Today we are remembering the birth of John the Baptist, one of very few saints commemorated for their birth rather than their death. What he is chiefly known for is going out into the desert and calling on people to repent, to change their lives, to turn around, and do something different.

But what we also know is that, one day, John has an unexpected visitor. A young man called Jesus. And the moment John saw him, he knew he was special: he realised that he was the real deal. This was no old Pharisee peddling obedience to lengthy rules & statutes. No, there was something about this stranger, something bigger, something more purposive. Not because he wore special clothes or because he talked in a special way, or tried to push a lot of religious ideas. But because he oozed change, he oozed dynamism, freshness, he brought a new energy, a threat to the old order. And John says, as he points to Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease”.

John the Baptist´s day is particularly celebrated here in Spain & the Spanish-speaking world. Typically large numbers of people gather on the beaches of the Costa del Sol. They light bonfires, they write down their wishes, or ‘juras’, on bits of paper, and throw them into the bonfire. And then at midnight they rush into the sea to bathe.

It’s a tradition that has its roots in biblical imagery. Water symbolises cleansing, healing. In the same way that it did for those that John the Baptist baptised in the river Jordan. Water restores us. It washes away the muck, it ushers in change. And fire symbolises God´s presence. As we heard at Pentecost, tongues of fire symbolised God’s Holy Spirit among the disciples. So every year on our beaches, people are reenacting a profound biblical message – that when you come face to face with God, there is healing, cleansing, there’s change.

And what about the ‘juras’, the wishes, regrets or pledges that people write down and throw into the fire? These are not biblical, but rather our human response: they symbolise that deep desire within each human heart, for liberation from the past and hope for the future.

Life with God is about change. John the Baptist´s message was simply this: that God is coming and you've got to get in there and clean up your life, if you're ever going to meet him. But, as we saw in Jesus, God came anyway, not with a sort of ‘sin-o-meter’ to test how sinful people were - but he came and loved & accepted people as they were, he came as a complete person, to stand alongside them… as a fellow human being.

The picture of John the Baptist above is part of a painting by artist Jen Norton. For more information, see https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jen-norton