THE FIRST ANNUNCIATION - JOHN THE BAPTIST

THE FIRST ANNUNCIATION

The desert sun burned John's body and his fiery longing for the Kingdom burned like a flame in his soul. He was the foreteller of fire. He saw in the Messiah, soon to appear, the master of flame. The New King will be a fierce farmer. Every tree which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. He will thoroughly purge His floor and gather His wheat into the harvest, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. He will be a baptizer who will bap­tize with fire.

Rigid, wrathful, harsh, shaggy, quick to insult, impatient and impetuous, John was not gentle with those who came to him. He took no satisfaction in having drawn them to take this first step towards repentance. When Pharisees and Sadducees, notable men, learned in the Scriptures, esteemed by the crowd, of authority in the temple came to be baptized, he shamed them more than the others. "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham for our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." (Luke 3:7-8)

You who lock yourselves up into houses of stone as vipers hide themselves under the rocks, you Pharisees and Sadducees, are harder than stone: your minds are petrified in the letter and the rites of the law: your selfish hearts are stony: to the hungry who ask bread of you, you give a stone, and you throw the stone at him who has sinned less than you. You Pharisees and Sadducees, you are haughty statues of stone which only fire can conquer, since water poured over you is quickly dried up. But God, who from a handful of earth made Adam, could make from stones from the shore, with rocks from the cliff, other men, other living beings, other sons for Himself. He could change granite into flesh and soul, while you have changed soul and flesh into granite. It is not enough therefore to bathe in the Jordan. That washing is holy and productive. Change your life, do the opposite of what you have done until now, if you do not wish to be burned up by Him, who will bap­tize by fire. "And the people asked him, saying, what shall we do then? He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none, and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." (Luke 3:10-11)

"Then came also publicans to be baptized and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.” (Luke 3:12-13)

“And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, and what shall we do? And he said unto them, do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; nor be content with your wages.” (Luke 3:14)

Compelling, almost superhuman when he announced the ter­rible separation of the good from the bad, John becomes com­monplace when he descends to particulars and falls, one might say, exactly into the Pharisees tradition. His only advice is to give alms, to give away the unnecessary. From the publicans he asks only strict justice: let them take what has been allotted and nothing more. To the fierce, thieving tribe of soldiers, he recommends only discretion! "Be satisfied with your pay and do not rob." This is nothing more or less than the Mosaic Law. Long before him, Amos and Isaiah had gone further.

Now is the time for the accuser of the Dead Sea to give way to the liberator of the Sea of Tiberias. The lot of precursors is hard: they know, but are not permitted to see; they arrive on the banks of the Jordan, but do not enjoy the Promised Land; they make plain the path for him who comes after them, but will pass beyond them. They prepare the throne and do not seat themselves on it. They are servants of the master whom often they do not meet face to face. Perhaps the fierce­ness of John is justified by this consciousness of being an am­bassador and nothing more. A consciousness which is never envious, but which leaves a tinge of sadness, even in his humil­ity. They came from Jerusalem to ask him who he was, "What then? Art thou Elias?"

"No. I am not."
"Art thou that Prophet?"
"And he answered, No."
"Art thou the Christ?"
"No. . . . He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. . . . He it is, who coming after me is pre­ferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." (John 1:21-27)

At Nazareth, in the meantime, an unknown working man was lacing up His shoes with His own hands to go out to the wilderness, resounding with the voice which three times had thundered, "No."