By Guest Writer
Scripture Reading: Matthew 3:1-17, Matthew 11:1-15, Matthew 14:1-12
In the Judaic tradition, few loom larger as key cultural figures than prophets. Ezekiel, Daniel, Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah are metaphorical giants of the ancient tradition, acting as the voice of God to His people in difficult times. But at the closing of the Old Testament, their great tradition seemed to end. Centuries passed, kingdoms rose and fell, and God’s people found themselves surviving under Caesar’s power. But God was preparing a voice to speak once more.
Rumors circulated about a strange man in the wilderness. Some said he wore camel-hair and ate bugs, recalling to them old stories about Elijah. Some said he had a miraculous birth, the first child of a barren, old woman. He was ascetic and eccentric, unafraid to preach repentance and shout down wealthy religious leaders, yet he’d baptize anyone willing to confess their sins. Soon everyone was talking about this “voice of one crying out in the wilderness” (Matthew 3:3).
This was John, and they called him the Baptizer. He was strange but compelling, bold but humble. Yet even though his preaching and personality drew crowds, he had no interest in building fame for himself. “The one who is coming after me is more powerful than I,” he insisted. “I am not worthy to remove his sandals.” (Matthew 3:11)
Through so much of Scripture, we see God working through ordinary people, using them to call His people back to Himself. When God’s people were at their lowest under the Roman Empire, John proclaimed the long-awaited Messiah was coming—and soon! John was God’s voice in the wilderness to once again remind them that a sacred lineage, accumulated wealth, and favor with an empire wouldn’t actually save anyone. In God’s economy, the poor and overlooked would be raised up.
To those who had the heart to hear, John was preparing them for a Messiah who would not look anything like what they expected.
We don’t know exactly what sparked John’s calling to give his life proclaiming the Messiah’s arrival. But John, larger-than-life and unafraid to speak truth to power, was human too. While in prison for offending Herod’s wife, he sent a message to Jesus and asked: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). Under this question was a more vulnerable one: “Was it all a waste?”
Like God appearing to Elijah at his lowest, Jesus met John’s wavering with assurance: “Go and report to John what you hear and see.” Healing for broken bodies, the dead raised, good news to the poor — all the wonders John himself had proclaimed. “And blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me” (Matthew 11:4–6).
John is remembered, in Jesus’s words, as “more than a prophet.” (Matthew 11:9,14) His presence helped break up long-fallow ground and prepare a nation’s heart for Jesus’s message and miracles, to make way for the coming of a humble Messiah and King.
Written by Jen Yokel
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