An Insect-eating Wildman

To be honest, I’ve never paid much attention to John the Baptist. Most of my biblical readings have skipped right over the man, put off by his taste of fashion and crazy diet. I’ve always pictured a wild man with a dark brown hairy mane full of twigs and leaves haloing his dirty face. The tan camel-hair smock that he wore bore sticky patches from the honey that missed his lips and dribbled past his theologian’s beard. He was probably skinny too, and small. A diet of locusts and honey won’t get you very far. Now that I think about it, he was probably a lot like Beorn in The Desolation of Smaug. But what John lacked in tactful appearance he made up for in courage.

John and Jesus were relatives, most likely cousins of some sort, yet John paved the way for Jesus’ ministry. John proclaimed his arrival on the second temple Judaic scene with, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:1). The Jews looked forward to the kingdom of heaven as the earthly reign of Yahweh that would reflect His divine reign in heaven. To prepare for the arrival of the kingdom of heaven, which would be brought through Jesus, John set about baptizing all those who confessed their sins and repented. The mud of the Jordan River swirled in the multitude of those who came to see John and be baptized.

Baptism wasn’t a new thing in Jewish culture. The Mosaic Law included ritual purification by water in order to be cleansed from certain offenses or diseases. Neither did John invent baptism nor did he offer forgiveness of sins through baptism. John’s baptism was a physical symbol of repentance, of preparatory readying oneself for the coming of the kingdom of God, with eschatological undertones that paved the way for Jesus’ ministry and full forgiveness of sin.

But John’s ministry, much like Jesus’ later, came into opposition from the religious leaders. During those days, Jews considered themselves God’s chosen, elect nation through whom He would change the world. This theme can be traced throughout the entire Old Testament starting in Genesis 12. Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes all hid behind the veil of ethnicity and legalistic righteousness to protect them from God’s wrath while claiming God’s blessings. But no longer. John urged them to “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’” (3:8-9). Jesus’ ministry would offer both Jews and Gentiles complete salvation through the forgiveness of sins and a new law of righteousness made possible and established through His atoning death on the cross.  Those who didn’t “bear fruit in keeping with repentance”, like the Pharisees, would be cleared from the threshing floor and burned with unquenchable fire like chaff (3:12).

And then Jesus came on the scene. John’s big moment had arrived. His entire life built up to this one moment where his path would cross with Jesus and he, John, would be the one that initiated Jesus’ life and ministry here on earth. Jesus asks John to baptize Him also, but not for symbolic repentance. Jesus’ baptism commenced His ministry and fulfilled God’s salvific movement throughout the Old Testament. By being baptized, Jesus also “identifies with the sinful people he came to save through his substitutionary life and death” (ESV Study Bible). John’s mission had been completed. Jesus’ had just begun.