Mark 1:1-8. Second Sunday of Advent

From 1968 to the 1990s, archaeologists dug up several purification pools around where
the Temple of Jerusalem once stood. Mikvoth, they were called, the precursors of our holy water
fonts today. For the Jews, the Temple was the holiest place on earth. You didn’t just waltz into it
like you and I come in and out of our churches. No, you washed. You purified. But washing in these
pools was only additional purification. You purified back home first, and more earnestly, along
several days before finally showing up at Temple. I’d love to read to you the different levels of
purification depending on the various kinds of impurities. But that’ll be for another time.
My point is, if Zechariah was priest of the Temple, can you imagine: (a) how well-versed
he was in all the 613 purity commandments (how to wash, what to wash, what prayers to say
while washing, what you could touch, not touch, what words you could utter and what were
forbidden, what you could eat, not eat, look at, look away from, etc)? And (b), you can also
imagine how Zechariah cut and contoured his everyday manner, behavior, words, diet, clothing by
the razor-sharp restrictions of the 613 purity commandments.
‘Eh, anyare kay John, anak ni Mang Zacarias? In Israel, the eldest son inherited his
father’s profession, especially if an only son. At lalo na ‘pag angkan kayo ng mga pari!
Zechariah must’ve groomed John to succeed him in the Temple. He must’ve baked into his son
all the rules he knew by heart. He must’ve dreamed of John in immaculate robes, reciting prayers
all day and all night, receiving and burning animal sacrifices. (Tingin kasi ng Hudyo sa kasalanan:
utang sa Diyos. Kaya ‘yung animal sacrifice, bayad-utang.) I don’t know if Zechariah lived long
enough to see it, but his one-and-only apple fell far from the tree. “John was clothed in camel’s
hair with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey.” And we never see
him inside the Temple. If he wasn’t washing sins off of people down the river, he was drifting in
and out of crowds & crying, “Repent!” What happened to John?
Many theologians theorize that John might’ve been an Essene. If you’ve pilgrimaged to
Israel, you must’ve swung by Qumran. That was where the Essenes retreated, far out into the
desert, away from the Temple, looking out to the Dead Sea. The Essenes were priests from the
Temple like Zechariah. But they noticed that the Temple priesthood took a turn for the worldly,
the corrupt, the self-indulgent, the imeldific. So, they broke away. Out in the desert, they set up
community, a sect. They lived in radical poverty, passionate asceticism and intensive prayer. This
was how they believed Yahweh meant the priesthood to be. Nothing like the God-forsaken
version of priesthood back in the Temple.
Care of Zechariah, John must’ve been privy to all the politics and negosyo the Temple
priests were into. He must’ve realized that if these guys really observed all 613 purity
commandments strictly, it would show in a very repentant life of honesty, simplicity, and endless
prayer. But John saw far too many bad apples falling far from tree, giving the Temple a very bad
name. That was good reason to go back to all the basics, “camel’s hair, locusts, honey.” His
outreach? Beseeching Israel to return to the bedrock of all 613 purity commandments which was
repentance for sins.
Today, we’re often told that John was herald of the Messiah, announcer of the Savior’s
arrival, forerunner, clearer of the path Jesus would walk down on. Pero naisip ko, gano’n lang
ba ‘yon? Was John simply a loud speaker for his cousin’s coming? Parang voice-over lang? (Ti-
ni-ni-ning: “Announcing the arrival of flight PR1835 from Cebu”? “Paging Mr. Wito Bautista,
Mr. Wito Bautista, to the customer service plehs”?) ‘Yun lang ba silbi ni John the Baptist sa
buhay? It strikes me as too superficial, too extrinsic, if God brought a John into the world to
merely be Jesus’ emcee.
After all these years, sisters and brothers, I’ve personally started to think that John served a
more vital purpose in his cousin’s entire life, not just at one point of his life, but Jesus’ whole
life. I think John kept Jesus grounded. From the time the cousins were sitting together to learn
the basics of the Law from Zechariah, John must’ve already noted that his cousin was
astonishingly special, destined to be a great Jew, brilliant with the Law, but had a fresh take, a
humanist grasp of it, and therefore, dangerous sometimes and scary. True enough, Jesus would soon
be drawing crowds by the thousands. He would be financially supported by both men and
women. Mind-blowing powers would be coming forth from him including raising the dead! He’d
be eating &and drinking with tax collectors of ill-gotten wealth. Prostitutes would be throwing
themselves tearfully at his feet. His fame would stretch from Galilee up north to Judea down
south. In the words of Fr Rex Mananzan, “Sikat talaga!” But because John was Jesus’ pinaka-
kuya, I bet he looked up to John who kept him…grounded. Kung sino pa ang nagsabi ng “I’m
not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals,” siya ang tiningala ni Hesus as the
greatest of all prophets.
No, not that Jesus would’ve sinned if John weren’t there to ground him. Jesus never
sinned. To be kept grounded doesn’t mean only to be kept away from sinning, no. John must’ve
served to keep reminding Jesus of the most important mission in both their lives: bring the
forgiving God to the people and bring people back to the forgiving God. Anything
else—purification, offerings, words, clothes, diet—anything else was secondary
or…redundant…or even a distraction to bringing the forgiving God to the people and bringing
people back to the forgiving God. The focus was God. Any attention and honor one gained for his
brilliance, eloquence, popularity, miraculous powers was all because of God & for the people,
never because self and for the self. I imagine, that was how John kept Jesus grounded all his life.
Who keeps you grounded, sisters and brothers? Who reminds you, even without words, just by
his/her living and being, who reminds you of the most important things in your life—without the
ornaments, the glitter, the froufrou? When we start breaking our arms out of too much patting
ourselves on the back, who keeps us grounded? When we turn imeldific, lavish, self-indulgent,
who keeps us grounded? When we have power over people at work but begin to be so
controlling and manipulative of even our family and our friends, who keeps us grounded? When we
start using the law to smugly justify our wrongdoing, or when we spend entrusted money on
ourselves instead of whom it’s meant for, or when we unleash anger unrestrained, or gossip on
someone’s reputation to boost ours, who keeps us grounded?
Ganda ng word, “grounded,” ‘no? Being brought back down to what really matters. But
it also means, makoryente. Remember those days when we touched the fridge and got a little
shock? “Ayan, sige! Sinabi nang magtsinelas eh!” People who ground us give us a little
koryente. We often need to be shaken down from the high of our ego-festivals. Lastly, “You’re
grounded! Pumirmi ka rito sa bahay. Matuto ka ng leksiyon!” People who ground us make us
realize that our excesses have consequences.
In other words, sisters and brothers, we all need, and probably already have, a John the
Baptist in each of our lives who will ground us (in all three senses of the word: patapakin sa
lupa, koryentehin, pagalitan), especially when we start behaving as though we were God’s gift to
the world, as though we were the messiah. Our John’s point us to the real Messiah, the Lamb of
God who takes away the sins of the world, the real Ground of all we have, all we do, all we are.