John the Baptist

John the Baptist was the prophet who prepared the way for Jesus Christ — the last and greatest of the old-covenant prophets, the forerunner who stood at the hinge between the age of the Law and the Prophets and the dawning kingdom of God. Jesus said of him, "Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11).

His birth was itself a sign. The angel Gabriel announced to the aged priest Zechariah that his barren wife Elizabeth, a kinswoman of Mary, would bear a son to be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb and to go before the Lord "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:13–17). Born six months before Jesus, John grew and "was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel" (Luke 1:80). He emerged at the Jordan clothed in camel's hair, eating locusts and wild honey, preaching "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4) and calling the nation to bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8). The Gospels identify him as the voice foretold by Isaiah, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD" (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3), and as the messenger of Malachi 3:1 — the Elijah who was to come (Matthew 11:14).

The climax of his ministry was the baptism of Jesus. Though John protested his unworthiness, he baptized Jesus in the Jordan, saw the Spirit descend like a dove, and heard the Father's voice (Matthew 3:16–17). Pointing his own disciples to Christ, he gave the gospel's great testimony, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29), and defined his role in words that have become the model of humility: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).

John fearlessly rebuked Herod Antipas for taking his brother's wife Herodias, and for this he was imprisoned. From prison, amid doubt, he sent disciples to ask whether Jesus was truly the Coming One, and received the gentle assurance of the Messianic signs (Matthew 11:2–6). At last, manipulated by Herodias through her dancing daughter's request, Herod had John beheaded (Mark 6:27). His martyrdom foreshadowed the rejection of the One he announced. Standing between the testaments, John embodies the whole prophetic hope narrowing to a single finger pointed at Christ — the friend of the bridegroom whose joy was made complete in the Bridegroom's coming (John 3:29).