On the other hand, it was kind of flattering. And I got to thinking… isn’t that what we all
want to be mistaken for? Jesus? Really – if you and I are living the life of
a true Christian, then when people see us, they really SHOULD see Jesus.
Do you think that would be possible?
I want to propose to you that we are like a statue… a sculptor
starts with a plain block of wood or marble…, but by the time they lay down
their tools, an image has appeared. That
image was there all along – it just had to be revealed.
After creating the famous statue of David, someone asked
Michangelo how he did it… “It’s easy”, he said, “I just chip away anything that
doesn’t look like David”.
Same goes for you and me – we start out as a block of wood or
marble – but our goal is to look like Jesus.
His image is already IN us – after all, God MADE us in His image… we
just have to reveal it. So we gotta chip
away anything in our self that doesn’t look like Jesus. How do we do that? Let’s look at the Gospel.
Whenever
we hear of John the Baptist, we hear about ‘a
voice of one crying out in the desert’… but what was he saying? Just before our reading today, John just
delivered a real fire and brimstone sermon...YOU BROOD OF VIPERS! THE TREE THAT DOESN’T BARE GOOD FRUIT WILL BE CUT DOWN AND THROWN INTO THE
FIRE! He’s
not politically correct, but He got people’s attention, and they were
scared...”what do we do?” “I don’t want to be thrown into the
fire…. What do I do?”
What
SHOULD we do? What if someone asked YOU
what they had to do to please God? How
would you answer?
Sell
everything and give the money to the poor?
Go serve in the slums of Calcutta or Haiti? Give your life as a martyr?
Notice
that’s not what John says… instead John gives them the mundane, almost boring answer:...
Basically, do what you already know is the right thing. Soldiers don’t
falsely accuse anyone. Tax collectors,
stop collecting more than the correct amount.
If anyone has two coats and sees someone in need, give one to them! This is not rocket science or anything hard
to do… just “do what you already know is right!”
That may
sound simple – but is it? Let me give an example of what John might say
to us today. Drivers – just drive the speed limit and no more. What?!
OK, John – you’ve gone too far now.
You can’t be serious! Everybody knows the speed limit is more like
a ‘suggestion’ and as long as you stay within 5 miles per hour or so,
there’s no problem… everybody does it… you can’t expect ME to be the exception! Besides, if I drive the speed limit there will
always be somebody riding my tail upset with me. I can’t do that. Everybody is doing
it – and you can’t expect ME to be the exception. Isn’t that what the tax collector
would have said? What?! I HAVE to collect more than the prescribed
amount in order to feed my family.
Besides, everybody is doing it – and everybody expects me to
do it… you can’t expect ME to be the exception. If I stop collecting extra, then the other
tax collectors will be upset with me because it will make it more obvious that
THEY are cheating.
So – you can see –John’s demand wasn’t such a painless command
after all. Eventually, if we want to be like Jesus, we just might have to go to
Calcutta or give our life as a martyr… but we start by whittling
away at our little sinful behaviors that we’ve
grown so accustomed to. In everything we
do – we should do the right thing – not doing what everybody else is doing . Yeah – we’ll stand out in the crowd.
Kinda like John- he was a FREAK – wearing furs, eating bugs,
living in the wilderness… But did you notice that people were mistaking John
for Jesus… they thought maybe John was the messiah.
That’s our goal… to be mistaken for Jesus. Every one of us CAN be…. We just gotta keep
chipping away anything about ourselves that doesn’t look like Jesus.
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