The Clock Radio and the Alarm Clock
When morning breaks and it’s time to rise and shine, is your clock radio set to stir you gently out of bed with soft music or are you rudely awakened and jarred out of bed with loud clanging noises of an alarm clock? And as much as you would like to hit that snooze button for a couple more minutes of sleep on the clock radio, the loudness of your alarm clock rudely forces you out of bed.
Well, whatever direction our spiritual life takes, can depend greatly on whether we are asleep or awake. For some people a gentle approach will awaken them to the fact that they are not on the right spiritual path to heaven. They will quickly realize this and change course. For others, more effort is needed to steer them in that direction.
Perhaps that is why God sent John the Baptist to proclaim the good news to the people. God didn’t send a clock radio that would play soft soothing music. He sent a loud clanging and rude-awakening alarm clock. He wanted to be sure that all the people were awake. He didn’t want them to hit the snooze button and miss the opportunity of getting the good news.
Ironically though, the louder and rougher John preached his message, the greater was the attraction for his presence. Someone once described him as a man more difficult to bend than cold steel. Perhaps that was why he was so popular. It certainly wasn’t for his mannerisms and his fashionable clothing.
In our day and age, John the Baptist would hardly be considered a candidate to preach to the elite in one of our cathedrals or city parishes. His appearance and his methods were far too rustic to attract anyone to his preaching. His abrupt manner would drive everyone from the Church. Quickly, there would be a petition circulating around to have him replaced.
But John didn’t care about appearances. He had a goal to meet and he set about doing it in the only way he knew how. He didn’t mince words. He didn’t use innuendos or double entendres to get his message across. He told it like it is.
It seems that the rougher he preached, the greater was the attraction for his preaching. And even though his preaching offended nearly everyone who heard him preach, they were still attracted to him. When some Roman soldiers asked him what they must do, he said to them, “No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!” (Lk. 3:14 TNJB). To the tax collectors he said, “Exact no more than the appointed rate.” (Lk. 3:14 TNJB). To the rich and the greedy, he said, “Anyone who has two tunics must share with the one who has none, and anyone with something to eat must do the same.” (Lk. 3:11-12 TNJB). He was straight forward in his dealing with everyone.
If you wanted to hear him preach, you had to go into the wilderness. And when you got there, you would be greeted with words like, “Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming retribution?” Produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not start telling yourself, “we have Abraham as our father,” (Lk 2:7-9 TNJB). Calling people who have come to listen to you preach “a brood of vipers” isn’t exactly a very pleasant way to greet anyone, is it? If a parish priest greeted his parishioners in this manner, his parish would soon be empty. Or would it? Some of the things we expect to happen sometimes go in a direction we least expect. Such was the case with John the Baptist.
People flocked in droves to hear John the Baptist preach. Perhaps the truthfulness that he preached in his sermons was like a breath of fresh air to those who were desperate for the truth. John’s courage would not allow him to give in to public opinion and cause him to water down his message. And even though the truth hurt the listeners, it was a blessing to hear the criticism. Because, it’s only by how others see us, can we discover what we are really like. Constructive criticism can be a great eye opener. How else could we correct our way of living if we didn’t look outside the box? Criticism indeed has its place in our lives. We just have to know how to take it.
Someone once said, “Don’t mind criticism. If it isn’t true, disregard it; if it’s unfair, keep from irritation; if it’s ignorant, smile; if it’s justified, learn from it.” (pp 164, Nelson Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations and Quotes)
Like John the Baptist, Charles Spurgeon also preached fire and brimstone sermons. For that, he was greatly criticized in the newspapers. Articles appeared regularly disapproving of his methods, his motives, his mannerisms, and his messages. He was made to look like a villain in cartoons, and caricatures. Several writers questioned whether he was even a Christian. Not long before he died, one of his friends came to visit him in his study and said, “Do you know, Mr. Spurgeon, some people think you are conceited.”
Mr. Spurgeon thought about that for a moment, smiled, and said, “Do you see those bookshelves? They contain hundreds, nay thousands of sermons translated into every language under the heaven. Well, now, add to this that ever since I was twenty one years old, there never has been built a place large enough to hold the number of people who wished to hear me preach, and, upon my honor, when I think of it, I would wonder (am surprised) I am not more conceited than I am.”
Although the Bible doesn’t give us any indication that John the Baptist was conceited, but he was offensive. Yet, he was extremely effective. Having said that, It isn’t recommended that we choose this method of dealing with people in order to be popular. His rudeness shouldn’t give us license to be rude and offensive to others. It wasn’t because of his rudeness and abrupt mannerism that he was popular. It was because of his courage to stick to his guns and not allow others to dictate his conscience. He was true to himself and honest in his dealing with others. And although his methods may be questionable his results were astounding.
For some, the alarm clock with its loud clanging works better than a clock radio. Sometimes, when we are is such a deep sleep, we do need a rude awakening if we are to inherit eternity in heaven. On the other hand, for the light sleepers, soft gentle music is sufficient to awaken them and put them on the right path.
Jesus’ method of preaching could be compared to a clock radio. Why? Because, even Jesus preached the same message as did John the Baptists, He did it in a gentler way. Like John the Baptists’, Jesus’ message was: - “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” But, from the lips of Jesus came a soft soothing message – just like a clock radio. His message was preached in a kind and gentle manner. Even the children weren’t afraid of Him. They all flocked around Him and wanted to sit on his lap. Jesus methods were indeed different.
Jesus method of preaching was so different, in fact, from that of John the Baptist, that at one time John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to find out if Jesus was indeed the Messiah. John wasn’t certain of that himself until he was assured by Jesus that He was indeed the Messiah.
Another positive characteristic of John the Baptists is that John was a humble man. When people began to wonder whether John the Baptist was the Messiah, he immediately discouraged the people from that notion. He told them, “I baptize you with water, but someone is coming, who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to undo the straps of his sandals; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Lk. 2:16-17 TNJB) We could all take a lesson in humility from John the Baptism and in his ability to be a man of cold steel and not waver from the truth.
In this day and age things have been made easy for us. Things have become so watered down that we hardly recognize the demands that were once placed upon us as Christians. We need to strengthen some of those watered down customs of morality and they need to be done today. Because, hitting the snooze button for just a few more minutes of sleep may cause us to miss out on eternity. Perhaps we do need another John the Baptist alarm clock to jar us out of bed. Tomorrow the opportunity may be gone. The present is mine to repent– Tomorrow it’s God’s, to judge.
Amen!
