Robert Barron - The Voice of One Crying Out in the Desert
Peace be with you. Friends, for this Third Sunday of Advent, the Church asks us to focus on John the Baptist, who of course is one of the great Advent figures. I might've shared this with you before, but my mind always goes back to one of my favorite places on earth, which is the Cathedral of Chartres outside of Paris, which I visited many times when I was a student over in France. And there's a sculpture of John the Baptist on the north porch that is so eloquent in just the longing in his face. It's that quality I talked about a couple of weeks ago of "O come, O come, Emmanuel", waiting for someone to come. Take a look at it. But I always think of that when I read about John the Baptist. And the Gospel for today, taken from John's Gospel, offers one of the most famous lines in regard to John, and I'll get there.
Here's, I think, what we need to see first of all, is that John the Baptist really caused a ruckus in his time and place. He was the son of a temple priest, and that means that he should've been in the temple. Likely, John was raised in the temple precincts. He was being prepared for that task. But instead of being in the temple, he's out in the desert, not eating the fine food that the priests in the temple would've had, but eating locusts and honey; not in the fine clothes of a priest, but in animal skins. In that desert place, he preaches with powerful eloquence, and the crowds begin to come; again, not going to the temple, where they would normally go to be taught and so on, they're coming out in the desert to hear him. He's offering, furthermore, a baptism for the repentance of sins.
Well, one went to the temple for that, too. One would've gone through the mikvah bath to prepare for a sacrifice. Well, now John's doing a kind of mikvah bath out in the desert. And he's so compelling a figure that he's drawing the nation to him. So, here's what I want you to see. Here's this great religious preacher, a great speaker of religious truth. Here's someone who is offering a word of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Here's someone who is living this radically ascetical life. Can we see in John the Baptist someone who sums up all of the natural religiosity of the human race? Think of all the great religious figures around the world, across the various cultures.
Does John express in his manner of being, in his religious practice, the summation of all of that? Think for a second. He's got something of the Hindu wise man in him. Think of a Hindu mystic or wise man who lives in tremendous austerity of life. He's got something of the Confucian ethical teacher in him, because he's laying out an ethical program. He's got something of the mystical in him. Does John sum up the best of the religious instincts of the human race? And indeed, doesn't Jesus himself say in reference to John the Baptist, "There is no one born of a woman greater than John the Baptist"?
Let that sink in. In other words, there's no human being, this is Jesus himself saying, there's no human being, ever, greater than John the Baptist. He's seen, of course, by the Church Fathers as the last of the prophets, so he sums up as well all of Israel. He's like Isaiah, he's like Jeremiah. And indeed, don't we hear in the Gospel that the people coming out to him thought he was Elijah reincarnated? Some even thought he was the long-awaited Messiah. Again, my point: he seems to sum up all of the aspirations of the religious person over the centuries and across the cultures. It's as though he stands on a kind of frontier, or a kind of border. All of the human longing for God in all its various expressions is summed up in this man. There is no greater man born of woman than John the Baptist.
Okay. With that in mind, we turn to this famous line associated with John the Baptist. Just think for a minute, given all of this, how tempting it would've been for him to say, "Yeah! Yeah, I am the Messiah! Yeah, I'm it! There's no man born of woman greater than me, so I'm it! Come to me"! He doesn't say that, though. What's he say? "I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, 'make straight the way of the Lord.'" At the limit of human religiosity, summing up all that we can bring to the table, this figure looks to another. Again, in light of what I said a couple of weeks ago, everybody, Christianity is this religion of grace, not of human accomplishment. That's not going to save us.
If we're in a dysfunctional family, we can't act our way out of it. But we move into the space of John the Baptist, and we are, with all of our religious and philosophical and ethical attainment, with all of it in place, we are simply preparing for the coming of another. And then he says this, this is the famous line now: "There is one among you whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie". Read it only against the backdrop that I've laid out. If he is the greatest person ever, if he's the summation of all of our religious and philosophical longings, all of our religious attainments, yet he isn't worthy to untie the sandal strap of the one who's coming?
Now, the importance here is that was the job of a low-level slave. Not just a slave, a low-level slave. Because dirty feet? Gross. And so the low-level slave is the one that would untie the sandal strap of his master. And John the Baptist, the greatest person born of woman, no one greater, no one greater, summing up all of human achievement, all of religiosity, says, "I'm not worthy of being a low-level slave of the one who's coming". Can you see, everybody? See, the Gospels are always, in one way or another, speaking about the importance of Jesus. In the ancient world and today, there are voices that say, "Jesus is a great prophet, and a great teacher, and a great exemplar of the moral life". If that's all he is, everyone, he recedes to the level of John the Baptist. John the Baptist had all of that: teacher, preacher, offering forgiveness of sins, all that, all of human religiosity. If we say Jesus is just a prophet, well, then he comes right back to that level.
But listen again to the witness of John himself: "I am not worthy to be his low-level slave". Why? Because he's not just a prophet that speaks the divine word; he is the divine Word. He's not just one more priest leading us in temple worship; he's the one who is worshiped in the temple. He's not one more religious figure expressing a human aspiration. No, no. What do we say every Sunday? He's "God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father". Now do you see, now do you see why even the greatest religious figure in the history of the human race could say, "I'm not worthy to untie his sandal strap"? It's one of the most eloquent testimonies to the importance and significance of Jesus, it seems to me.
You know, think of this, too, everybody. In the early centuries of the Church's life, there were a lot of people that wanted to turn Jesus into a high-level saint. Council after council, culminating in the statement I just read, council after council kept affirming the divinity of Jesus, the divinity of Jesus, the divinity of Jesus. And one of its most eloquent witnesses is John the Baptist and this line. Can I suggest this by way of conclusion? So, we're in the Advent season. "Okay, we're getting ready for Christmas parties". No. If that's all it is, forget it. "Oh, Advent! It's just a time to get through until we get to the wonderful day of Christmas".
No, no, then you're missing the spiritual opportunity. What's Advent? A time when we stand, as it were, shoulder-to-shoulder with John the Baptist. Okay. Okay. Bringing all I got to the table, bringing all my human powers and accomplishments to the table, I look to another. I look beyond what I could possibly do to another. I say, with John the Baptist, "O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel". Did John think he was the savior of the world? No. No, no, "I'm not the Messiah, I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord!'" And so we, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him, look out to the one, listen, whose sandal strap we're not worthy to unfasten. It's in that full acknowledgment of the primacy and uniqueness and indispensability of Jesus that we ready ourselves for Christmas. And God bless you.