ST. JOHN BAPTIST:
PROPHET AND FORERUNNER
Third Sunday in ADVENT
(Rose Sunday)
13 December, AD 2009
TEXT: St. Matthew 11:2f
“[Jesus said] But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” (St. Matthew 11:9-10).
We have often heard the phrase, “Seeing is believing.” Which is to say that if we can see something with our own eyes we come closer to believing the verity of an event or of someone’s words. This particular encounter with Our Lord and His tribute to St. John Baptist seems to reflect the sentiment of these words completely. St. John Baptist has been cast into prison for publicly rebuking the marriage of Herod Antipas to his own sister-in-law and, as the Baptizer sits in prison, not being able to proclaim Jesus publicly as the Lamb of God and the Messiah, he begins to have some doubts about who Jesus really is. So he sends two of his disciples to Jesus to ask him, “Are you the Messiah – the one that is to come, or should we look for another?” To which Jesus replies, “Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” Here, Jesus is sending John’s disciples back to him so that they can remind John of all that he saw concerning Jesus before he was cast into prison – how, indeed, Jesus made the blind to see again, the lame to walk again, the lepers to become clean again, that the deaf could hear again, that the dead lived again, which were all part of the fact and reality that the Good News, the Gospel, was being preached to all people in the person of Jesus Christ. All these miraculous healings and events were not just some sort of parlor tricks which identified Jesus as a magician or some sort of superhuman hero. All of those happenings of which Jesus reminded John’s disciples were prophetic signs – symbols that pointed to the arrival of God’s Anointed, the Messiah, the Christ of God. Jesus’ actions were fulfillments of the Messianic prophecies, primarily of Isaiah, who prophesied by saying, in essence, “Look! When you see these things happening, know that the Messiah is here!” So Jesus is telling the Baptizer’s disciples, Go, remind John that he saw and you are seeing these events happening before your very eyes and that John’s mission and proclamation of the coming of the Kingdom of God has been fulfilled! Jesus’ deeds gave sufficient proof of who He was and what He was about. His actions proclaimed boldly and loudly His identity! And it was St. John Baptist who, in the summation of all the Prophets through the centuries, and as the sign, himself, proclaimed to all people that the Christ is here! In this respect, St. John Baptist is thought of as THE Prophet; the last of a long line of Prophets in whom all prophecy about the Messiah coalesced and culminated. But Jesus, Himself, tells us that John the Baptizer was more than just a Prophet as He speaks to the crowd. “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? No really, what did you go out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?” It is only the third time that Jesus asks the crowd what they went out into the wilderness to see that He speaks of the unique ministry of St. John Baptist when He says, “A prophet? Yea, I say unto you and much more than a prophet. For the Baptizer is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” At once, Malachi’s words explode the role of St. John Baptist from Prophet to Prophet and Forerunner. For no other prophet in the history of humankind proclaimed the coming of the Saviour in his own lifetime. All the others could do was to point to Messiah’s coming in the future. St. John Baptist, as Forerunner, could point to a living, breathing person and say, “This is the Saviour! He is here!” As Prophet and Forerunner, St. John challenged the people to turn, immediately, from their sins, that is, to repent, and then be baptized as a symbol of their repentance and to enter into the Kingdom of God – again, preparing the way for the coming of Messiah, something that only the Forerunner, himself, could do. So we see for ourselves through the witness of Holy Scripture, that unique ministry which was found in St. John Baptist, alone.
Unfortunately for us, our Gospel lesson ends with the prophetic words of Malachi and we don’t hear the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say. Jesus continues His tribute of St. John Baptist at verse 11 following, by saying, “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. . . For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The first part of Our Lord’s tribute to St. John Baptist is idiomatic, meaning that as a human being, there has not been anyone greater than John the Baptist, for he fulfilled completely his role as Prophet and Forerunner of the Messiah. St. John’s mission was uniquely privileged because he was called to and accomplished what no other Prophet could do; to prepare the way for the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. No man ever fulfilled his God-given purpose or mission in life better than the Baptizer. He prophesied with spiritual authority, not because he had any theological degrees or standing in the Jewish society whatsoever. His authority came directly from the spiritual heritage of Elijah and he prophesied about the coming of Our Lord in Elijah’s spirit and through his authority, since it was to be through Elijah’s prophecy and proclamation that the Messiah would come.
But in the second half of His statement, Jesus is quick to contrast St. John’s ministry, as great as it was, with the new birth into God’s Kingdom, for those who are in God’s Kingdom now have the greater privilege, because we have actually entered into the Kingdom of Heaven through its New Testament reality and have become partakers in that reality through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. As Jesus tells us, we have a greater spiritual heritage than did St. John Baptist because we have seen and known Jesus Christ and have partaken of His own Flesh and Blood as a result of His finished work upon the Cross. Nevertheless, we should never underestimate or fail to appreciate the importance of St. John Baptist’s ministry to the overall plan of salvation and the role he played to help usher in the Kingdom of God, because he points us to Jesus as the Messiah.
Our Lord’s words about the Forerunner are most appropriate for us as we move deeper into the season of Advent and our senses become even more bombarded with what has turned into the four month-long assault by Madison Avenue of the avalanche of commercialism they want us to believe is the real Christmas. The message and ministry of St. John Baptist gives us time amidst the bedlam of the hustle and bustle of our lives and the press of humanity around us during this time of year to stop and remember who is truly at the center of Christmas so we can re-focus our lives and souls upon who really matters at Christmas – JESUS, whom we have now seen and believed; and can then join with the Baptizer as he points to Our Saviour and proclaims to a waiting world – Maranatha, the Lord comes! May you be truly blessed by the message of St. John Baptist and His witness to your life as we await the coming of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ now in this season of Advent and always.
And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end. Amen.
SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+