In the Gospel of Luke, we hear that Mary, pregnant with Jesus, went to see her cousin Elizabeth, who was also pregnant, and that when Mary arrived and greeted her, Elizabeth’s baby, John the Baptist, leaped in his mother’s womb upon hearing her voice and meeting the unborn baby Jesus (see Luke 1:39-45). John is said to be the last of the prophets, and in this moment, the two unborn boys, representing two different aeras, meet for the first time. The long tradition of prophets calling people to account, speaking truth to power, reminding people where their allegiance should be, and making God “real” to people who were surrounded by other gods, made of physical stuff that could be touched and seen (and toppled over)… That long tradition of which John the Baptist is the last doesn’t end with Jesus, rather Jesus is the fulfilment of that tradition – the embodiment of it.
Jesus continually in his ministry reminded those who worshipped God that it was Godself they should be worshipping, not the rules. He reminded them that power was given so that they could serve, not take advantage of people. He pointed out many of the injustices and opposed others but refusing to do as he was expected to do – just think of how he associated with the poor, the unclean, the sinners, and lifted up women and children in a world where they didn’t often have much of a voice. He, too, kept calling folk back to one primary relationship from which everything else should flow and he didn’t let people off the hook on hard ethical debates. Many times, when people wanted him to answer Yes or No, A or B, he answered “Both” or “You’ve got the question wrong!”
You may remember that place in Scripture where Jesus talks about the way to God, where he is going to go, and his disciples will follow. My Father’s house has many rooms, Jesus says. We often think about that place in John’s Gospel chapter 14 as referring to a place in the afterlife, somehow. I’m not saying that is wrong, but I am wondering if Jesus could also be talking about how we inhabit the kingdom here and now.
Each of us come to live in our Father’s house when we become part of the family of God. All of us have different ways of expressing that image of God which has been put inside us and which is lit up and brought to fuller life by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6), maybe he is also saying that to the degree that we let our lives be shaped by his example, to that degree we are on the right track. To the degree that we are “conformed to the image of his Son”, to that degree we live in the house, the kingdom, the family of God.
John recognised Jesus very early. He was, after all, a prophet, given to hear perhaps more keenly the heartbeat of God. But you and I too are called, I think, to listen for the heartbeat of God, to look for those little Jesuses coming to life in our own lives and the lives of others – by that I mean that although we all express it slightly differently and have different gifts and roles, in a sense we are all pregnant with Jesus. In us is growing something special, a new sort of life is taking shape which as it grows will have a face like Jesus’s, hands like his, compassion like his, wisdom, joy, security in belonging, deep connection with God. I think we are meant to look for that in ourselves and in others, and when we recognise it, we are meant to leap for joy.