Weaver1has's Blog

Outside of religion John the Baptist has an important place in human history.  Not only for Muslims Jews and Christians but other religions too.  From a  non-theological perspective John has always been a very important prophet in various religions.

• Islam (founded 610)
• Mazdeism (Goes back to the 1^st century)
• Druze (Possibly founded 11^th century)
• Bahai (Founded in the 19^th century)
• Josephus (Lived at the time of Christ)

John the Baptist has never been a fictitious character but a very important prophet.  John the Baptist is not only mentioned By Josephus and the New Testament, but he is also spoken about in the Koran and other religions in the Middle East. (From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Baptist)

So then what does this mean for us in the 21^st century.  I will be speaking from the Christian tradition of the New Testament.  We can certainly say that John was the last and greatest of the Old Testament Prophets in the Role and Function of Elijah.  His job was to begin the work of preparing the hearts of the people in Judea to meet the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord (Our Saviour Jesus Christ the Messiah). John as the Prophet was physically here to point to the Messiah.  He in fact made the Jewish people aware of who Jesus the Messiah was. This would eventually lead to his murder by the political establishment of his day as they were afraid of him and his message.

So why is John so important to me at this time of year?  In the Christmas version of John’s Gospel it says:

John’s Witness of Jesus
^“There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ ​He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ ​ He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.” John; 1:6-8

This is very simple and down to earth, and it was his main goal.   Let us look at the fuller text of John including the above:

“There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ ​He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ ​ He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
⁹ ​There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. ¹⁰ ​He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ ​He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹² ​But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, ¹³ ​who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
The Word Made Flesh
¹⁴ ​And the Word became flesh, and  dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ ​John *testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” ¹⁶ ​For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. ¹⁷ ​For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ ​No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” John 1:6-18

These events were the birth pangs for the Reformation of the Jewish Religion that would eventually bring about Christianity and decisions would have to made by the various faith communities of the time. Two major things we know of the time was:

• The destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans
• The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Rome went out of its way to completely destroy the Jewish revolt.  Even so it is interesting that there is no more a Moab or an Edom or other localized nations in that area but the Jewish nation survived all this even with a 2000 year diaspora and all the persecutions and tragedies that befell them including the gas chambers of World War 2. 

For the Jewish Christians who are mentioned in the book of Hebrews the destruction of the Temple did not mean the end as all of the functions of the Jewish Temple were found in him. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was greater than Moses, greater than the angels, Prophet, the perpetual high priest, and sacrifice on our behalf.  

For Jews however that did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, through the pharisees leading up to the modern rabbis they had to find another way.  The community was therefore the temple et al.  If this was a proper answer, then there would not be a need to build a third temple with the hope of bringing animal sacrifice back.

John was sent from God pointing to the One Messiah who is our salvation. There are no needs for sacrifice anymore:

Preaching of John the Baptist
​^“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
² ​As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU,
WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY;
³ ​THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS,
‘MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD,
MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.’”
⁴ ​John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness  preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ ​And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. ⁶ ​John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. ⁷ ​And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. ⁸ ​I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
The Baptism of Jesus
⁹ ​In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ ​Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; ¹¹ ​and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
¹² ​Immediately the Spirit *impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. ¹³ ​And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.” Mark 1:1-13

Some scholars would like to base religious text on human experience, and they would look for ways to get rid of the supernaturality of what took place. One way they did this in the past was to read the text and to find what were the original words Jesus used and the rest of the text could be dispensed with or seen as less important (Bultmann).  Everything had to be verified as historically accurate based on human experience.

My friends this goes against any major religion.  Major religions such as Christinaity Judaism and Islam have a basis of revelation.

The infinite needs to break into our time and space and make God known to us. When talking about the knowledge of God, John Calvin in his knowledge of God was correct to base God’s knowledge having priority over finite human knowledge (This can be found in Calvin’s Institutes book 1). 

John was sent from God my friends not to explain his own experiences, but to show us that Jesus was God the Son who would become a man.  It is impossible for the finite to break into the kingdom of Heaven because God is infinite.   John based his life on this message as has already been already said, he was murdered for it.

We need to beware of those who would want to give us a beautiful picture of universals for example that all roads lead to God.  No some roads lead to Hell and complete separation from God for all eternity.  No, the Gospel is made of particulars and by faith God can be made known:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

    creator of heaven and earth.

    And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

    He was conceived by the Holy Spirit

    Born of the Virgin Mary.

    Suffered under Pontius Pilate,

    was crucified, died, and was buried.

    He descended into hell.

    On the third day he rose again from the dead.

    He ascended into heaven

    and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

    He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

    I believe in the Holy Spirit,

    the holy catholic Church,

    the communion of saints,

    the forgiveness of sins,

    the resurrection of the body,

    and the life everlasting.

    Amen.

(From simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles%27_Creed)

God broke into our time and space and used John the Baptist to point and show us who the Messiah was.  The Dead Sea scrolls certainly explains to us that they were looking for the teacher of righteousness. John the Baptist certainly pointed the way to the Messiah. 

As an after-note Karl Barth kept a picture of Grunewald’s crucifixion in his office. On the lower right-hand corner there is an image of John the Baptist.  Barth as a preacher saw himself as this.  I think in Church Dogmatics he wrote over a million and a half words.

Reflection

John is not an after thought in the Gospels.  John is an example who points us in the correct direction to find solace and peace with a Holy God in Christ.  John’s message for us at this time is groundbreaking.

God Became a man and through the life and work of the Messiah it is possible to find eternal life. At this advent time let us think about these deep truths of repentance that God’s salvation has now for the first time entered into the world:

​^“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² ​fixing our eyes on Jesus, the  author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
³ ​For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary  and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3