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By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky
Special to the Rappahannock News
“Projection” is a term from popular psychology. We all do it. It means that we sometimes project our own expectations, prejudices and even weaknesses on others. Normally, the habit can be quite harmless — perhaps humorous, the stuff of situation comedies.
But throughout the Gospel, Christ reveals that he knows of our tendency to project our own expectations, prejudices and even weaknesses on God’s revelation. Time and again, he challenges us to see things not as we would like them to be, but as they truly are.
If the people were looking for a crowd-pleaser in John the Baptist, they were sadly mistaken. So Christ asked the crowds about John, “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed in the wind?” (Mt 11:7).
He then identifies John as the greatest man born of a woman (Mt 11:11). If John failed in the art of practical politics, his strength of character measured up to the expectations of Christ. Not a bad trade off.
St. John the Baptist was the precursor to the Messiah. He proclaimed the way of the Lord. Despite his popularity as a preacher, John always pointed to the Lord with great humility. He knew that his mission was to proclaim “someone greater” who was to follow him. He would insist that he was not “fit to tie (the Lord’s) sandal strap” (Jn 1:27).
John insisted that Christ “must increase” and he himself “must decrease” (Jn 3:30).
In prison, John sent his disciples to ask the Lord if he, Jesus, was “the one who is to come, or should (they) look for another?” (Mt 11:3). This is an odd question for a man of John’s confidence. But it seems unlikely that John had a “crisis of faith” as some suggest.
It is far more likely that John, realizing that his ministry would soon come to an end at the hands of Herod’s henchmen, wanted to deflect attention from himself. The question was his final attempt to point his disciples to the person of Christ.
John the Baptist did not use popularity polls to craft his prophetic message. He had the courage to reject any attempt by the crowds to
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