us what God is like by being God! As we go about our daily lives, are we doing more telling, or more showing through being the Body of Christ? 

When I started primary school I was in ‘Beginners’ in one half of a divided room. Miss. C, the teacher on the other side of the partition was always shouting at the kids & belting them with the leather strap Victorian - in both senses - schools used back then. We littlies all lived in terror of being promoted. But, God is good! I developed a severe dose of Whooping Cough, & by the time I’d recovered, our family had moved & I went to a different school where no-one shouted at you! If I’m unfair hinting JB shouted at people, I guess he did, compared with Jesus showing people how to live? 

When Jesus asks for baptism, the heavens open, & God acknowledges His beloved Son, JB recognises Jesus as the Lamb of God. The One who is going to pick up all our pain & division & separation & broken-ness & put us together again. How well are we living out our put-togetherness as distinct from simply re-telling it?

Brian

Afterthought: Turning from something or somebody without as a consequence turning to something, or, better still, Someone, is an invitation to a vacuum to possess us. If that sounds a contradiction in terms, don’t let’s put it to the test.