Which St John? – John the Baptist

This Sunday (9th June 2019), Pentecost, we will have a poll to see which St John feels like the inspiration for us, St John’s, for the coming years. Which saint’s story resonates with us, calls to us, inspires us, guides us as a community into the future God is calling us into? Each day this week we will revisit one of the five Saints John we have learned about this Easter season.

Option 1

John the Baptist (not to be confused with John the disciple or John the Divine, author of Revelation – yes, like today there were lots of Johns back then…) was the son of a priest in the Temple – Zechariah. His mother was Elizabeth, who was related to Mary, Jesus’ mother. Thus, John the Baptist was related to Jesus, perhaps his cousin. The angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah in the Temple and told him that they would have a child, even though Elizabeth was past child-bearing years. Zechariah didn’t believe him, and so was made mute until the day he officially named John after his birth.

Many scholars believe John lived in the desert, perhaps as a hermit. He may have been affiliated with a group known as the Essenes, whose communal life was chronicled in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This pietistic, separatist group had removed itself from the evils of the big city, Jerusalem, in order to practice the Jewish faith with greater purity in a desolate, desert environment. We find expressions of this in John’s later preaching of repentance.

John’s public ministry started when he was around 30-years-old. The Gospels tell us that John preached a harsh message, calling his hearers a ‘brood of vipers’ and imploring them to repent and start anew. John also understood his role to pave the way for Jesus, declaring he was not worthy to untie the sandals from the Messiah’s feet. John would go on to baptise Jesus in the River Jordan. During this event a dove came down from heaven and the voice of God was heard announcing that Jesus was God’s son.

John inspired many of his followers to trust Christ when he proclaimed him to be “the Lamb of God.” Some of those followers were Andrew and John, who came to follow Jesus because of John’s testimony.

Following his ministry of baptism and preaching repentance, John remained critical of those who did not fear God. He was eventually imprisoned by Herod for correctly accusing the leader of improperly taking his brother’s wife. During his incarceration, John began to have doubts about Jesus, at one point sending some of his followers to Jesus to confirm he was really the Messiah.

John was needlessly executed after a young dancer named Salome so impressed Herod with her performance that he promised her anything – and, at the urging of her mother, she chose John the Baptist’s head to be served on a platter, and Herod obliged.

John is described in the New Testament as the last of the Old Testament prophets and the precursor of the Messiah. John said of himself, in relation to Jesus, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” Even after his death many people, including Jesus and Herod, referred to him as like Elijah, the one who prepared the way.