At this Advent Season we focus a great deal on the story of the birth of Jesus, however, it does not seem that this was the main focus of the Gospel writers. The Gospel account that is generally regarded as the oldest, that is to say the one written down nearest the time of Jesus, was Mark’s Gospel and it says nothing about the angels, the shepherds, and the wise men, in fact nothing at all about the birth of Jesus. It starts with the prophecy of Isaiah, and then the appearance of John the Baptist – the desert prophet who dressed in rough camel hair garments and ate what he could forage – locusts and wild honey. He preached about the need for repentance, and baptised those who confessed their sins and turned away from them. Jesus then appears, not as a little baby, but as a man of around 30 years of age seeking the baptism of John in the River Jordan, after which he too goes off into the desert. We can see why going into the desert became a model for some of the early Christian Fathers.
John’s Gospel also starts, not with the nativity story, but with John the Baptist calling on the Jewish people to repent and pointing them to the One who is to come, the long-promised Messiah, his kinsman, Jesus.
In the Gospels attributed to Matthew and Luke we read about the Christmas story – the circumstances of the birth of Jesus and the extraordinary happenings around that time, but both the earliest Gospel writer, and the later more theological author of John’s Gospel see the prophetic message of John the Baptist as more significant. I think it is remarkable how little attention we pay to John the Baptist. He is the first person to identify the significance of Jesus. When Jesus passes by as John is talking with two of his own disciples, he points them to Jesus and says, “There is the Lamb of God.” One of those two disciples of John was Andrew who then brought his brother Simon to Jesus and they both became two of the most important of Jesus’ disciples.
John was obviously something of an ascetic and he challenges people to repent – to stop some of the things they are doing and to change their way of living – so it is not surprising that we find in Mark chapter 2 that some of John’s disciples were fasting, which was not something that Jesus’ disciples, or Jesus himself, seemed to do so much. Jesus acknowledges this and makes clear that while he respects John, he has a different role and message, though there was enough similarity that in Mark 6 we find King Herod fearing that Jesus was actually John the Baptist, who he had executed, come back to haunt him. Later in that chapter we learn that Herod had found John a fascinating man, good and holy, and speaking in an intriguing way. But John was not afraid to challenge even the king when he was behaving badly and when he publicly criticised him for marrying Herodias, because she was the wife of Herod’s brother, Philip, there was trouble in store. We all know the story of how Herod became infatuated with the daughter of Herodias when she danced for him at a banquet and how he swore to give her anything she wanted. Her mother took the opportunity to silence the man who had publicly spoken out against her behaviour and got her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The stupid, arrogant, immoral old fool, Herod, was hoisted on his own petard and John was executed to please the girl and her mother and to save face for Herod. Now he was afraid that Jesus was actually John come back to haunt him.
There were indeed similarities between John the Baptist and Jesus. In chapter 3 of John’s Gospel there is a story of how some of John the Baptist’s disciples got into a dispute with other Jewish people about purification and he refused to agree with his own disciples when they wanted to pit themselves against others. “They will only have what God gives them” he said. In other words, John did not want his disciples to magnify minor differences from other people of faith. Jesus said the same thing to his disciples. In Mark 9: 38, John, the disciple of Jesus, wanted to stop a man casting out devils in the name of Jesus, but Jesus told him not to do that and said, “He who is not against us is on our side.”
John the Baptist had other lessons for his disciples too, lessons that were not quite the same as those that Jesus had for his disciples. John’s key message was “Repent!” That does not just mean saying that you are sorry. It means that you don’t keep doing the things that are wrong. Repentance is only real if you stop your wrong way of living. It is only if you stop that you can adopt a new way, and the key message from Jesus was about that New Way. “I am not important,” says John. “If Jesus grows in importance, I will grow less in importance, and that will be a matter of joy because he is the Chosen One, not me.” What a remarkable man, John the Baptist was! Despite his humility, or maybe because of it, we find him spoken about in each of the four Gospels. Let us look briefly at how they refer to him.
In Matthew, John the Baptist is referenced in chapter 3, in chapter 9, and in chapter 11, where he seeks reassurance from his prison cell that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. Jesus responds, not by criticizing John for his doubts, but by lauding him and saying of him, “Never has there appeared on earth a mother’s son greater than John the Baptist.” What an extraordinary reference that was. Matthew chapter 14 tells us about the shameful execution of this prophet and holy man and again, Jesus refers to him in chapter 21. In Mark’s Gospel, chapters 1, 2, 6, and 11, John is referenced and in Luke chapter 1 we hear about the remarkable birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah and Elizabeth. Then again in Luke chapter 3 we read of him proclaiming in the words of the prophet Isaiah “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” and preaching a profoundly ethical and caring message – no bullying, no blackmail, no cheating, and if you have two shirts, share one with the man who has none. Stop being selfish is what he is saying, and there is more about him in Luke chapter 7 and again chapter 9.
Finally, as I have said earlier, John’s gospel chapter 1 tells us – “There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John.” In chapter 5 Jesus refers to John bearing witness, a witness that thoroughly impressed his Jewish listeners at the time, “A lamp,” says, Jesus, “A lamp burning brightly and for a time you were ready to exult in his light.”
John the Baptist is spoken about in all four Gospels, not in passing, but extensively and as a model, a prophet, a person of profound significance. So why do we speak so little about him? Why do we ignore this “lamp burning brightly”? Unlike the nativity story, John the Baptist is there in every single Gospel, and repeatedly so, with a message that links the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah and Elijah with Jesus, the Messiah.
Herodias did not like John’s profoundly ethical message and his condemnation of her wrong way of living and she had him silenced. Herod knew he was a good and holy man, but his own stupid pride was more important. At this Advent Season when we remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus let us take care not to be among those who do not want to hear the voice of John the Baptist telling us to stop living in the wrong way as individuals and as communities – even as a global community. The Old Testament spoke about how God had allowed his people to be taken into captivity because of their wrong-doing as a community. They were not sent into exile because of the sins of one person, but of the whole community. John the Baptist spoke in similar terms about the Occupation by the Romans. God had allowed it as a punishment for wrong-doing, not by one person but by the whole community of Israel. Isaiah says “Comfort ye my people” because they have now paid for their wrong- doing and can start to live in a new way. John calls on them to stop their wrong-doing as a people. That is his job and his message. But he then points them to Jesus whose message is of a new way of living in community. John is there to call them to prepare the way of the Lord. Jesus is that Way – the Way of the Lord. Why not listen again to the marvellous opening to Handel’s Messiah, but this time have in your mind’s eye the words coming, not in a concert hall from a man in a black bow tie, but out in the open air from a desert prophet in a camel hair coat telling us to prepare ourselves for the message of Jesus, a message of challenge, but also of comfort and hope in a time of darkness and fear. We can be comforted and reassured, but only if we listen to John, give up the old ways, and then be free to follow the new way that Jesus proclaimed.
The picture of John the Baptist at the top of this post is a photograph that I took of a mosaic in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Türkiye – now the Grand Mosque but originally built as an Eastern Orthodox Christian church and completed in 537 AD.
This is the text of a sermon preached on Sunday 10 December 2023 in St Edmund & George’s Church, Hethe, and The Church of St Mary & St Edburga, Stratton Audley – both of them members of the Shelswell group of parishes.
