February 29, 2008
Who Are You?
When I attended my 40th high school class reunion there were a few people I didn’t recognize. Some had changed dramatically, while others I had known just by name only, not personally. In spite of a time of questions and answers, there was one woman with whom I just couldn’t make a connection even after I asked her name. So I can sympathize with the Jews when they tried to discover the identity of John the Baptist. John freely confessed, “I am not the Christ.” So the Jews asked, “Are you Elijah? Are you the Prophet? Who are you?” John identified himself by speaking the words of Isaiah, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” (John 1:23 NIV) What a great response. I would have probably said, ‘You know me, I’m John, son of Elizabeth and Zechariah.’ Who we are by the world’s definition is not who we are as a Christian. As a Christian, who are you?
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Gail;
-----Maybe you could not recognize the woman at your class reunion because she never went to your school. Maybe she was a party crasher, standing in as an imposter, enjoying the eats and the company. As such, she would not have been able to exhibit any familiar traits by which you could recognize her.
-----This situation would then be the inverse of John the Baptist and the Jewish religious leaders. For the Jewish religious leaders were the imposters, and the party John came to was theirs. He was not recognizable because He came speaking the words of God. So when he quoted the Word of God, the imposters could not understand how it applied to their party.
-----I hope that who I am is a faithful reflection of Christ, maybe dim, not full in all details, but at least accurate in the discernable ones. And to be the best reflection I can I know that I must go directly to the Word myself, looking to the Spirit for my understanding. For I have seen first hand the illusions of the imposters that can creep into the fold by those who go to books written by those who learned from books written by others who read books written by someone who knew somebody who studied and applied the Bible to his own life. Unfortunately, today’s church party seems to be led by chewed, regurgitated, and chewed again Scripture. I sit up and take note of those who are firsthand chewers in the Lord.
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