What do you think you're doing?

Matthew 3:1-12

1-2 While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called “the Baptizer,” was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”

3 John and his message were authorized by Isaiah’s prophecy: "Thunder in the desert! Prepare for God’s arrival! Make the road smooth and straight!"

4-6 John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.

7-10 When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.

11-12 “I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

Food for thought!

Baptismal experience was becoming the popular thing to do! This is what triggered John's words. The gospel says, "When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded." Getting baptized was the fashionable thing to do; it was what everybody was doing; it was the fashionable to be baptized!

I wonder, nowadays, what religious acts or devotions have become the popular thing to do? What is it that you do because everybody is just doing it? What is fashionable today? Going to church on Sundays? Paying the tithes? Reading the Bible? The gospel reading says that John asked the people, "What do you think you're doing?"

Going to church, reading the Bible, etc. is not bad; what is bad is doing all these things because everybody you know seem to do them; what is bad is doing anything in life just because it is fashionable, just because it has become the popular thing to do. In other words, don't act in a certain way just because everybody is doing it; do what you do because Jesus tells us to do so; because it is the right thing to do. Dare to be different; don't follow the crowd. Let the crowd follow you. Be John the Baptist of today, at your place of work, at your home, your neighborhood.

John dared to be different. The gospel reading says of him: "John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action." Only the different people can make difference in this world. Those who follow what is fashionable never leave any imprint in this life. People like Nelson Mandela leave an imprint on earth because they dared to be different; Mandela challenged the status quo; he held to his convictions, and his convictions held him in prison for 27 years. Like John the Baptist, he came out of his desert on Ruben Island attracting everybody to himself. He has died a happy man.

So, today, we do well to do some hard thinking about what we do: "what is it you think you are doing?" John asks us. Are you doing anything different, or you do what everybody does? John's words are very intriguing. He says, "Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin!" So, merely going to church or to Mass or to prayer meeting or to Bible groups isn't enough. It is our life that must change; what counts is our life. Or it is green and blossoming or it is not. And if it is not, "if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire."

As John told his people, "The real action comes next." He  was referring to Jesus. So, let Jesus come and act in us. John the Baptist has given us Jesus' resume and job description: "will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house — make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

Give Jesus a chance. Do whatever he tells you.