The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken begins, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both,” and concludes, “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference” (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken). Scott Peck borrowed a line from this poem for his book on healing: The Road Less Traveled.

Long before Frost and Peck, Malachi, Isaiah, and John talked about a divine road.

Malachi: The Lord will prepare your road.

Isaiah: A voice crying in the wilderness will prepare the Lord’s road; he will straighten his path.

John: Repent (metanoia) for the forgiveness of sins.

The connection between road, path, and repentance isn’t apparent until we realize “repentance” is changing one’s mind on a journey, that is, making an about-turn and going the other way (from meta “after” and noema “mind” or “thought). One writer says, “They, the Israel of the day, were looking in the wrong direction and going in the wrong direction. It was time to turn around and go the right way (that’s what ‘repentance’ means)” [NT Wright]. With Jesus and John preparing God’s path, John challenged the people to make an about-turn in their sinful walks and walk on God’s path.

This journey began with the people stepping into the Jordan River. The imagery and significance would not have escaped the early listeners. Their ancestors’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land through the Red/Reed Sea (Exod 14:29) and entered the Promised Land through the Jordan River (Josh 4:17). Once again, their new journey on the path God’s messenger prepared began with them entering the Jordan River while confessing their wrongful journeys, i.e., sins.

Unlike Frost taking a path less traveled by others, John’s listeners hurried through the path before them in droves.

“All from Judean villages and all Jerusalemites went to John and were baptized by him in the Jordan River confessing their sins.” (Mark 1:5)

We can easily ignore this revival among the Judeans. They understood John as God’s prophet and his message as fulfilling Malachi and Isaiah’s prophecies and entered the pilgrimage. He gave them visible demonstrations of his prophetic status.

“John was clothed in hairs of camel and a leather belt around his waist. He was eating locusts and wild honey.” (Mark 1:6)

His outfit resembled that of the prophet Elijah who wore a garment of hair and a leather belt about his loins (2 Kings 1:8). His diet was a picture of a covenantal curse (locusts) and promise (a land of milk and honey). Seeing him and believing his message, the Judeans dipped in the Jordan River, acknowledging the need for a change in their lives.

The words “Baptist” and “baptized” are transliterations of Greek words. But the meaning of bapto and baptizo can mean to dip, dye, immerse, sink, drown, bath, or wash. Naaman, for example, dipped seven times in the Jordan River, and his leprosy left him (2 Kings 5:14). Whatever action they did – dip, immerse, bath, or wash (preferably not sink or drown) – pictured the internal purification of a person symbolically. Did they repeatedly enter Jordan? We don’t know. Nevertheless, Mark wanted the readers to know that when God’s messenger prepared God’s path, the people walked in it.

We shouldn’t miss the forest for the trees, i.e., emphasize baptism to the point that walking on God’s path is deemphasized or less stressed. God, who walked with Adam and Eve, still longs for us to walk with him. The Christian life is a constant walk with him, even when we sin and want to hide away from him.