John the Baptist is a person who was totally dedicated to God as a Nazirite. This dedication required that he not shave or cut his hair, that he not imbibe any alcohol and that he refrain from sexual congress. There were Nazirites who could maintain that level of sacrifice for a year or two but very few of them ever made it a way of life until the day they died. As we know, John spent some time in the desert and then he staked his mission claim on the banks of the Jordan in order to prepare the chosen people for the coming of the Messiah. John, the bridge from the Old Testament to the New, spreading the word of God at the very place where God led His people into the Promised Land. The description of his physical appearance is not that complimentary. Wrapped in sheepskins, eating wild honey and whatever other edible wild thing he could grab. He's a person who must have been ugly just from the odor that exuded from him. But there he was, testifying to the world that the Messiah was in the area, just as the patriarchs and the prophets of old had promised. Despite his appearance, he was a powerful force for God. He had a following, and a devout one at that. One day, some people came at him with a desire for answers Three questions came at him from three different slices of the population. All three of his answers were cut and dried and all three should have been known by those who ventured to ask them, because all three were, and still are, expressions of basic morality as foreseen in the Law and lived out by John and Jesus and their followers until this very day.
You know how people are. They just have to ask. So the questions come from
1. good people
2. tax collectors
3. soldiers
Whose missing? The politicians
Those people didn't ask because they didn't have to ask. They already knew. Hey, they knew everything. Did you ever meet a politician who didn't know everything? That's why they miss out on so many good things. They miss out on seeing their children grow in age and in wisdom and in Grace. They miss out on seeing the smile of new immigrants who are making giant steps in the ability to speak a new language. They miss out in the learning of the precious gentle and gentile behaviors of their new neighbors in the neighborhood...But then again, because they already know everything, they don't miss out on these things because they are convinced that these are the behaviors and talents that they have to measure, to control, to regulate because they know better than anyone else what is good for the world.
As for me, along the years I have come to know and love the song of David that goes,
LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain?
Whoever walks without blame, doing what
is right,
speaking truth from the heart;
Who does not slander with his tongue, does
no harm to a friend,
never defames a neighbor;
Who disdains the wicked, but honors
those who fear the LORD;
Who keeps an oath despite the cost,
lends no money at interest, accepts no
bribe against the innocent.
Whoever acts like this shall never be
shaken.
Don't cry at my funeral
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