The Gospel of John the Baptist

2 Advent b December 10, 2023
Is. 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-2,8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a,18 Mark 1:1-8

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The sheer amount of ink given to John the Baptist in the Gospels should be a marker of how important he was for the those in the early Jesus Movement who were responsible for generating the Gospel writings.

We can assume that John the Baptist originated a community of people, one which has persisted even to modern times.  And why would the community of John the Baptist be important to the Gospel writers?

First, the Gospels tells us that some early church leaders had previously been followers of John the Baptist.  There is also a succession event that is recorded in the Gospels:  The Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.  Was Jesus a part of the movement of John the Baptist?  Did Jesus have a similar wilderness training like John the Baptist in his formative period, the first thirty years of his life of which we have very little in records, except a birth narrative and one boyhood event in the Temple?

John the Baptist is given some comparative analysis with the life of Jesus by the Gospel writers.  He has a birth narrative.  He has accounts of his ministry and his message.  He has a passion, a record of his imprisonment and death.  

According to the Gospel words of Jesus, who was he?  He was something of a reincarnation of the prophet Elijah, you know, the one who did not die but was spirited to heaven in a chariot of fire, perhaps so his spirit could return and be visualized at the Mount of the Transfiguration and be present in the ministry of John the Baptist.

The Gospel record that crowds went out to the Jordan River to hear him and to be baptized by him.

So, John the Baptist and his community were important to Jesus, and to the followers of Jesus.

We might even conclude that the community of John the Baptist was like the proto-church, a model for a new kind of separate community.  The followers of John the Baptist formed into what might be called a counter-cultural movement, borrowing and innovating water baptism as a new rite of initiation into a group that was not specifically attached to the synagogue or the Temple; it was indeed a counter-religious community, but one which seem to draw a following from diverse sectors of people in Palestine.  And this indeed would be a precursor of the identity and composition of the Jesus Movement which became churches in various locales throughout the Roman Empire.

The Gospel writings have functions and purposes.  One of the most prominent purposes of the Gospel writings was an appeal to the members of the community of John the Baptist to make a transition to become members of the Jesus Movement.  This motive would account for the special importance which the community of John the Baptist had for the leaders of the Jesus Movement.  The community of John the Baptist was a specific target for the communication efforts of the leaders of the Jesus Movement.

So, John is presented as the set up man for Jesus.  He is presented as the transitional figure for embracing the surpassing figure of Jesus of Nazareth.  John is the water baptizer and repentance teacher; Jesus is the Holy Spirit baptizer and the Resurrection life giver.

John the Baptism represents the liminal phase between Temple and synagogue and the Jesus Movement which became gathered churches.

We highlight John the Baptist during the season of Advent because we understand this as a season of preparation for both the celebration of the first coming of Jesus in his birth, but also for the subsequent comings of Jesus in his Risen Christ future.

The life of John the Baptist might be characterized by the word "fast."  Advent is a fasting season.  Fasting is the discipline of simplifying our priorities toward what is most important in personal and community values.  While in our secular culture, the Christmas parties of excess have already begun, we need to keep in mind the spirit of Advent fasting.  In our end of year fasting, we reorganize our resources, giving to charities and non-profits who are committed to get resources to those who need them direly.  We fast from gross excess to reallocate our resources for those who need them and we are reminded that the Son of Man is to be recognized in the giving to those who bear the presence of Christ poignantly in their very situation of need.

Let us embrace the fasting and rebuking of John the Baptist today as a reminder that we need consistent and intermittent fasting for our own physical and spiritual health, but also for the constant reorganizational redistribution of the resources of plenty to be shared with those have been bearing the involuntary fasts of being in need.

May God help us embrace the grace of the Advent season of fasting to benefit our physical and spiritual health, and move our world toward the gigantic redistribution of resources which is needed for us to affirm our belief and practice of love and justice.  Amen.