October 22

The Ministry of John the Baptist; Jesus Faces Temptations - Matthew 3:1-17; Mark 1:2-11; Luke 3:1-18, 3:21-23a; Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13; John 1:19-34

I like John. He draws people from the cities to the wild. He is free from the ties of things. And, he knows how to win friends and influence people. How is this for an opening line to a sermon?

"You brood of vipers!" John 3:7

He knows his place and remains humble although the world around him would raise him higher. John is a rock star content to be a warm-up act.

And he is more than John the Baptist. He is John the Don't-Just-Get-Wet-Get-Clean-Inside-and-Out. We get caught up in Baptism as the threshold of entering Christianity. But there is more than ceremony in John's admonition. More than baptism there is life. We must live our cleansing.

"What should we do then?" the crowd asked.

John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."

Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?"

"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them.

Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"

He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely -- be content with your pay."

John 3:10-14

I find it interesting that the sins John directs them to turn from are all about wealth and one's view of money. All three of them are variations on this theme. What we own owns us.

Jesus alone and deprived in the desert is vulnerable and tempted as are we all. And I wonder are we all attended to by the angels at the end of our trials?

Lord knows.