Ten

The next day, they journeyed to the place by the Jordan where it was said that John was bathing the people. And as they neared it, it was hard to miss where it was, because quite a crowd was around him, and his booming voice, aided by the water of the river, carried far.

He was clearly a hermit, dressed in skins, with his hair long, like a Nazirite. He was rather remarkably clean for a hermit, however, presumably because periodically he would go down into the water (he preached on a beach at the shore) with a number of people, each of whom he would immerse in the water, telling them he was washing off their sins and killing their past life; and they would wade back and let the sun dry them off.

He was certainly direct in his speech. "You vipers' spawn!" he shouted, seeing the long fringes of the Pharisees' squarish mantles among the crowds. "Who told you you could escape from the retribution coming upon you? Show results that demonstrate a change of heart, and do not start telling yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father.' I tell you that God can make these stones bear children to Abraham! No, an axe is now at the roots of the tree, and every tree that does not bear good fruit is going to be chopped down and thrown into the fire to burn!"

"He definitely does not mince words!" whispered Andrew to John. "If even they are being condemned, what chance have the rest of us?" But John was voicing--granted in a overstated way--something that had been rankling in John's mind for the past week. He could not quite identify it, but it had something to do with being overly careful with observances that one could see, rather than those that could not be seen. Daniel, for instance, was very observant, except for what to John was far more important than making sure one had one's little leather phylacteries bound around his arm and head when he prayed.

Some people with worried looks came up to John and asked him, "Rabbi, what are we to do?"

"If you have two tunics, give one to someone who has none; if you have extra food, do the same."

A tax-collector came up to be bathed and said, "And what should I do?" and John answered, "Do not demand more than you were told to collect." The man looked at him, astonished, and said, "Then I should starve?" and walked away.

There were even some soldiers who had misgivings about their conduct and approached John to be bathed. When they asked him what to do, he said, "Do not bully people or arrest them on false charges--and be satisfied with your salary." One or two thought this something of a hard saying, but decided to be bathed anyway. When they emerged, they seemed relieved.

John became rather nervous seeing all this. How could he go to be bathed from his sins and admit publicly what he felt toward Andrew, and what he had done to poor Samuel and Thomas? And in a sense, he had not done anything wrong--at least deliberately; but if he confessed it, it would certainly sound much worse than he felt it was--perhaps. He knew not. He did not think he had the courage.

As he was deliberating--and he saw, somewhat to his relief and amusement, that Andrew and Simon were also having qualms about stepping forward to be bathed, a group of the Pharisees came up to John, and instead of approaching him in penitence, asked, "Are you claiming to be the Prince? The Messiah who was prophesied, the descendant of David?"

"I?" said John. "No. But someone is coming after me, who is ahead of me, because he was in existence before me. We have all received something of what in him is complete. We have been blessed with gifts that are his by right. The law may have been given by Moses, but God's blessings and truth have come into being through him. No one has ever seen God, but the God God fathered, who is in the father's bosom, has made him known. I? Who am I?"

"Who are you? Are you Elijah? You sound as if that is the one you claim to be."

"I am not."

"Are you the Prophet who was prophesied?"

"No."

"Then who are you? We have to give some answer to those who sent us. Just who do you claim to be?"

"I," said John, looking at them and addressing not only them but all the assembled people, "am a voice crying in the desert, 'Smooth out the path for the Master,' as the prophet Isaiah said."

"But then why are you bathing people, if you are not the Prince or Elijah or the prophet?"

"I am bathing you in water," said John. "But there is someone standing among you--someone you do not recognize; someone whose sandal-straps I am not good enough to untie! He will bathe you in the Holy Spirit--and in fire!"

At this point, the delegation turned away in disgust. And John called after them, "And he has his winnowing-fan in his hand to thresh out the grain off the granary floor, and he will store the wheat in his barn and burn the chaff in fire that will never go out!" But what he said was lost on them; they soon were out of earshot.

Some other people, who had a good deal more courage than John could summon at the moment, then came up to be bathed, and John, to his immense relief, saw that John did not require each of them to broadcast his sins to all and sundry. Apparently, if one had an air of repentance, John accepted that as sufficient.

John almost went forward, but then a lone man came up, with his back to John as he observed, so that he could not see him clearly. For some reason, there suddenly was no one around him. John looked at him, and almost whispered, "I should be being bathed by you, and you are coming to me?"

"Allow it for now," said the man softly--he turned slightly, and it was Jesus! "This is what must be done," he went on, "not to leave out anything proper." So John, with some reluctance, went into the Jordan with him, put his hand on his head, and immersed him in the water, and drew back.

Suddenly, something happened in the sky above; it was as if it opened up, somehow, as a cloud sometimes breaks up, but there was no cloud there. It was as if the sky itself was a cloud, and one could see a brightness behind it. A bird--a dove--came out and lighted on Jesus as he emerged from the water, and an enormous thunderclap seemed to say, "This is my beloved Son; I am pleased with him." John's hair stood on end; his knees grew weak. He almost tottered.

"Did you hear that?" said Andrew?

"What?" said Simon.

"Those were words, were they not?"

"I heard thunder," he answered.

"No, they were words. I heard them."

"I did also," said John. "Or something like words."

"What did they say?" asked Simon.

"Something like, "This is my son, the one I love; I am pleased with him."

"That was what I thought I heard also," said Andrew. "Or, if not exactly that, words to that effect."

"I did notice that the thunder was--meaningful, somehow," said Simon. "Whatever that means."

"I think we should leave," said John. "I must think about this." It was incredible that it would be Jesus this happened to! How different it made what Mary had told him! He could not grasp it; he was totally confused, and needed to be by himself to think; yet he was incapable of moving.

He was staring at the place where Jesus was drying off, and he saw an extremely handsome man, with fringes to his mantle that made him look like a Pharisee, come up to Jesus and speak briefly. Jesus greeted him and answered whatever question he had, and evidently dismissed him; then the two walked away in different directions.

John now found he could move; the others with John seemed as dazed as he was, and they went home in silence, until Andrew said, "And I thought I recognized him from somewhere."

"Who?" said Simon.

"The one the bird lighted on," he answered. "I could swear I have seen him before."

"It was Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter."

"You are right!"

"He built my boat, the little one, when I was but a boy. You remember; the one now beside our house."

"Of course!" said Andrew. "How could I have forgotten?"

"But then what does all this mean?" said Simon.

"I know not," answered John. "But it is something vitally important, I am certain. I must think!" He had to be by himself; he simply could not digest it.

Apparently the others felt as he did, and they went to their room in silence. John sat by himself apart on the floor in a corner, his arms around his knees, and for a long time thought nothing, simply feeling a strange mixture of awe and confusion. Jesus! His friend Jesus! "My beloved Son!" And Mary--so convinced that he would be here, as if she had communicated with him somehow! And Mary herself; what did that make her? He knew she was--what? Different, certainly, but as a queen is different from her subjects; but she treated no one, least of all John, as a subject, but as a beloved young friend. Just as Jesus had treated him. "My beloved Son, in whom I am pleased. Listen to him!"

Incredible! But on the other hand, as he thought back, he now saw that there was something very different about Jesus also. Perhaps Jesus had already called him, without his realizing it! Perhaps his desire--if it was a desire--to be a prophet, and then his hearing the thunder call Jesus "My beloved Son," was the call. Perhaps he would be able to make some contribution to changing the world!

But Jesus had not seemed to notice him, especially. It was a kind of ceremony that he felt he had to go through with John "not to leave out anything proper," whatever that meant. John knew. He had obviously known Jesus from before, and recognized that he was far superior to John: "I should be being bathed by you, and you are coming to me?"

But the interesting thing was that when Jesus approached, John did not immediately point him out as "the one who is coming after me" who is "ahead of me because he was in existence before me." It was as if he was waiting for something to indicate who this person was, whatever suspicions he might have about him.

And did the thunder--or the dove coming out of the "hole" in the sky--supply the signal he was waiting for? John thought back, and it seemed that John was as stunned as everyone else. Afterwards, as John looked on in his confusion at the fact that it was Jesus who was drying off in the sun, it seemed as if John also had to be by himself to digest all this. He had said no more, and after Jesus and the other man left, he made gestures of dismissal, had he not? John did not quite remember, he was so confused.

Of course he would go back on the morrow. He was sure that the others would go also. But then a slave apparently from the lawyers Simon and Andrew had been consulting came up and said something to Simon. Simon spoke to Andrew, who said, "But surely you will return to the Jordan tomorrow. We must discover what all this means!"

"You go, with John," said Simon. "A complication has arisen--of course, how else could those people behave?--and I must see to it before we return home. I will take care of it--it is nothing serious--and either meet you or be here so that you can tell me what has happened."

Andrew protested, and they discussed the matter for a while, but finally assented. He came over to John, and said, "I assume you plan to go back to the Jordan tomorrow," and when John said, "You could not keep me away!" he went on, "It turns out that Simon will have to see to some legal detail, which we hope will not take long, but he wants us to go as early as possible, and will either join us, or I can come back and fetch him if necessary."

"Lawyers!" said Simon. "They are like colds; they will appear at the most inconvenient moments! But fear not; I am certain it can all be resolved easily. It is a nuisance, nothing more, but one at least one of us cannot avoid."

John was secretly rather pleased that he and Andrew would be alone together when they met Jesus--as he was certain they would.

But the next day, they arrived back at the Jordan quite early, and nothing unusual happened until nearly nightfall. John was bathing the people, (both John and Andrew had themselves bathed), and giving his speech about changing one's way of thinking, because the world was going to be a different sort of place soon.

Then, however, as the sun was setting, Jesus appeared again, and John said, pointing to him, "There is God's lamb, the one who is ridding the world of its sin! He is the one I was speaking of when I said that there was a man coming after me who was ahead of me because he existed before me. And even I was not sure who he was, though I came to bathe you in water to reveal him to Israel."

But then John looked around at everyone (Jesus had gone by by this time, and John was about to go after him, when he realized he did not know where he was), and said, "I saw the Spirit coming down out of the sky like a dove and lighting on him. It was not that I recognized him myself; the one who sent me to bathe the people told me that when I saw the Spirit come down and rest on someone, he would be the one who was to bathe people in the Holy Spirit. And I saw this, and now I can swear that he is the Son of God!"

"Rabbi," said John, going up to him. "do you think that he would like others to follow him?"

"Come back tomorrow, and if you see him, your question can perhaps be answered."

"Perhaps we should be following you."

"Me? Why would you follow the bridegroom's servant when the groom himself is there? No. He will have to grow greater, and I grow less now. You will see. Come back tomorrow."

So, since Jesus was not there, the two went back to their room, where they met Simon, fuming. "All day they kept me!" he raged. "Over nothing! And it is not finished yet! These men can find complications in--in a cup of clear water! I must go back tomorrow! What happened there today?"

The others told him and he exclaimed, "Jesus of Nazareth! Who would have thought it? I think I even met him myself once! It was truly he?"

"Without a doubt," said John. "I know him well."

"Amazing! Well, let me know what happens. I should be through by mid-morning."

That night was haunted with "and now I can swear that he is the Son of God!" The Son of God! What could that mean? And had John not said, "The God God fathered, who is in the Father's bosom?" What could that mean? The God God fathered! And even the thunder confirmed it: "My beloved Son." Incredible! Impossible! And Jesus, of all people; Jesus who had been so--normal! Ordinary! And yet not! The God God fathered! In the Father's bosom!

The beginning of the next day promised to be a repetition of the previous one, except that John as he bathed the people had his eye on Andrew and John, who were close beside him, and was obviously watching out for Jesus. As afternoon drew on, Jesus walked by, as if musing on something, paying no attention to John and the ones around him, and John said to Andrew, "That man is God's lamb," clearly indicating that they were to go after him. John thought, "God's lamb?" He remembered this from the day before, "The one who is ridding the world of its sin." It must refer somehow to the Passover lamb. But what was that all about?

Jesus gave no sign that he had noticed them, until they were away from the crowd, and then he turned, smiled in recognition at John, and said, "What is it you are looking for?"

"Rabbi," said John, turning red, wondering if that was the title he should give, and also realizing that he could not say aloud what he wanted--and then realizing that he knew not what it was that he did want. He was totally confused. "Where--where are you staying?"

Jesus gave a little chuckle, and said, "Come and see." They followed him to a room not unlike theirs, and he said, with no preamble, "Would you be interested in becoming a part of changing the whole world?"

The two were astounded, and Jesus said, "You saw what happened the day before yesterday, did you not?" They nodded, rather sheepishly. "It is time--or almost time--for me to put away my, shall we say my disguise, and introduce myself to the world--gradually, gradually. If people accept me, the world will be a very, very different place--and certain people"--he gave a look at John and Andrew in turn--"will understand themselves better and will eventually be able to be at peace. That is what you wish, is it not?" The two nodded. "Among other things, I realize," he added.

He looked at them, as if to ask for comments. John felt he dared not speak to this person, who clearly was at the very least a prophet like Elijah, and whom the thunder had called "his beloved Son." Jesus laughed at his consternation, and said, "Come now. I am still who I was. What I am now is what I was then; it is just that you know a bit more about me than before. But you were not terrified of me when I put the 'John board' in your boat and told you to be sure to step on it. Why should you be terrified now?"

John thought he had very good reason to be terrified now that he realized he had been dealing with some kind of supernatural being. He finally managed to blurt, "You want us to join you in changing the world? We are but fishermen!"

"Ah, but you will be doing what no human being can do, fisherman or king. You will see. What Elijah did was nothing to what you will do as a matter of course. Had you no desire to be a prophet?"

"He does indeed!" exclaimed Andrew. "He all but told us two days ago!"

"I did not!" said John, scarlet with embarrassment.

Andrew said, "He told us that--you know he spent a week with the school at the High Priest's palace, to see if he wanted to be a rabbi, and he came back two days ago, dissatisfied, and when I mentioned John--the one who was bathing the people--as being a prophet in competition with him because of the name, he acted as if I had read his thoughts!" Andrew was babbling, John realized; he was as much overwhelmed by Jesus as John was.

"He actually told Daniel of his ambition, you know," said Jesus. John's head snapped around to look in astonishment at Jesus. Andrew, of course, was totally mystified at who this "Daniel" was. "And Daniel said," he went on "'The Master knows what he is doing, and unless I miss my guess, he has some sort of plan for you; and doubtless this stay with us is part of the preparation he is giving you. He does nothing in vain. I expect some day to be able to say to my friends, "Oh yes, I once knew the great John, and even gave him a little advice and encouragement!"'He does indeed know what he is doing, and Daniel did not miss his guess; he himself was something of a prophet there."

John gaped at him openmouthed. How did he know? Had Daniel told him? But when?

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