John the Baptist

Hello and welcome back to the pastor talk podcast
We are thrilled to have you with us again this week as we continue on in this series the real people of faith
Last week, of course, we talked about the prophets
we discussed a little bit about how the prophets as they extended throughout the history of Israel were maybe not the most relatable people but
yet the themes with which they live their lives and the significance in the
Connector between those historical stories and Jesus’s time is undeniable
And you know Clint as we really turn our attention to today
We’re going to turn our attention to John the Baptist who is a New Testament character
So now we’ve switched over from the old to the New Testaments and yet in many ways
John is not going to feel all that dissimilar from the prophets that we were talking about last week
Yeah, you know Michael, I think a case can be made that John is the perfect bridge character from Old Testament to New Testament
Especially as we’ve done it finishing with the prophets.
John is really fits that mold of
Prophet in the New Testament.
That’s not a it’s not a very popular category
There’s probably in fact only one and he’s probably it but he’s out on his own
He’s calling people to repentance and to account he gets in confrontations with the the religious leaders
and the political leaders
He is strange
He he’s different.
He dresses different He acts different the very place where he does his ministry is significant from an Old Testament perspective and he really is
He really is the transition point.
I think probably the easiest
place to see
the movement from Old Testament to New Testament and
As we make that move to see
The focus through John and through the entire New Testament
Shift to Jesus and I think that makes him a very interesting character
I think you’re exactly right like last week
He’s probably not a character that we find
Personally relatable.
I mean, I don’t know that we’ll see a lot of ourselves in him
But he is fascinating and I think in his message
We may find something that speaks to us if we don’t resonate with him as a human as an individual
Yeah, very much.
I agree with that clean
I think we’re gonna see some of those themes come in play as we go
I think what as we start the conversation about John we need to recognize is he actually comes from
Quite a pedigree.
His family is in the religious order
His father is a priest and so the there’s this whole backstory to actually how he’s conceived and and God
encountering with his father,
but the short version is I mean he comes from a long pedigree of
religious
Institution and so he both starts with some privilege in that
But then he’s also going to divert some of that when he goes into his prophetic phase in the wilderness
Yeah, and even his backstory is old testament like his mother’s baron father gets a vision
You know, there’s that whole
That whole cyclical story that we have seen and when he’s born he’s dedicated
He’s called a nazarite,
which is a historic
Classification for those who didn’t take wine and didn’t cut their hair
Often it may have something to do with his dress.
What’s also important though is he’s a Galilean
He’s from where Jesus is from in fact
I think it’s Luke even makes a family connection pointing out that they they are cousins and
You know
Historically speaking there are those that question
How reliable some of the information on John the Baptist might be but from a scriptural perspective
That’s what it tells us that he’s within not only the royal lineage or the i’m sorry the historic israelite lineage
Of the people but he’s in jesus lineage.
He’s in the broader family and he functions as
As a forerunner, that’s really
That that’s really his role in the text.
He announces
That the messiah has come he’s the herald.
Yeah, he is and what’s fascinating about john the baptist clint is that
Every gospel teller who includes his story gives a different snippet of it.
There’s not a whole lot of what we might call
Synoptic or shared visions of who john was each story sort of sheds a different light in luke
You get this backstory with some of the family stuff and in fact
I think it’s worth noting here at this stage of the conversation
That that connection to the old testament is explicit clint.
I mean luke chapter one verse 17 uh
John’s father’s told with the spirit and power of elijah.
He will go before him.
We mentioned elijah last week,
right?
So the the connection to the old testament is not accidental or implied.
It’s intentional and explicit
But then you go to like mark and john the baptist is a central
Figure in that telling of the gospel,
but he just he’s on the scene.
He’s old.
He’s already old There’s no backstory.
It’s just he’s preaching.
He’s proclaiming in the wilderness
So you’re gonna it’s not one of those cases where you can sort of read one gospel and get the whole story
Really john’s spread throughout them and that I think points us to number one
the the scriptural significance,
right when when he is singled out
when he
Provides that kind of voice in scripture,
you know, he’s important
but also it tells you that with those diversities of tellings that the early church had lots of content about him and
Understood his significance in different ways and I think that is in some ways the the part of his character that I find so rich
Clint is because there’s so many different
advantages of who he was yeah, and
I think historically speaking and even through the scriptural lens michael,
we can easily see that this is an important man
That this is a man
To whom crowds were drawn
Herod knows of him
The the Pharisees the teachers of the law are aware of him
He had a significant following and a case has been made that one of the things that the scripture tries to do
Is to soften that a little bit because they’re writing in the era when he’s still known and popular
that
gospel writers
try to make sure that
The People who read the texts understood that this was really a jesus story and not a john story
So they they start with john,
but he he then moves off the stage
Very quickly in in fact even with his own death,
but it it’s maybe most apparent in
The fourth gospel the gospel of john where he he explicitly john the author
Focuses on john the baptist words.
No, i’m not him.
I’m not worthy to tie his sandals go follow him
And he doesn’t he even doesn’t really declare.
Jesus has jesus And I think there’s a a case that can be made that the gospel writers
They want to highlight the role of john,
but they don’t want to do it in a way that distracts from jesus
I that’s probably lost for us at this point because
We’re we’re looking at all of these through the lens of history,
but in john’s day.
I think he was a pretty powerful force
You know We’re told
Explicitly that he’s outside of town and people go to him people still make their way to him
So he must have had a tremendous impact on on the society and the the small world around him
And one of those key contributions was baptism with water
It’s functioned as a symbol of what john was calling people to do old
Texts clint that we have in scholarship leads us to believe that the idea of water purification is not
Something that is sort of unique to john.
I mean there’s other
traditions in the family of judaism
In which one being purified was with water was a part of their sort of what we might call liturgical practice or their spiritual practice
but john
Seems to have been able to speak of this kind of baptism in a way that did make it
Have a distinctive force because in fact,
um, the gospel writers will refer to it as the baptism of john
and so this this call that john had in the wilderness the
Call to confession to repentance to turn from sins for that to be paired with baptism and water
It it was clearly in its time a significant
spiritual practice and it was in some ways unique to john’s voice though it had
Shared practices in the in the time and culture,
but it also then becomes important
And wrapped into jesus’s own story in the famous scene of john baptizing.
Jesus.
Yeah, and
I think if I remember my greek michael and it’s been a while
that
We use the phrase john the baptist
But the greek is about the action the word is about the doing of what he’s doing
And I think his title literally would have been john the baptizing one or john the baptizer
So even even the way they talked about him was in reference to this thing that he was doing which was a thing of repentance
a thing of cleansing
A thing of spiritual commitment and therefore when jesus shows up it sets up this
Tension you have the messiah
Approaching
a prophet of sorts
Who is baptizing for the the reminder and remission of sins?
And
Jesus doesn’t need it
And yet jesus goes out there to john to be baptized and john tries to talk him out of it
Says no, I I need to be baptized from you not the other way around
Jesus says yeah, you have to do it.
He does and and really
I think if you were looking for the handoff moment the relay moment in the story,
that’s probably it from that point on
John is really a kind of
Sighline character and from that moment.
Jesus is by far
The center stage.
I mean there’s just no question about that
But I think you could make a case that that’s the moment of transition a hundred percent
Yeah, and I think maybe a helpful text at this stage of the conversation comes to us from mark
And mark’s telling of john the baptist i’m looking here
At verse four says that he’s in the wilderness.
He’s proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins
We’ve already mentioned that but this is key verse five and people from the whole judean countryside and all the people in jerusalem
Were going out to him and were baptized by him in the river jordan
Confessing their sins.
There’s so many layers of significance to this claim
And the new testament witness is often very generous to the crowds
Often the crowds get it in a way that the religious leaders never do but notice it’s not just people in the countryside
It’s also the people from the urban place from jerusalem from the city.
They’re all feeling compelled by this mission
By this proclamation rather and then they come out to john in what river the river jordan,
right?
This is a significant river throughout the entire history of israel
The river that was crossed on the way to the promised land,
right?
So here you have the confession of sins of the people
It appears almost as if as once again another one of these bridges
You have a prophet who comes to israel who proclaims repentance?
And the people of israel who so often in the prophetic works of the old testament were really stone-hearted
There was very little recalling of them
Being drawn to action in those books here.
John the baptist is proclaiming forgiveness of sins
And there appears to be just this wave of confession happening regardless of where you’re from the countryside the city
It doesn’t matter and so it’s in the midst of this sort of religious renewal
That this handoff is going to happen.
John is proclaiming good news and now
Not only the definition of good news
But the embodiment of that good news is showing up on the scene and so john becomes
Really the forebear the foreproclaimer of the one who’s going to literally embody the message that john’s proclaiming
Yeah, and this is much harder for us to see because we’re not familiar with it,
but the geography of the story
Is fascinating john goes out to the jordan river.
In fact, there’s
There’s a school of thought that the place
That he goes is the place where elijah the prophet is taken up in the chariot
It’s also the jordan river in which he baptized now not a lot of rivers
But the jordan is most significant because it’s the barrier when we talked about joshua
It’s the barrier through which the people crossed it was parted
and Allowed them access to the promise land and now in that very spot
You have one bringing the people of israel
Out to that spot that covenant spot
to renew their their
Passion their connection to repent of their sins to turn around
And to follow god to have some sort of renewal and jesus comes out to that spot
Goes through that action,
which we will later learn is on our behalf not his
But then jesus goes
Back to where the people are and there’s a I think a tremendous
Physical movement in this story about the land and the places that we simply
Wouldn’t have access to without the help of scholars.
Yeah, it is
Amazing how many layers get combined in this story clint we we may miss the nuances for it for us
It may seem like a guy who’s kind of weird
I don’t think did we mention the fact that he dresses strange the text goes out of its way to say that he’s wearing
Animal skin right he’s out in the wilderness.
He’s eating weird food
And so if you just come to john the baptist,
you might think to yourself
This is a strange guy to start the story
But if you’re an early christian particularly someone who’s aware of the history of the people of israel if you’re a jew
These connections all point to places of significance
You start seeing the geography you start seeing the language you start seeing the religious connections
You start seeing some of the practices that john is encouraging the people to
And you start to understand why the new testament writers might have been a little worried that you would get the wrong message
Right, it might sound like john’s arrival to jesus
But here just literally a few verses from where we were in mark
He says this exact thing that you were saying clint i’m not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of jesus’s sandals
Um, I have baptized you with water,
but he will baptize you with the holy spirit and there
Is this significant turn john saying i’m the one doing physical baptism
But jesus christ is going to do a baptism of a radically and more permanent kind
Yeah, absolutely and we have in john
that character that stands between
What has been and what will be he’s in he’s in many ways the gate through which the story goes
and one of the fascinating connections michael, you know his
His message as it’s recorded in the gospels is repent for the kingdom of god is at hand
The first thing that jesus is recorded preaching is the exact same verbatim words
Repent for the kingdom of god is at hand.
And so I think what we see in that is this idea
that jesus
I I don’t want to say takes from john the message of repentance,
but jesus uses this message
Which the people have been drawn to in john
and Begins to expand upon what it means begins to
Give evidence in his ministry and in his life of what it
What it looks like
To be faithful what it looks like to repent to turn
And what it means that the kingdom of god is at hand literally embodied in him
And and I don’t want to get off track and make this a jesus podcast because our focus is john the baptist today
but the connection of those two characters and the continuation and the expansion of that message is
is remarkable and
Again, it makes john.
I think the only real place
To start in the movement from old testament to new testament
probably the
Real defining moment the place where scripture does speak with a pretty unified voice about john
The baptist is what you are referenced the story of the baptizing of jesus
I think it’s important that we recognize some more of that
Symbology the idea that the water
Uh, i’m sorry that the heavens are torn apart much like the water was parted
Um, there’s this sense in which heaven and earth are the the schism between them is broken
And the spirit descends like a dove on jesus and we hear this voice
You are my son the beloved and with you.
I am well pleased god speaks in this moment in a kind of
uh unarguable call moment and john the baptist is
Able to by the the nature of this practice that he does
Sort of be the the situation in which it happens
Yeah, I may be comparable to mary and joseph the idea that that god in sending christ
includes people Includes characters in the story not characters,
but humans in the story.
Jesus has parents
Jesus encounters this prophet in the wilderness.
In fact, jesus will give him high praise
Among those born of women.
Nobody is higher than john the baptist and and later even say
um in the not very veiled way that he is the prophet elijah the one who would herald the messiah and
You know, you just have that sense
of god sort of partnering with those who were
Looking for the consolation and the restoration of of israel
And in some sense,
maybe even the world though.
I don’t know if they could have given that voice
but john stands
Really at the center of that
At least initially and then again is quickly off to the side and really
Um kind of out of the story from that part
There’s some interesting anecdotes throughout the text about john’s life and one that comes to mind actually comes after his death
Which I know we’ve not got to yet,
but it speaks to his significance
Jesus is preaching in the book of mark and becomes very famous
And some says this is in mark chapter 6 verse 14 that a john the baptizer has been raised from the dead
And for this reason these powers are at work in him
So once again just another pointer when jesus rises in prominence
Others start thinking wow,
wait a minute This is john the baptist raised from the dead because his name was that well known because his significance was that high
He gets pointed to even after his death
right and
and of john
The scriptures say early and then he says of himself quoting isaiah when they ask him who you are
Are you the messiah and he says no,
he says are you elijah?
He said no Are you a prophet?
He said no, and he said well,
then what are you who are you?
And he says and this is a quote from isaiah.
I’m the one crying out in the wilderness
make straight
the way of the lord and
In advent we often have we often have a john the baptist focus in advent
I think this text is in the advent readings
But again, he the herald this man who makes straight
The way of the lord who proclaims him coming who shares the truth
You know, he says he was not the light but he came to testify to the light
And maybe if there’s a if there’s an on ramp to see ourselves in john the baptist michael, maybe it’s there
Maybe it’s not eating locusts and honey,
which by the way are signs of israel again
But maybe it’s this idea
that we share in that
semi prophetic calling
To make christ known to proclaim what god has done to call people
to repentance to invite people to new spiritual truth and new spiritual life and
And in that we have a kind of invitation
to
Imitate john and the work that he did
It would be very very difficult to read the new testament
And to not see john in some way
As an archetype of what it means to respond to jesus christ and that’s maybe weird to say because
You know if you look at it on a timeline,
he’s coming before christ.
He’s setting the stage for christ
But if you want to look at the book of acts and you see how the church
Expands beyond the life and death and resurrection of christ the ascension of christ
It is very much told from the lens of witnessing to what you have seen and that is what john
Literally makes his ministry as it applies to jesus about it’s to point to jesus.
It’s to say He’s going to carry on the work that i’m doing in a way that you can’t even imagine
and so if we’re going to try to
Find the real personess of john and by that
I mean try to find where it starts intersecting our lives and our daily choices and our lived existence
I do think it poses a question for us clinton
And I think one of those questions is to what extent has the gospel shaped our lives?
Do we live in such a way that the good news is visible not just to those in our closest circle
But to those outside of it and that doesn’t look like sticking stickers on your car and it doesn’t necessarily mean you going on
Facebook and making your profile picture something.
I don’t mean anything that explicit.
I mean
Living in the world in such a way that our lives
reflect jesus christ and
That looks like transformed behavior.
It looks like humility.
It looks like silence.
It looks like graciousness and reconciliation
You often can recognize a person of deep faith when they walk in the room not because of what they say or don’t say
But rather because of their quiet
Humble dignity and I I do think there’s a sense in which as we seek to be
Disciples of jesus christ as we seek to by the way that we live our lives point others to him
That is going to be reflected in our lives and that’s a good self-reflective question to practice,
which I think john instigates
Yeah, and I think there are two places michael where maybe we can give concrete examples of that in john’s own
experience john’s own real personness the first is
That john though intense and strange
We see in him a humility
because rather than Use his success rather than use his notoriety
to further himself
The moment he sees christ in the scripture
He says
He must be more and I must be less he he’s going to increase and i’m going to decrease
I came here to point the light at him
and and to Point out That he’s the one the lamb of god coming into the world to forgive it of its sin
And i’ve done that work that that’s my task.
My task is secondary to him
I’m only here to announce i’m not here to make this about me and I think we see in that a tremendous
Um humility certainly but but strength it takes
A great deal of character
To be surrounded by people who would put you on their shoulders
And call you the one
and say
No, i’m not him.
In fact
There he is the second place.
I think we see that
john sent some disciples to jesus and
They ask him, you know john says we need to know what are you doing?
And by the way john has disciples.
Yeah, and so
He sends some disciples to jesus and and they say john wants to know what’s happening and jesus says
Tell him the lame are walking the blind are being made to see
The the poor are being lifted up
And he’ll know what that means and and jesus has this tremendous
Trust in john’s ability to discern that when the things of god are happening
That the one instigating them is the one for whom john has been waiting
And I think that it in both cases.
We see marks of john’s
Not only his character,
but his awareness his spirituality his his ability to
Discern what god is up to another aspect that i’m not sure often gets applied to john is is really his faith
because
The gospels are almost universal in their telling of how the disciples miss it over and over and over and so often
People don’t even see jesus for who he is and here john even before day one gets who jesus is
this is a man who is unwavering in his faith and proclamation of
jesus christ as lord and
I do think that there’s a kind of tenacity in his vision of who jesus is
That all of us could aspire to live into that sort of unwavering faith that that though
I mean john goes through some very tumultuous times.
He dies in a very horrific way
Realistically the fact that he can hold on to that thread line of faith with such
Undying confidence is I think for all of us an inspiration to return to our own faith and to recognize that
We have much to trust in the good news of jesus
Yeah, and this may be a moment michael on the other side of the coin.
That’s difficult for us to resonate with john,
you know so often
historically the spiritualists
The mystics
the prophets
They exist in a place that by definition is kind of outside of the norm
And they are often people who make us a little nervous a little uncomfortable
We we had some of that conversation last week regarding the prophets.
John is certainly one of them to be so focused
on god to be so intense in his
faith and his desire to make christ known and to herald the messiah is
If not off putting certainly intimidating to to those of us who maybe say
Live in a more middle of the road kind of place and
The wonderful gift that those people on the fringes give us is that they continually call us
Further and further out of ourselves out of our status quo
Out of our normal.
Sometimes they do that invitationally.
Sometimes they do that correctively even angrily
but I think as we saw in the prophets we see in john that
That one who stands apart and says
continue
To move toward a life centered in and rooted in your faith in god and god’s promise
To be with you and lead you and guide you and don’t let anything else
Get in the way and and I would say ultimately michael if if we transition
That’s probably what gets john the baptist
ultimately
In the most trouble with the government certainly and it may be the thing that leads to his death
very much and clint there is a whole sect and
Maybe sect is in the right word because it makes it sound like it’s more organized than it actually is
There’s a whole religious tradition in this time period called zealots
People who would very much see their role and an expression of their faith as unseating roman oppression
And so you have all of these stories of religious leaders of that time
taking up arms attacking the roman army in many different ways
And as you won’t be surprised to hear to very little effect,
um, you know rome’s strength is is really just
Unbeatable, but what’s fascinating is the two?
Really most weighty people in the new testament jesus by far.
I mean by leaps and bounds
But then you have john the baptist and neither of them
Fit into that zealot camp neither of them are calling people to take up arms to march down rome
They are subversive in
Much different ways.
In fact, they draw the ire more of the religious leaders than the direct military leaders and
You know, it’s actually john’s
religious conviction
he gets after harrod for
his
unfaithfulness and lewd lifestyle
And it’s that thing that comes to bite him later on it’s not necessarily a direct affront on the power of the time
yeah, so
Harrod if I remember the story correctly has married his sister-in-law, right and john
essentially
in the midst of his preaching calls him out and word gets back to harrod who throws john in prison
and
Herodias the sister-in-law
Has been biting her time.
She’s been waiting for an opportunity
to
um strike out to lash out at john and harrod
probably because john has this following this popularity has not executed him because
He’s always on the line of right not wanting to push crowds over the edge and have these revolts that you mentioned in that and
So he’s kind of playing the political game of saying well,
i’ve got him in prison.
That’s good enough If I do anymore,
I could throw a match in the powder keg and we don’t want that.
Well has a birthday party
Harrodias has this daughter.
That’s very young and beautiful.
She dances for harrod and
Harrod says, oh that was fantastic.
I’ll give you anything you want
She goes and says this to her mother and her mother says,
okay, then do me a favor
Tell him you want john the baptist’s head
And so she makes the request
Harrod has made this promise in front of all these people.
So now he can’t look bad
And he follows through and has john the baptist executed and so even
john’s
John’s call against sinfulness and his call to accountability
Is probably ultimately the thing that that brings about his downfall
although
With the anger and the scheming of of the woman who has been offended by him
Yeah, and that actually continues a really prominent theme in the new testament that you might miss if you’re just reading quickly
Is there’s a lot of politics in the new testament clint?
I mean fundamentally this idea of these differing interests and trying to appease crowds and
getting called out for sinfulness that may
Seem like an unusually messy situation,
but it’s not at all you look to jesus’s
trial and you see the very many complicated political influences related to the local leadership the national leadership looking to
How we’re going to sort of sneak through these differing channels make different people happy.
So
Fundamentally, we should recognize
that
The real aspect of this story clint is that it has as many nuances and crazy twists and turns as we experience in our own lives right
there is
There’s so many different
forces at play and yet the revelation of god in jesus christ
Is blazingly clear to anyone who has eyes to see it and that’s fundamentally what we’re supposed to recognize
through the new testament text is that
john the baptist points us
Unswervingly to jesus and regardless of the forces at play
If one has the eyes to see what is being witnessed to or pointed to one is going to see truth with flesh on it
Yeah, and in that I think hopefully we see a side of john that we can
Resonate with certainly we can aspire to
His consistency the the thing that I think you have to
Admire john for is that whether it’s?
Herod staring him down
whether it’s jewish religious leaders
He he preaches the same message.
He he is consistent
in pointing to jesus christ and anything that
Transgresses what god would have us do he’s going to call out regardless of the cost,
you know in some ways
Perhaps we could call him the first martyr.
I don’t know if that’s
completely accurate
but
What we see in him is that man who fearlessly?
Points to christ as he believes it to be his call
And in that certainly we see something that we should aspire to
pattern in our own life
Yeah, once again as we as we try to to look at the life of john has told the new testament
It’s we’ve said this before and I don’t want to keep going back to it
Recognizing that john is maybe not a relatable character clinton john
Is so important in setting up who jesus is?
And therefore who we as jesus’s disciple should aspire to be I mean
You can’t read the gospel without having affection and respect
For john the baptist and as we seek to be those who live our lives
Formed by the faith who seek to point to jesus
It is the content of john’s life and preaching that I think do
Give us invitations to reflect on how we can ourselves be fashioned.
How can we be consistent in our morality?
So that the person who appears in public is the same person who lives in private
How can we be people who are defined by that keyword that john lived by repentance?
In other words the humility to leave where you’re at to turn around and to do something different
In fact, that’s what jesus calls us to do is to repent to turn from our sins that that imagery
Is literally imagery that that john proclaims even before jesus
Is uh in ministry so john is essential whether or not you’ve known it
To who we understand jesus to be and who we as christians strive to be
Even if you’re probably not going to try to do it the exact same way that john did it
Yeah, and so with the rubric we’ve kind of tried to use in these podcasts michael
Let’s think for a moment what john got wrong what john got right
From the perspective of what john gets wrong
I don’t think you could say that would be anything theological
Certainly don’t think that would be anything moral
You know that probably the only thing you could mention is he’s pretty eccentric
I mean he may be a little off-putting.
He may come on a little strong.
He’s out there in his camel hair
He’s eating bugs.
He’s eating wild honey.
He’s thundering away at the river
It makes him a little bit of a curiosity
But certainly he does what he does with power with conviction in a way that people respond to
I’m not sure that’s a knock against john.
I think that’s his role in the story
I think as a continuation of the old testament prophet
office or prophetic voice
That’s who he is and what he does.
So i’m not sure it would be fair to say
That he does anything
Wrong, but he is strange
Yeah,
that’s well said I
In fact, i’m not even sure that that’s a completely fair rubric to apply to john because fundamentally
john
And I want to be careful here and correct me if you think i’m wrong clint because you may disagree,
but I think in many ways John functions in the height of that prophetic role that we talked about last week and john
very much
Is a voice for god.
I mean john
is the one
vessel who god uses to call the people to repentance and as the people are moved in that direction
Jesus is there to receive them and to carry them further than john can carry so
To even use the rubric of where john gets it wrong is probably maybe
To look beyond the scope of the new testament because john’s really functioning in a kind of role that’s unique to him
Yeah, and he’s strange, but by definition
He has to be yeah,
it’s the only it’s the only way he can be to fulfill his role
So let’s then move to what he got right lots of things here and lots of things.
We’ve already said his passion his intensity
his
His willingness to treat everybody the same whether it’s Herod or whether it’s a priest or whether it’s the person coming out his
insistence on being made clean
And and I think michael in the idolatry of his day and certainly against the backdrop of the old testament
that may be a beautiful message we see in john his
recoupling of the proclamation of faith and the life of faith the idea that if you’re going to go out in the water
And you’re going to have this moment of spiritual conversion then
literally by god It better produce fruit in your life because as he says the axe is laid at the tree
For those who don’t bear fruit and and I I think
You know, that’s a that’s a wonderful challenge
It’s a frightening challenge,
but for john to take things that we would like to separate
Well, I have faith and I do what I want and john says no
That’s not how it works the life of faith bears fruit or it’s something else
You know, that’s really well said clint.
I’m not going to be able to add more categories.
I think I can only say
That john has always been a challenge for me personally in in my own sort of spiritual life
because I am
I’m often driven as a person to try to succeed and drive and move forward and and the idea of
Of that moving ahead is pretty important to me personally and the great weakness that that brings to me clint
Is john the baptist provides a way of being faithful without the need to be first
He’s a faithful servant of god and he is the first to give christ credit
He is happy with the second or below position.
He wants nothing of being recognized as first and
You know for me
Personally, I would say that john in that way represents a real challenge of personal personality propensity
But I also think an inspiration because as we seek to be faithful in the world
We can do so in a way
That is both faithful to the gifts that we have and both
Utilizes the time and space that god has put us to be his children
And we can do so in a way that doesn’t make it about us that puts christ at the front
And to whatever extent we can do that.
I think we’re we’re leaning into the best of who john was Yeah,
michael.
I think that’s a great last word.
I hope there’s been something in this conversation that has maybe been helpful
If not in information about john the baptist may be a challenge to our own faith
Our own walk as we follow christ together.
We appreciate you tuning in
We are grateful and we hope that there’s been something in here that has spoken to you
Thanks for being with us.
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