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Call me nerdy, but I am thrilled for us to talk about John the Baptist! I swear I won’t let this get too long… but boy is it tempting. Let’s keep walking through Matthew:
In those days, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness in Judea, proclaiming ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!” (Matt 3.1-2)
Here’s the big idea for today. John the Baptist is more important than we usually think he is. Modern Christians fail to see just how famous John was as a historical figure and how central John the Baptist is for the New Testament itself. Here are some fast facts on John:
- Jesus and John are blood relatives. Their mothers are (loosely) cousins.
- He appears in every single Gospel
- He appears in Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities (18.115)
- All four Gospels connect John to Isaiah 40.3
- When Jesus is asked on whose authority he ministers, he responds with a question about John the Baptist (Matt 21.23; Mark 11.28)
- Jesus says that John was the greatest of all men (Matt 11.7-19)
- When Jesus asks his disciples who people think he is some of them say John the Baptist (Matt 16.14)
- Jesus says that John the Baptist was Elijah’s second appearance (Matt 17.11-13)
- In Acts a Jew named Apollos from Alexandria comes to Ephesus; he “only knew the baptism of John” (18.25)
- Again in Acts, a group of ‘Disciples’ have never heard of the Holy Spirit, but they received “the baptism of John” (19.1-7)
That’s just the explicit, clear-cut stuff. If you start digging under the surface a bit, John gets even bigger.
Why, for instance, do the Gospels record John saying “I am not the messiah” so emphatically for example John 1.19-28? Well, scholars say it’s because he was such a major figure in his own day, the average Judean would have more likely thought John to be the guy. He was, it seems, the more famous figure of the two.
Why, when asked “on whose authority do you do these things and who gave you this authority” does Jesus retort with a question about John the Baptist? Seems pretty random, doesn’t it? Here’s what Matthew records in Chapter 21:
“I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?”
And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”
And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
What’s the deal there? Frankly it seems like Jesus is linking his own authority to John’s baptism. The clearest link there is simply this: John’s baptism is the legitimation of Jesus’ authority! Jesus is sayingL if John’s baptism is good, then I’m good. This has led some people to suggest that John was Jesus’ own Rabbi.
So as we stand on the threshold of Matthew’s story of Jesus’ Baptism, we should be paying close, close attention. The adult Jesus will later claim that John the Baptist – seemingly more famous than he in his own day – was the bedrock of Jesus’ own legitimation in his ministry. We should be poised to discover something revolutionary. We’ll save that for next week.
But before I go, let me bring you attention to one vital detail. Look at what John says there in his first appearance in Matthew. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!” Again, there’s the Kingdom!
As we’ve seen over the last 6 weeks, the idea of God’s Kingdom is in just about every verse of the opening of Matthew. I’ve suggested that it is the big idea and the core concern of Jesus’ own message. It is his WHY. So we should not be surprised to discover it yet again in the mouth of John – it appeared to be his message also.
There will be more to learn about the Kingdom of Heaven from John the Baptist next week. Until then, be well!