He Admitted, And Did Not Deny It, But Admitted-- "I Am Not The Christ"
by Deacon Robert Schnell
In today's Gospel John the Baptist is asked who he is, and he quite-readily admits that he is not the Christ, but merely one doing his job to prepare the way for the Messiah (Jn 1: 19-28). Seems so simple and obvious to us, doesn't it? Of course, John the Baptist isn't the Christ-- we all know that, right? Sure it is good that John was self-aware, we might say. But no big deal. How could he have thought otherwise, after all. So we tend to look past John's very-important admission, an admission that is so important that the author of John's Gospel emphasizes it but stating it twice-- John is not the one. He is not in charge. He has a limited role-- to do what God has told him to do-- and nothing more. He is not the Christ. That's an important admission for all of us to keep in mind, because we are all tempted to the sin, the mis-understanding, that we're in charge, that we're more important than we really are, that we can make the rules. it is something that tempts us all, and it is in out spiritual DNA, as it were, since it is the sin with which the devil successfully tempted Adam and Eve, the sin of wanting to be like God, knowing good and evil. John the Baptist could easily have given in to that sin, and made himself into something more important than he was, but he didn't. We might think about whether or not we admit, as John freely admitted, our own position in the universe, whether we admit that we're not the one who is the Messiah, we're not our own savior, we don't make the rules. Too many times these days we hear about self-empowerment, self-realization, our supposed ability to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Sure, it is good to do the best we can with what God has given us, but let's remember where we fit in the scheme of things. We need a savior; we're not the savior. There's an important difference.