But there may be a lesson or
two to learn from John the Baptist that hasn't been covered yet by the
average commentator on biblical personages.
We all know that he was
obviously not your average politically correct type, climbing up the
social ladder. Put him in today's society, and he'd received a warm
"Welcome to the club" from those labeled "weirdo," "religious fanatic,"
or "prophets of doom." (Those who know me personally may suspect now
that the reason I wasn't intending to write anything about him must
have been the fact that I might not have seen anything special about
him, being such a weirdo myself.)
But obviously, Jesus needed him
to prepare the way for Him. Some of His first disciples came from the
ranks of John's followers, and when John met Jesus, he was humble
enough to testify that He was going to be the Big Star on the religious
scenario, and not himself, and summed it up with the great classic
expression, "He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30).
This must not have been
entirely easy for him, or it wouldn't have, had he not been a thorough
and sincere man of God, considering the fact that he must have known
Jesus basically all his life, since they were relatives. Their mothers
were cousins, and we can read up on the emotional encounter of the two
pregnant women in the first chapter of Luke.
However, later on during Jesus'
public ministry it seems that certain things John heard about Jesus
must have cause him to doubt. After all, this Jesus was heard to live a
completely different life-style than the ascetic life John had chosen
for himself in the wilderness. He even attended dinner parties of tax
collectors for the Roman enemies, had been seen associating with
non-Jews, and even had friends among the hypocritical religious leaders
(Imagine the gossip: "Gee, John, I heard this Jesus fella is up to some
weird business...").
So, when John sends some of his
disciples to Jesus to ask Him, "Are You the One we've been waiting for,
or are we to expect yet another?," Jesus replied briefly that his
disciples should report to John what was evident: the blind, deaf,
leprous and lame were being healed, the dead were being raised and the
poor were having the Gospel (Good News) preached to them, "and blessed
is he who is not offended by Me" (Matth.11:2-6)
Jesus then goes on to declare
who John was, in God's eyes: God's messenger to prepare the way for the
Messiah, the greatest man to have been born by a woman… and yet, He
adds, and one can only conclude that it was because he had the audacity
to doubt Jesus' veracity and Messiah-ship, when he of all men, should
have know better: "He that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater
than he" (Mt.11:12).
