The Axe is at the root this Christmas….

Any reflection on John the Baptist brings a vivid imagery of drama and courage of a strong personality. This begins even before his birth with the announcement of his birth by the angel Gabriel to his father Zechariah.  We do not have much information about his early life but as we meditate on John the Baptist we can focus particularly on his Mission, Method and Message, which would bring a new meaning to Christmas.

Mission

John the Baptist’s Mission was to “ Make ready a people prepared for the Lord” Luke 1:17. While it is beautifully summarized in a sentence this is possible only through a lifetime of work.

The key words are making ready and prepared. Making involves active involvement where as telling can be passive.  His mission was not to tell people to prepare for the Lord.  Let us look at a simple activity like planting some roses in garden.  You need to do a lot of work before you actually plant the rose sapling.

You need to make ready the earth, nurture it with manure, and see that there is sufficient supply of water so that when you actually plant the rose sapling the soil is prepared to accept the rose plant.  We need to see how to actively create opportunities to make ready people at this Christmas prepared to receive the Lord.

Method

There are interesting learnings from the John the Baptist’s method in accomplishing his Mission.

We notice Self Denial with clothes made of camel’s hair and locusts and wild honey for breakfast and dinner. Humility is personified when he says ‘ One who is more powerful than I whose sandals, I am not fit to carry’ this humility gave him the privilege and honour to Baptize Jesus.  Even Herod who put him in prison respected John for his Holiness. His burning zeal enabled him to be powerful preacher in making ready a people prepared for the Lord.

His action and message exuded courage and conviction. He went about calling a spade a spade even if it meant Martyrdom.

You have hands on person who walked the talk, which is the best method to communicate your Mission.

Message.

There are three Key messages of John the Baptist.

Repentance

The theme of John the Baptist is a call for repentance. Repentance means making a radical change in one’s life as whole for errors and actions.

Repentance is an individual and personal act and not a social act, so we need to introspect and take a decision what we need to do in the context of his message today.

Produce Fruits

He also gives a call for us to produce fruit. Repentance by it self is not enough, we need to produce fruit since we are planted. The fruit knows a tree it bears so it is with us.

Consequences

Any Gardener prunes the branches of a tree to enable it to bear fruit.

You can see that a tree’s pruning is done externally. Keeping in line with John the Baptist’s personality the message is radical and one of finality.

He says “ the axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.” (Mathew 3:10)

A tree may look beautiful and stately but if it doesn’t bear good fruit the axe is not at the branches but ‘ already at the root’. We cannot see the root but if the axe is struck at the root the tree will surely die. 

Lets us listen to this alarm bell seriously while listening  to the jingle bells as well.

John implies a sense of urgency for his mission. There is a scarcity of time and it is a call for us to act quickly.

At this Christmas season let us take actions to bear good fruit.