Rebel!

When I was in high school, it was fashionable to wear a shirt with the word “Rebel” emblazoned across its front. The problem was, of course, that as soon as one put on a ubiquitous shirt made by a popular brand, the label “rebel” ceased to apply.  

It’s especially cool today to be an outsider. We are unique — don’t you know — with courageous ideas that run afoul of a dying world desperate to retain its power. The world is on the side of the evil one; the outsiders are on the side of the angels. It seems pretty clear that we are the super awesome rebels Jesus is praying for in today’s gospel reading.

Or is it so clear? 

Even we outsiders are fallen man—but not The Man, heaven forbid—and as such, we are prone to one of man’s greatest weaknesses: pride. To prepare the way for the coming of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist said, “I must decrease so he may increase.” If we have pride in being hated, that makes the mission about us. To be hated by the right people—ignorant saps who are so of the world!—is to not score a point for the kingdom, but for ourselves, in our own in-group, our own in-world, so to speak.  

If we’re looking for real rebel models speaking truth to power, it’s hard to find a better example than John the Baptist. Who are we serving with our outsider status and our truth-telling? In our own lives, are we seeking to decrease our own importance? Do our words and actions point away from us towards Jesus, or do they point back to ourselves? If the answer is the latter, well then, we might as well clad ourselves in rebel t-shirts from Gap.