Advent Day 26. The Birth of John.

Music written and recorded by Simon Wester.

Today we continue our Journey to Christmas day through the book of Luke by looking at the life of John the Baptist. One that was marked with humility of his place in history, as well as adulation for the message of the coming Kingdom of God.
First, the country priest, Zechariah, encountered an angel while offering incense in the Temple. Then his long-barren wife was found to be with child. Now upon the birth of the child, and after nine months of enforced silence, the mute priest speaks for the first time.
It is clear to the people that knew the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, that this child will have some sort of important role in the story that is unfolding before them, but they couldn’t know how important he would be. Perhaps a priest? The new King?
Let’s jump ahead about thirty years and try to answer their question. What John did not become is what most people would have expected—he did not become a priest like his father. Instead of following Zechariah into the priesthood, John retreated into the wilderness.
Luke says it like this, “The child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the wilderness until the day he publicly appeared to Israel.” (Luke 1:80) At some point, maybe in his teen years, John left his home and began to live in the rugged Judean wilderness. Perhaps his elderly parents were already dead by then.
Of course, we don’t know. What we know is what Luke tells us: that John lived in the wilderness becoming spiritually strong until he began to preach and baptize at the Jordan River in the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius (AD 28).
John was the prophet who, as the angel Gabriel told Zechariah, would “come in the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1:17) But John was more than a prophet, he was the forerunner foretold by Isaiah and Malachi. It was his prophetic task to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. John did this by preaching a message of repentance and baptizing the penitent.

John's sermons were filled with themes of justice—calling the rich to share their wealth and the police to stop employing violent tactics of intimidation. (See Luke 3:10–14) John’s preaching was wildly popular with the masses and drew huge crowds from Jerusalem. But, predictably, John’s ministry had little or no effect on the Temple establishment.
The apex of John’s meteoric ministry was to baptize Jesus. Once that was accomplished, the crowds began to leave John and follow Jesus instead.
John the Baptist took his diminished role with humility and grace, telling his disciples, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) A few months after he had baptized Jesus, John was arrested by Herod, and not long after that, he was executed. Jesus himself delivered John’s eulogy in advance, saying, “Among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:28) Jesus was indicating that John was the culmination of an era that began with Abraham, but now a new age was dawning with the coming of the Son of Man.
John's willingness to decrease in importance shows an unusual humility. John shows us that the ultimate message of Christ reaching those who are hurting is more important than any accolades that we this side of eternity.



Devotional Adapted from The Anticipated Christ. 

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