We are now at a moment of moments. We see the Baptizer (with fire and the Holy Spirit) presenting Himself before His humble precursor to go through the ritual of the ineffective baptism of repentance. Indeed He is “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29).
St. John’s invincible and convincing introduction to his gospel justly famous. “In the beginning the word already existed. The word was with God, and the word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light” (Jo. 1:1-8).
Indeed the whole of his mystic and thought-provoking Gospel is intended to prove that Jesus is “Christ the Son of the Living God”. True, Jesus Christ was born among sinners, lived among sinners. He loved the sinners infinitely. He came to die that through His death, all the sinners might be reborn in Him as New Creation. This is possible only for God. And the truth of all truths is that Christ is God parexcellence and man parexcellence – a man in whom there is no guile, there is no sin. He went to the Baptizer to be baptized, so that as a Jew, HE may fulfil the Jewish custom. But as all know, He was not an advocate of the Jewish law. He boldly corrected and completed it and graciously gave the world a new one- the law of merciful love. “Love one another as I have loved you”. He is the only one who loved all as He loved. That is the uniqueness of Christ. Christ also wanted to be everything to every man except, of course, sin and all its attendants. He is God, the Holy of Holies, the Holy One of Israel.
One who came to annihilate sin, must be sinless, stainless. He out did saints and sages. There is singular uniqueness in Jesus. He loved, He loves every sinners, but hates sin. To be like him is the Clarion call to every Christian. Friends, it is difficult, really difficult, but possible.
Christ’s love for the sinners has nothing of the proselytizing penitent’s. It is never dutiful, but most natural and empathetic. He has the recognizable authority of both man’s purity and God’s holiness. His voice is always clear and limpid. It is a melodious song. It is never roughened by the sour lees of voluptuous pleasure or the hoarseness of repentance. As it is emphasized in the Book of Numbers, “God is not man that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should repent” (Num. 23:19). The limpidity, the transparency, the tranquillity, Christ kept intact. His holiness untarnished from His birth, through childhood, youth and maturity until His death. He goes about among the impure with the natural simplicity of the pure. He walks among the sinners, with the natural strength of the sound man among the sick. Jesus is about to begin a new epoch of His life. As he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” (Lk. 3:21,22). From the Jordan He goes in to the desert, into solitude! Until then, He was quite at home among the waters and the fertile fields of Galilee and in the green meadows along the Jordan. He now goes up the rocky mountains. No springs arise there. No seed sprouts. The only living creatures there, are some snakes. It is really a contrast. From among the working men of Nazareth and John’s penetents. He goes up the solitary mountains. There is not even one human face to be seen. No human voice is to be heard there. Is the New Man putting the desert between Himself and humanity?
