DAILY BYTEI once assisted with the baptism of a kid who was approximately six years old. He was a pretty ordinary kid – a bit rough around the edges with a cheeky sort of grin. But what I remember most about this child was that as he faced the baptismal font and turned his back toward me, I saw scrawled across his black t-shirt in menacing, lightning bolt-like font, “Beware – I’m a Problem Child!” I thought, what is going on in the life and family of this child that he would wear such a label, especially to his baptismal service?
We read today in the holy scriptures of a man who seems to be a bit of a problem child – maybe even crazy and doing some very strange things. Picture for yourself someone wandering around in the desert wilderness, wearing only the hide of a hairy animal, eating nothing but bugs and honey. This man clearly is not perfect – he doesn’t look perfect. I’m sure he doesn’t smell like honey, and he may seem a little bit crazy preaching not in the normal temple but out in the wilderness. Life seems a bit confusing for this guy, and life is problematic for us too, isn’t it?
Sometimes, we spend a lot of time wandering around in the desert wilderness feeling parched and confused. As we come into this new year, some of us are coming out of times of wilderness, some of us are smack dab in the middle of them, and some of us are about to enter some pretty tough times where we feel like our lives are full of craziness and confusion, our priorities need some serious re-evaluating, and we feel like our identity is consumed by our problems.
But you see, when John’s in the wilderness, he’s not just sitting by a cactus bemoaning his fate. He may be doing some very strange things, but his identity is not that of a person who has nowhere to turn for help in the wilderness and water in the desert. The Gospel of Mark doesn’t portray John as just an ordinary man with problems. John heads out into the wilderness knowing that even there, he has a specific calling – pointing to “the one who is more powerful than [he].” Even there, the waters of baptism are waiting for him to plunge in.
We don’t call this man, “John the Problem Child.” We call this man a prophet – someone who struggles through the scariness of life to use the gifts and callings they have been given to point the way to the Lord, the Holy One.
How do you identify yourself? As a problem child? As you think about specific wilderness problems or issues in your life today, where are you receiving water and in the desert and strength for the journey? In what ways might you also be a prophet?
FOCUS READING
Mark 1:4-8
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
