John 1:23
He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
Being a voice crying in the wilderness sounds much more romantic than it really is. Everybody likes to dally with the idea of being a brave soul who speaks truth to power and faces down the Big Cheeses from City Hall as Jimmy Stewart did in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. But when it comes to actually doing it, we generally pass. And no wonder. John the Baptist did it and look what it got him: a life in the desert, wearing a hair shirt, eating bugs, and being made fun of by the urban sophisticates who came out from Jerusalem to see what the country folk were so excited about. From the outside, it appears that John the Baptist spent his life shouting into the wind and was rewarded with prison and decapitation for his troubles. Not very romantic. But on the inside, where God lives, it was worth every second. For John knew where he began and where he ended. He knew who he was: the friend of the Bridegroom and he knew the voice of the God of peace when it spoke out of heaven and said, “This is my Beloved Son.” That is peace indeed and a source of strength that made him able to speak truth to power, not like an actor before cameras but like a prophet of God.
