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The boy named The-LORD-is-gracious didn’t remain a
newborn cradled in Zacharia’s and Elizabeth’s arms.
One has to wonder if some of
the angel Gabriel’s holy impatience, the spark that blew the angel’s fuse stuck
to the couple's baby and became a part of his DNA.
For John, the Preparer of the
LORD’s way grew up into one of the most austere, most controversial figures in
diverse landscape of God’s motley crew. Like
fiery Elijah the Thunderbolt.
He might as well have been
called The Sparkplug of God. The Thunderclap of the Desert. The Bulldozer of the Proud. The Leveling Plow of the Arrogant.
He described the religious hypocrites
of the day as ‘brood of snakes’.
He called his great and the
powerful contemporaries on the carpet.
He was an
embodiment of a PR disaster. His lack of
diplomacy and smooth talking, his 'tell-it-as-it-is' approach eventually cost him his head. Literally.
But Jesus
calls John the lamp that was burning and shining. John 5:35 He
says that among those
born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!
Matthew 11:11 Coming from Jesus
Himself, it’s hard to imagine a greater compliment.
How do we then reconcile his name –
YAHWEH is gracious – and his life message of fierce morality? His unresting call to repentance and what we
often perceive as feeble, grandfatherly forgiveness of God as if we are entitled to it…
as if we can demand it… as if God owes it to us…?
Or maybe this dichotomy exist only in our minds and hearts - proving that we understand neither God's unrelenting holiness nor God's unrelenting love?
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