Identified!

By Rachel Armenta
The breeze was gentle, yet hardly cooling against the bright midday sun. It silently trailed through the needle-like leaves of the tamarisk trees that lined the edge of the river. No one even noticed. Hundreds of people stood in ragged clusters up the embankment and down to the river’s edge. The people crowding the shoreline formed a human amphitheater, all watching the wild man who stood knee-deep in the emerald water.

Unkempt brown hair framed his face, woven in a tangled mass down to an equally untamed beard. The fashions that dictated the popular looks of the day were absent from his crude garment made from discarded camel hides. The matted tunic was belted with a simple leather strap that bore none of the woven finery of those in a place of position. Upon a first, second, and even third glance at this straggly individual, one would have a hard time guessing that this was the son of a distinguished man.

This was John, the son of Zacharias the priest. John's hands skimmed the surface of the water, sending droplets flying through the air as he raised them. He bellowed to the crowd surrounding him: "Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" On the crest of the embankment stood a small group of men from whom the ordinary masses shied away. They held their heads high and their chins even higher, their arms crossed on their chests as they gazed down at John’s ungroomed form. They were the Pharisees and Sadducees, their souls carefully manicured to the letter of Old Testament holiness. They were admired, feared, and held in high esteem for their piety and status by the common people.

Yet, it would be with the wild man from the backside of the desert that Jesus would choose to be identified – a fact that I find utterly amazing and equally convicting. The Pharisees and Sadducees outwardly identified themselves with God, with their staunch white prayer shawls, their to-the-letter practices of the law, and their daily appearances in the temple. They wore the right clothes, followed all the rules, and publicly displayed their devotion. Yet, Jesus had very harsh words for them. In Matthew 23:27 Jesus rebuked them, saying, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean."

Then there was John. He was everything the Pharisees were not. He caused quite the stir and many people came to see. "People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan" (Matthew 3:5). But he wasn't different for the sake of being different, or for the sake of political exploitation. John could have used his Man vs. the Wild locust-and-wild-honey-eating style to draw attention to himself. However, John understood that his purpose was to be "a voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord’" (Mark 1:3). He used his difference to point others back to the Answer. To point the lost sheep back to the Shepherd. To call upon sinful man to repent.

It was with this unlikely message, this unlikely person, that Jesus chose to identify Himself with. He would walk past the religious leaders, down the loose rocks to the river's edge, and be baptized by John. In doing this, Jesus identified himself with John's message. It made me ask myself a question: Am I a Pharisee or a John? Do I wear the right clothes and do the right things, but inside is my heart is deceitful, sinful, and far from the truth? Do I use the gifts that God has given me and the knowledge of His truth for my own gain and glory? Do I just say I know God because it's what I'm supposed to say, or does Christ identify Himself with me? When I stand before God, will Christ say, I know her. She is mine. I paid the price for her sins?

I don't ask these questions to make myself feel guilty or put down. I am painfully aware of how easily I stray. How I quickly fall into a pattern of do's and do not's and religious exercises. My heart is easily tempted to take the glory for the good things He has done in my life. I ask these questions to challenge my attitudes and motives. I ask myself these questions because I want nothing more than for the Spirit of the Living God to dwell in me. I don't want to be religious for the sake of religion. I want a relationship with Christ for the sake of what He has done for me.

When others see me, I want them to see a reflection of the Savior. Any gifts and uniqueness that God has given me, I want to use to point others back to Him. With a heart like John’s, I want to say, "He must increase and I must decrease" (John 3:30).