Men Called Him Master | Page 3

minutes later he cried out: "There! See down there?" People were gathered at the edge of the river. It did not take the men long to reach the gully through which the road descended to the river. The fishermen tied their donkeys with the other animals that stood tethered to bushes and small trees. In their haste they forgot their companion.
"Do you see the Prophet?" inquired Andrew, looking eagerly about. John jerked at his sleeve.
"There! By that rock on the bank!" They climbed up the slope where they could see.
John could not tell why he felt the way he did. It might have been the appearance of John the Baptizer. He wore a rough camel-hair tunic and a leather belt. None of the people who were there for the first time had ever seen such a man before. He was very thin. His skin was tanned brown and his hair and beard were long. Like the poorest people in Palestine, he lived on grasshoppers and wild honey. Just then John the Baptizer spoke. He looked old, but his voice showed that he was young and strong.
"It is time you begin to show some sign that you are God's chosen people," he cried out. "But you are just like your ancestors--you pay no attention to God. You don't listen to the prophets. God is not going to wait much longer. The time has come to repent! The Kingdom of Heaven is near!"
The crowd stirred. What was this? Could it be true that the end of the world was coming soon?
"Isaiah the Prophet said, 'Everyone shall see the saving power of God,'" continued the Baptizer. "God is getting ready to clean off his threshing platform. He will gather his wheat into his storehouse, but he will burn the straw in fire that never dies down! Let every one of you get ready for the coming of the Lord!"
Near the front edge of the crowd a priest stood up. "How do you dare talk this way?" he demanded. "Who are you--the Messiah?"
"No, I am not the Messiah," replied the Prophet.
"Then who are you? The Prophet Elijah?"
"I am not Elijah."
"Are you Moses come back to us?"
"No."
"Then who are you? The rulers in Jerusalem have sent me to find out. What have you to say for yourself?" Andrew and John glanced at each other. The rulers!
John the Baptizer called out boldly to the whole crowd, "I am a voice crying in the wilderness, 'Clear the way for the Lord!'"
The priest from Jerusalem interrupted again. "If you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor Moses, what right have you to baptize people?" The people stirred; they did not like this man.
"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier. I am not fit even to tie his sandal laces. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. You must repent!"
A man broke away from the crowd and stepped uncertainly toward the Prophet. Words came from his lips as though it hurt him to speak. "I have forced money out of people. I am a tax-gatherer. What can I do?" Everyone there had been cheated by tax collectors.
"Turn your whole life back toward God. Never again force people to pay more money than is just."
Several other people had joined the tax collector. "What must I do?" asked a soldier.
"Never take money from people by force. Never blackmail. Be content with your pay." He looked at the group before him and said: "Let every man of you who owns two garments share with the person who has none at all. If you have food, share it too!"
A whisper ran over the crowd. John had turned to some religious officials, Sadducees and Pharisees, who stood watching. "You nest of snakes! Who told you to flee from God's day of judgment? It is time you repented!"
"How can he talk that way to Pharisees?" said Andrew. He could tell even from where he stood that the Pharisees felt the charge was unjust.
"Why should we repent?" asked one of them. "We are descended from Abraham himself. We were born to be God's chosen people!"
"God can make children of Abraham out of these rocks if he wants!" burst out the Prophet. "Instead of saying over and over again, 'Abraham is our ancestor,' you ought to live so that people will know that you have repented! The wood chopper is ready to destroy every tree that is not producing good fruit. Every bad tree he will cut down and throw into the fire!" John turned his back on them.
"Look!" whispered Andrew in excitement. "There is the stranger we met on the road!"
The Prophet had walked down into the water to begin baptizing those who were waiting on the shore, but now he stopped and turned