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John the Baptist
(Found in all
four Gospels)
The reader will please
note that we have not included copies of the Scripture for this lesson. They
are extensive, and might violate the standard copyright permissions for the
NIV. The relevant Scriptures are Matthew 3, Mark 1:1-11, Luke 3:1-14 and John
1:6-27.
Rite and
Ceremony
It is a
tradition at our church that we have only one tradition – which is that we have
no traditions. The view seems to be that traditional ways are those of
meaningless rites and ceremonies. These, we are told, encourage a Christianity
which is ceremonial only.
One must
object: the human experience is bound up in rite and ceremony. We use such
things for a variety of purposes:
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Sometimes
we must say something which is beyond words. We have Communion to portray
the great sacrifice of Christ – the symbols portray the deed, and we have
yet to find words which equal this.
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Other
times we use ceremony to mark important changes in life. We have baptism to
mark the beginning of the new life in Christ; weddings to mark the beginning
of life together; funerals to mark a passing.
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Perhaps
most important of all: we use rite and ceremony to engage the experience
and memory of others. Wedding ceremonies provoke a reflection on the joy of
marriage. Funerals teach us of our own mortality. Our national anthem
invokes our personal patriotism. These ceremonies reach within our hearts,
personalizing the experience for each of us.
Jewish
conversion
With these
principles in mind, then, we may ask what the hearers of John the Baptist would
have seen in his baptizing. To understand this, we need to know that the
process of converting from Gentile to Jewish in those days involved baptism.
John’s audience would have this background for his ceremony; what would they
see?
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First of
all they would see an act of humility. The Gentile must adhere to God the
one and only, renouncing his previous worship of many gods. Humble yourself
in the sight of the Lord!
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They
would also see it as a new beginning. All the sins of previous life are now
washed away. From then on, sin had its atonement in sacrifices at the
Temple.
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Perhaps
most disturbing to them would be the reminder that God does not play
favorites. You don’t have to be born a Jew; you can become one.
The baptism
of Christ
With this in
mind, then, we may gain some insight into Christ’s baptism – and John’s
objection to it. John sees it as a baptism of repentance. He knows that the
Christ is sinless; it would be completely fitting for Christ to baptize John,
but not the other way around. So John is surprised when Christ asks to be
baptized. Like John, we may be puzzled by this. But there are answers:
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Christ
tells John that this is to “fulfill all righteousness.” This is a difficult
thought. One explanation is that Christ is to be our High Priest, and this
priest was to undergo ceremonial cleansing before taking office. Thus
Christ would fulfill the Law. (We must remember that Christ suffered under
the Law so that he could be our atonement).
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This also
emphasizes the humanity of Christ – so that all who thought him something
other than completely man would have to explain the physical fact of
baptism. For example, those who taught that Christ was a specter who left
no footprints would need to explain how you baptize a specter.
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Finally,
there is the divine example. What nobleman could refuse baptism because of
his high position when the King of Kings was baptized?
John, the
Prophet
It’s worth
noting that John’s ministry is prophesied in the Old Testament.
It is therefore no wonder that Christ refers to him as the greatest of the
prophets. He is the quintessential Old Testament prophet, and we may learn from
this.
Role of the
prophet
The role of a
prophet in the Old Testament does not seem at all to be “get along, go along.”
In fact, it is quite the opposite – which generates opposition.
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The
prophet is to “forth tell.” Listen to “you brood of vipers, …” This does
not tend to get you in the good graces of the establishment. The well read
among us will recall that John lost his head this way.
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The most
common function of the prophet (at least in our view) is foretelling the
future. In this case, the foretelling is about Christ.
Unpopular
sermons, unpopular prophecies; it is no wonder that John is the “voice in the
wilderness.”
Example
Most of us
would be extremely unwilling to adopt a life style that called for a camel hair
shirt accompanied by a diet of honey and locusts.
But we might see it as an example for us in other ways:
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What does
it say to us about materialism? If so great a prophet can reject things
material, should we not be able to reject the cycle of greed, envy and
acquisition in our own lives?
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Such a
life style is a continuous sacrifice. Is this not an example too? How many
Christians today are willing to sacrifice – as long as it doesn’t cost them
anything?
The man
walked the talk. Go and do likewise.
In our own
lives
Suppose we
took this man seriously. What effect would it have on our own lives today?
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There
would be repentance – a turn from the sins of this lazy world back to the
righteousness that only comes from God.
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There
would be confession – the admission, publicly, that we need to turn around.
What an example this would be!
It’s not just
that we would confess and repent, but we would also work to “make straight the
path” which leads to Christ. A true Christian is a light in the world by which
others may discern the path that leads home.
The Greatest
Servant
Mat 11:11 NIV
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.
The true
servant of God knows…
It is obvious
that if one aspires to greatness as a servant of God, there are some knowledge
requirements. So, what does the true servant of God know?
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He knows
his tradition. He does not stand only on his own experience, but he
adds the experience and wisdom of those who have gone before. This has
prevented many a stupid mistake.
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He knows
his position. It is not for him to claim the credit, the glory, due
to God. Rather, he has the humility to be what he has been called to be.
His reward is not from men but from God.
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He
understands his mission. He understands his role in the kingdom,
accepts it as such without complaint and then works hard to fulfill the
tasks that position brings. It is a form of craftsmanship.
The true
workman of God does…
There is
something encouraging about watching a craftsman work his trade; you know that
things are going to be done right. So what does the true workman do?
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He
gathers his disciples around him. There is no sense of solo flight for the
workman; rather, he needs to have others to whom he can pass on the craft.
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He then
teaches those disciples. He does not teach them his own pet theories;
rather, he passes on his craft to the next generation.
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In so
doing, he acts as a model for his disciples. As Paul expressed it:
2Th 3:6-10 NIV
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away
from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching[1]
you received from us. (7)
For you yourselves know how you ought to follow
our example. We were not idle when we were with you,
(8) nor did we eat anyone's food without paying
for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that
we would not be a burden to any of you. (9) We
did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to
make ourselves a model for you to follow. (10)
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work,
he shall not eat."
The friend of
God
The highest
honor bestowed by God before the Resurrection was the title, “friend of God.”
John shows us how this is done. May we see just two things about this?
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There is
nothing standing between the friend and God. For John this meant an ascetic
life style; for Abraham, not so. But the principle is the same: God is
first in each life.
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Being a
friend means sharing your Friend with your friends. So it is with John,
many of whose disciples became disciples of Christ.
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