The teaching of John the baptist
It is the 3rd Sunday of Advent and I hope that you have prepared yourself, your whole body and soul for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ because this is what Advent is all about… to prepare ourselves for the coming of the King of Kings! Our gospel reading this Sunday comes from Luke 3: 10-18, which is actually a continuation of last Sunday’s gospel reading.
“10 And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise. 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He answered them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
14 Soldiers also asked him, “What is it that we should do?” He told them, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.” 15 Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.
16 John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fan is his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 18 Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people.”
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Today’s gospel starts with the crowd speaking with John the Baptist asking him the poignant question, “What then should we do?” Then John the Baptist tells them, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” What John is teaching the crowd is charity; which is not difficult to achieve because if you had two cloaks and you meet a person who had none, you should share the other cloak to the one who has none.
The tax collectors, who are considered a “Pariah” in Israel for collaborating with the Roman occupiers and helping them collect taxes from the Israelites, also came to John to be baptized. They too asked John “Teacher, what should we go?” John had a prompt reply to their query and told them to “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
There is a lesson here for our own tax collectors who works with the Bureau of Internal Revenue who more often than not would connive with the taxpayer to pay less to the government and in consideration, he gets a chunk that would have gone to the national coffers in a form of grease money. Notice that John the Baptist doesn’t chastise the tax collectors for collecting tribute for and behalf of their Roman masters… but he tells them simply not to charge more than is required.
Then came the soldiers who too flocked to hear John the Baptist preaching in the Jordan River and they too asked the same question that the others asked of John; and he told them, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.” In today’s context John could be speaking before members of the Philippine National Police and giving them advice not to extort money (like what is happening at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport with the Lag-lag or Tanim-bala scam) and not falsely accuse anyone and above all be satisfied with their pay or wages.
What John the Baptist is telling the crowd, the ordinary people, the tax collectors or the soldiers is to treat people with kindness and charity. Later our Lord Jesus Christ would preach to the same crowd “To love one another as I have loved you.” When the people asked John what they should do, John doesn’t tell them that they must come up with some kind exercises just like what is being prescribed by the Pharisees. He gives those who asked him what to do simple and logical answers teaching them charity.
Because many of the people who went to the Jordan River to hear the preaching of John the Baptist were satisfied with his response to their queries, they now wanted to know in their hearts whether he was the much expected Messiah as prophesied in Isaiah? Now John was fast becoming a celebrity because people as far as Jerusalem or from Galilee would come to hear him preach. It would have been easy for John to claim that he is indeed the Messiah that is to come into the world.
But John was totally honest to the crowd and told them, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” What John meant that he was not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals, was that, he is not even worthy to become the servant of that man who has been prophesied to come and who is mightier than John.
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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.
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