0220 BEING RADICAL

BEING RADICAL

No one accused Johnny the Dipper of being “normal.” Words like “comfortable” or “careful” or “average” didn’t begin to apply to him. No, with Johnny, words like “risky” and “dangerous” and “radical” were better descriptors. He was living on the edge of society, deeply immersed in the ways of God, with one foot in the water and one in heaven.

So it was no surprise when Johnny got himself arrested. He had been warned not to speak out against Herod the governor of the region. I mean, Herod was only half-Jewish to begin with, and he certainly was not a regular synagogue attender. But I guess Johnny wasn’t “regular,” in the synagogue or anywhere else, either. In any case, he got hold of Herod’s little inappropriate relationship with his brother’s wife and simply wouldn’t let go.

If you had been living in Judea in the time of these events, would you have gone out to see John the Baptist? Or would he be an interesting conversation, wondering what that crazy guy was up to? Do you think you would have been baptized by him? Or are you the kind of person who listens and considers, but takes a long time to make a radical decision?

I often reflect on the Pilgrims and wonder if I would have been one of them, or if I would have stayed home. There were many hundreds of Puritans who believed as the Pilgrims did, and a few hundred who moved to Leiden, Holland to find religious freedom from the persecution they received in England. But only 102 actually set out on that first voyage in 1620. So, I wonder, would I have stayed in the Church of England and avoid fines and imprisonment, or would I have been more bold to be part of what they called the Radical Reformation? Then, would I have gone to Holland in search of religious freedom? Once there, would I have fit in with the secular culture there and lost my zeal? Would I have sent the Pilgrims on their way with promises to pray for them and send support financially? I think I know the answer. Because I think of other causes to which I give intellectual support or make an occasional post on social media about it. But if I truly believed as strongly as I say I do, I would be taking much more firm action.

The answer to all these hypothetical questions will help you know where you might have stood with regard to Johnny and Jesus. Would you and I have lived out there in the wilderness with Johnny after being baptized by him? Or maybe we would even be so bold as to travel with Jesus himself, moving about the countryside without a penny to my name. (Which is pretty simple to do, since the penny has not been invented yet.)

I ask all this because it provides a background for these groups encountering Johnny’s message. If you take the radical leap to be baptized, then you gain an entirely different worldview, which we might call “knowing God’s will.” Luke writes, “The crowds, including tax collectors, declared God just, having been baptized by John.” 

Back to baptism. Would you have been an early adopter, one of the radical host of wet heads? There is much at stake.

We don’t know God’s will by studying and thinking. We know God’s will by obeying, by taking the first step, by doing his will that has already been revealed to us. And it’s not just God’s will; it’s finding or rejecting God’s purpose for ourselves that counts.

On the other hand, talk is cheap. If we claim to know God’s will, but we aren’t on the radical edge of the “doers of the word,” then we actually have rejected God’s purpose for ourselves. 

Luke wrote that the “Pharisees and lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.”

So, what do you think? Will you follow the radical will of God and know God’s purpose for your life? Or will you keep sitting back, waiting for a push?

I think Johnny would say jump on in! The water’s fine!