Blogging about Advent without
referencing John the Baptizer may be like trying to separate turkey and
cranberry sauce from the Thanksgiving table; so I’ll make the attempt lest I be
remiss. Though he’s one of my all-time
favorite historical figures, I find it a somewhat daunting challenge to
undertake from a layman’s perspective, especially in one post.
I mean here’s a guy of whom the
Christ Himself spoke, “Truly, truly I say to you, among those born of women
there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew
11:11). Whoa! And as we’ll see, that was not nepotism
(Jesus and John were cousins).
Not only that, JB (not The Biebs,
girls) actually fulfilled prophecy. Raise
your hand if you can include that on
your résumé.
In reference to Malachi 4:5 (the last Old Testament book), Jesus said
about John, “he himself is Elijah (another “whoa!”), who was to come.” The prophet Malachi had foretold at least 400
years prior to the Incarnation that the LORD
of hosts would “send you [the Israelites] Elijah the prophet before the coming
of the great and terrible day of the LORD.”
One hundred years into their
return to the Holy Land from exile, God’s chosen people had devolved into such
a delicious bunch of arrogant, unfaithful, greedy cheaters, slack in their
worship and despicable in their disobedience to the Law. Gotta say, my first impulse is to point a
self-righteous finger at them; but the unfortunate truth is, I can relate (oh,
the humanity!) Malachi said that this
second Elijah would restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and
vice versa (vs.6). Luke expands upon that
in his gospel (Luke 1:17) to say he would also turn “the disobedient to the
attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Quite a tall order, if you ask me.
If you know anything about
Elijah, you know why I indicated that being compared to him is another “whoa!” You can read about Eli in the first book of
Kings in the Old Testament, and there you’ll find that he had the stress-free
and easy job of calling the stiff-necked Jewish people (I see a pattern here) and
their wickedly idolatrous King Ahab to get off the worship fence. “Elijah came near to all the people and said,
‘How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.‘
But the people did not answer him a word"
(I Kings 18:21). Add noncommittal to their
list of character traits. Later in this
chapter you can read about the Celebrity Deathmatch of the century, in which
Elijah single-handedly takes on the prophets of Baal, until God shows up and really
lights the party on fire. Suffice it to
say being a prophet of Jehovah in those days did not make you paparazzi
popular.
But back to John. You know, I liked this guy from the moment I
read that an angel of the Lord told Zacharias, his dad, that John would “be
filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). Oookay.
And then when Mary, pregnant with the Son of God, went to visit her
cousin Elizabeth, pregnant with JB, the baby leaped in Elizabeth’s womb for joy
(vs. 44). Do you realize that God the
Holy Spirit (one person of the Trinity), present in the baby in one woman’s
womb, resonated with and reacted to God the Son (another person of the
Trinity), the baby in another woman’s womb?
I mean, homina, homina, this is good stuff!
Now you just know that if a baby
responds this way to his Creator before he even enters the planet, he just has
to lead a kind of exemplary, extraordinary life, really. True to his calling, he was one of the most
distinctive New Testament characters.
And I’m going to have to break this into two posts,
as I have a Christmas party to attend (I knew I couldn’t do
it in one!). To be continued…
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