John appears out of nowhere. He suddenly appears in the desert – a clean place – and lures the heart to the place where God can speak.
The ‘meta-noia’ he screams for, is about changing our mind and also our behaviour. We let things go to make a space for something wonderful and new. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, but only those who ‘repent’ will be able to see it.
John dresses to evoke powerful memories of Elijah – a man of great integrity. He eats locusts to evoke memories of the plague on the hard-hearted Pharaoh of Egypt. He demands a softening of the heart. He eats wild honey, evoking the truth that Gods judgement, harsh though it may be, only brings human fulfilment.
John works with water for repentance. Jesus works with fire for spirit. Both are needed but one is greater. Water cleans and waits. Fire enlightens and inspires.
In the poem, ‘The Man Who Was a Lamp’, John Shea beautifully expresses the relationship between water and fire..
I can denounce a king, but I cannot enthrone one. I can strip an idol of its power, but I cannot reveal the true God. I can wash the soul in sand, but I cannot dress it in white. I can devour locusts and turn them into honey, but I cannot lace His sandal. I can condemn the sin, but I cannot bear it away.
The path to the desert and the path to the heart are one. What begins as the wisdom to flee the wrath that is coming, bears fruit in the mind that does not presume that we are exempt from honest self-appraisal.
In Rabbi Heschels’ wonderful, ‘A Passion for Truth’, he tells a little Parable for those who can’t tell the difference between what is real and what isn’t.
One day Kotzer and Reb came to a bridge where several women began throwing stones at them. “Have no fear!” Said Kotzer. “They are not real women, nor are their stones real. They are mere phantoms”. Reb was silent for a moment, then asked, “Might we not be phantoms too?” “No.” Kotzer answered, “as long as we have at some time had the genuine urge to repent”.
