We Must Pass Through John To Get To Jesus

There’s an old story of a Maine farmer who had some people pull up in front of his property. They were lost and asking for directions. He said, “Go down this road, take your second left, then take your first right and follow it to the end…”

The couple said, “Thank you!” and headed off.

A few minutes later, they appear back in front of the farmer’s house and say, ‘Excuse us…We followed your directions…We took the second left and then our first right and followed it to the end like you said. But it was a dead end…”

The farmer said, “Good. Now that I know that you know how to follow directions, here’s how you find your way…”

In many ways, Jesus is like the Maine farmer for would say to his followers, “OK, now that I know that you know how to follow the directions of John the Baptist, let me tell you how to live!”

In today’s readings, we hear from Malachi 1 where we’re told that there is a “messenger” coming to “prepare the way.” They will be a “prophet” to “turn the hearts of the people.”

Then in Luke 1, we hear more about the naming of John the Baptist. Everyone expected him to be called Zechariah like his father, but Elizabeth (who had been instructed by God), says that “his name will be John!” This created quite a buzz, and the people started to say amongst themselves, “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”

It has often been said in the Christian tradition that “you can’t get to Jesus without going through John.” And year after year during Advent, we encounter John the Baptist who tries to prepare us for this person of Jesus.

In order to prepare us, he literally invites us into and to learn from the wilderness and he instructs us to give away all that is extra in our lives.

Richard Rohr, OFM, calls this a “spirituality of subtraction.”

It has more to do with “letting go of what we do not need” and moving away from “getting, attaining, achieving, performing, or succeeding.”

This is no easy task in our culture.

Rohr sees St. Francis of Assisi as one who picked up this powerful tradition of both John and Jesus and as a person whose life and witness offers us the powerful spiritual disciplines of a simple life. Furthermore, Francis (like Jesus and John before him), saw the profound connections between violence and competition as part and parcel to a life of acquisition, consumption and always wanting more.

As we enter into the Christmas season – often a season of excess and tremendous waste in our culture – John the Baptist remains a persistent thorn in our side and a reminder that, as we welcome this baby Jesus into our midst, he will grow into an adult that will ask us to speak with his cousin John before we speak with him.