Choose the darkness or the light

Monday, August 29, 2022

Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist

            (click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)

Choose the darkness or the light

From every evil way I withhold my feet, that I may keep your words. From your ordinances I do not turn away, for you have instructed me.

In The Chosen, Nicodemus comes to visit John the Baptist in his rickety Roman prison cell. His intention to gain John’s release to Jewish captors is postponed when John’s sarcastic ridicule gets under his skin.

But then John speaks of the light and of the darkness. Some will see the light and follow it to heaven, but many will hide in the darkness. “Which one will you be?” John asked Nicodemus, as the Pharisee fled. I imagine Nicodemus dreamt about this question, and when he had the chance to talk to Jesus, he made up his mind.

He never expected John to be killed, and certainly not by such a petulant, foolish act late in a drunken weekend party, when the dancing turned vile and vicious and deadly. Herod’s promises killed John and eventually ate the king himself alive. Syphilis takes no heed of good manners or saving face.

Would Jesus and John have made a good team? I wonder. Good cop and bad cop maybe? John‘s diatribes distracting the authorities from Jesus’ ministry of miracles and grace?  Would their combined popularity with the people changed anything? We’ll never know. We do know that Yahweh doesn’t miss a trick, and however the circumstances fall, God wins.

So we do too.

How I love your law, O Lord. It is my meditation all day long. Your commands have made me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all your teachers when your decrees are my meditation.

John sits alone in his cell, cross-legged, hands opened on his knees, late at night, then once again early in the morning, rarely interrupted by any kind of visitor (other than King Herod himself, who enjoyed talking with him). God’s decrees are John’s meditation. By his actions, by his every breath he lives out our song “Trust and Obey.” His disciples are distraught and some of them feel betrayed. They wonder if something went wrong. But John knows God has always been in charge of his life, and still is.

I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

John rejoiced when Nicodemus told him of Jesus’ deliverance of Mary Magdalene from her several demons. “It is beginning!” he shouted. God is alive, and magic is afoot! The Messiah begins to make himself known.

“My work is finished,” he told Nicodemus. “I was told to prepare the way of the Lord, as they did for Caesar when he returned to Rome. Far more than Caesar, Jesus is the Way. And now he begins to show the world who he is.”

Nicodemus left John, but hours later the royal guards came on a terrible, unexpected errand.

Herod promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back John’s head. The executioner went off and beheaded John in the prison. He brought in the head on a platter and gave it Herod’s niece, the daughter of Herodias. And the girl in turn gave it to her mother.

Jesus wept. John’s disciples dispersed, although many must have followed Jesus. What a sad story this is, as we with John are trapped in the intrigues of the royal court. John is eventually killed, and we can only watch powerlessly.

But then John’s song comes back, caught up in the echo of his life. “Trust and Obey.” And we see Jesus, and we follow him.

(1 Corinthians 2, Psalm 119, Matthew 5, Mark 6)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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