14 March - We're not grasshopper-eating types

Reading:
Mark 3

I think we underestimate John the Baptist. Jesus did make the comment about John being the greatest of all people in the Old Testament dispensation (Mt 11:11) - a sweeping statement indeed (think Moses, Joseph, David, Samuel, Daniel etc). Yet we still don't get the picture, or at least I don't. Chew on this: It appears that basically the entire Jewish nation, excluding the religious professionals, were baptized by John (Acts 13:24, Lk 7:29-30). Imagine that. John was a grasshopper-eating weirdo. He was abrasive and out in the sticks. You had to go to him, he was not going to come to you and he was probably going to call you names. He doesn't give the impression of being very polite or considerate. For a ministry man he was remarkably uninviting. But here's a guy with a spirituality, a persona and a ministry powerful enough to coax a whole nation of sin-loving people from their cities and their fields to submit to the brown waters of the Jordan under his rough hands.

Now we know that John's ministry made the way for that of Jesus, and that Jesus himself wasn't much of a baptizer. He focused on other pressing issues us Bible readers are real familiar with: preaching the kingdom, healing diseases and chasing out evil spirits. Yet there's an element to Jesus'ministry that is central to his purpose, one that is in contrast to how John went about his. Jesus didn't let all of Israel pass through his hands. He called some guys closer to himself, and he gave them authority to do what he himself have been doing (Mk 3:15, Mt 10:1). Then he sent them out. And since then, Jesus' disciples have both been ministering God's grace to the world and making disciples. Hence us.

Now here's my point. Being a Christian automatically makes us idealists: there's an ideal, and we aspire to it. But the ideal is not to be a big shot like John. We are all called to minister God's grace to the world in any and every way and opportunity the Holy Spirit prompts us. But perhaps the thing most central to God's kingdom any of us can do is to gather a handful of everyday folk around ourselves, to pray for them, encourage them, equip them, serve them, love them and to send them out.