|
Gerry Gutierrez' Update
"John believed in himself and in his own message". June 6/17/GA. Matthew 3:1 to 12. "JOHN
WAS A MAN WITH GREAT ADVANTAGES." A preacher without a pulpit! John's parish was the desert. His
sermons were anointed sermons. His message was "Repent!" His
urgency was "the kingdom of heaven is near." His words were short,
precise, pithy, concise, brief, compact, succinct, focused on repentance. His zip code was the desert of Judea. His dress code was camel's
hair and leather belt. His diet was locust and honey. His voice was loud and
clear. His credential was "A prophesied, predicted and predestined
life." His claim to fame was " to be the cousin of Jesus." His
method was " direct straight forwardness". His daily occupation
was to baptize those who came in repentance and confession of sin. His dislikes were clear; while he welcome the penitent sinners and
touched them tenderly and baptize them; his strongest words were kept for the
religious establishments. "You blood of vipers! Who warned you to flee
from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance and do not
think you can say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our Father. I tell
you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is
already at the root of the tree, and every tree that does not produce good
fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.Ó "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will
come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not
fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His
winnowing fork is in his hands, and he will clear his threshing floor,
gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable
fire. The secret of a Great Preacher should be evident in this passage. "IF we
lift up Jesus, he will draw men into himself". Even in the desert of
loneliness, God will give his servants harvest of souls who will come invited
by the word of God and will come attracted by the sweet name of Jesus being
lift up by John as a faithful preacher and lover of Jesus. A man of God who lifts the name of the Son of God will be praise
by God as, "The greatest man born of Women". That
is what Jesus thought of John and testify about John. But the one thing it must not go unnoticed is that John is a man
full of advantages over the rich and the poor, the great and
the small. John is a free man over whom there was not the controlling power of
a corporation or the taskmaster looking over his shoulder just because he wrote
the checks of his salary. John refused salary and thus took away the whip of
the controlling taskmaster. His freedom was his advantage among the rich and powerful. Mammon
(Money) was a toothless Lion to John the Baptist. His poverty among the poor
took away the entitlement and self-pity from the hands of the poor. His message to them was "If I can live on locust and honey,
so can you." By word and deed John testified the sufficiency of Jesus in
his life and ministry. While others are paid to be good in the ministry, John was good
for nothing. There is another detail that we must not overlook in John. John
was in no way a man involved in self-pity, "the poor little me
syndrome". On the contrary, he spoke boldly as a true man invested with advantages. He
knew to be a man of power and naturally speak about it in a child like manner.
John said: "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will
come one who is more powerful than I whose sandals I am not
fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Hold Spirit and with fire". The eyes of John were open and he had made a proper assessment of
self and the world in 30 years of silence and came to the conclusion as to say,
"I am second only to Jesus". That was the truth and therefore not
arrogance of false humility, which can be more harmful because false humility
is also hypocrisy. Many may find questionable this line of reasoning and
sanctimoniously say, "no one should grade self and grant passing grades to
self so generously." To that I say: "No one knows self better as
oneself". I am not going to believe otherÕs definitions of me more than my
knowledge of myself before God. If my self examination in the closet of my
heart before God has not lead me to that conclusion of who I am in Jesus; then
Jesus is absent from my life and I need to repent like any other penitent. Then I will do well in keeping silent and refrain from preaching
to others until I believe in my own sermons and myself. I am sure there must be happier men
around the world than me, but I do not know them in their hearts. But I know my
self and I am a witness to my self first before I am to testify to others. The greatness of John was not on his diet, clothing or his
neighborhood or even in his relation to Jesus and Abraham. His greatness and humility resided in the proper assessment of
self and act accordingly even if that meant ostracism, which meant a temporary
exclusion by popular vote from society without trial from common privileges or
social acceptance, commonly practiced in ancient Greece. Definitely a man cannot please people and God at the same time.
John was a man for who even his name was already chosen before he was born.
John the unborn son of Elizabeth and Zachariah was able to recognize Jesus even
from the womb of her "old" mother by leaping at the sound of MaryÕs
voice pregnant with Jesus. Elizabeth as a pregnant old women must have been qualified to an
appointment with the sons of Doctor Kevorkian in the office of "Planned
Parenthood" as a high risk pregnancy and "life-threatening" to
the mother. Besides, what kind of Father would Zacharias be as a mute man? Even though John was the "powerful #2", he could not
"lift up and carry the sandal of Jesus" by his own admission. But
John was strong enough to go ahead of Jesus cleaning the way for who must have
been walking barefooted. Jesus who must have left his sandals at auntie
ElizabethÕs house that John should who have brought the sandal but found to
heavy to carry them, later he felt bad and decide instead to clean the path of
Jesus ahead of Jesus so his feet may not strike a rock or step on thorns. (By
the way, there is room for humor in the pulpit). Under the principle of
"pray and play", which is what it used to be the daily occupation in
the Garden of Eden at the cool of the Day. It is reasonable to our purified imagination to think of God in
Jesus still playing with us loving games like "Hide and go Seek". We
hide behind a tree and cover ourselves with fig leaves to cover our naked
bodies in shame, while God finds us and clothes us with temporary garments as
the prototype of the garment that his Son Jesus would purchase on the cross to
completely and effectively cover us. Thus God protect us from the flaming sword
of the angel at the entrance of Paradise at our return home. God in turn is seeking those who worship him in Spirit and truth. God also hides things, that eyes have not seen and ears have not
heard. When he hides, no one can find unless he reveals himself to those who
love him. Much in the same way Jesus plays with John who goes ahead of
"barefooted" Jesus cleaning the way for Jesus who seen to have lost
his sandals because according John; Jesus sometimes did not tied his sandals,
and John who was older the Jesus by few months felt "unworthy to tie his
sandals" and did not tie it and "unable to carry his sandalsÓ, John
found easier to clean the path for Jesus. But according Proverbs 5:21 "For the ways of man are before
the eyes of Jehovah; and he makes it level all his pathsÓ. So, who is cleaning and making level the paths? Imagine and laugh a little, it is ok to laugh. John walking backwards sweeping the path with some olive and fig
branches and can not see well because of the dust that behind him Jehovah is
sweeping the path for John and Jesus. I got a kick out of imagining the grin of God at the thought of
John taking his job so seriously that even to forget to smile and preach
"kindly" and not as one clouded by the dust of service to God that
sometimes causes people to lose vision. John seem to preach kind and short messages of repentance and
grace to the sinners, but his face changed to a frown in displeasure when he
spoke to religious people who should have known better but were specialists in
making excuses to neglecting duty with all kinds of arguments such as being
affiliated to Abraham as his children. John the Baptist as witness of Jesus has set and example of
serving Jesus with Power and authority. He believed in himself and he believed
in his own message. Do not expect other to believe that which you yourself do
not believe to be true totally. I am a witness of Jesus by the will of God who testifies to
the beloved elect of God. Gerry Gutierrez
|