THE MESSAGE IS THE SAME

There are times in our lives when we all need a wake-up call. We live our lives from day to day, day in and day out, one day turning into the next, one year after another. Nothing much changes around us and we do not change. At the end of the year when we often, for one reason or another – maybe because it is the end of the year and it is something good to do – we take time to look back on the preceding three hundred sixty some days. What we often discover is that we don’t see that much has changed in our lives. This year looks very much like last and next year bodes the same. Life goes on.

Such is our life and such were the lives of the people of John the Baptist’s time. Perhaps back then those who came out to hear John only came out because he was different. He looked differently, dressed differently, ate a different menu than they did. Perhaps they had nothing better to do on the day they set out for the Jordan River. Perhaps. Once they arrived and were able to get past John’s appearance and everything else about him, many of them began to listen to what he had to say. They listened intently.

As they listened, they began to think about their own lives. They began to understand John was speaking as much to them as he was to anyone else. He wasn’t just lashing out at the people in power, although he was doing that, but it was more than that. For these mainly curiosity seekers John’s message was a wake-up call.

After they left John and went back home and took more time to reflect on what they heard, they began to examine their lives. What they discovered was a void: something was missing. And as they reflected further, what they found missing was a certain seriousness about life and about the way they lived their lives.

They discovered they had been living day to day without much thought as to why they were doing what they were doing, about what life was all about, about what their own lives were about. They discovered that they needed to take charge of their lives, to get serious with themselves and even with their God.

And they did, at least many of them did. But not all. Many of them, even after realizing John’s wake-up call was addressed to them, decided it was too much work, took too much of an effort to make any serious reforms in their lives. And so they went back to the same-old same-old. Some of those who did not, who took John’s message seriously and to heart, eventually became Jesus’ disciples. 

Nothing has changed, has it? John’s message is a real and alive and is addressed to us today just as it was to those who heard that message almost 2000 years ago. The question for them back then and for us today is one and the same: How will we respond? How will I respond? Will I listen to John’s words and take the time to seriously reflect on them, do the work to change what needs to be changed even though it may be difficult, or will I nod my head in agreement and do little or nothing?

Those who listened to John had that choice. So do you and I? What will we/I do?