Smoodock's Blog

Who was John the Baptizer? On the other hand, one might ask: “Who are our heroes, and why do we make them?” According to one website, a hero is “a real or mythical person of great bravery, who carries out extraordinary deeds.” So, was John the Baptizer the people’s hero? Maybe, but let’s consider who we refer to as our heroes?

I once told a man he looked like Ronald Reagan, and he replied: “Ronald Reagan was my hero!” He wasn’t mine, but let’s consider this point for a moment. President Reagan was a man who said things one might think about and wish in his heart that he had said that. President Reagan had a golden tongue and said many admirable things about freedom and the heart of our country. However, to me he was just a charlatan dressed in a suit, an actor who was good at delivering a script. Was he a hero? For some, perhaps, but certainly not the working class. His script was meant to please the common folk, but he was really for the men of authority, the business men, the rich, the nation’s nobility. He was quite unlike John the Baptizer, because, when the men of authority of his day came to him, he labeled them “a generation of vipers” (Matthew 3:7), not the usual greeting one would give a political celebrity!

While we are on the subject of heroes and American Presidents, some folks of late consider President Donald Trump their hero. I am not among them, either, but let’s take a moment to consider why this might be. What sort of people were among President Trump’s supporters? Well, what kind of people were at his rallies? They were people who couldn’t abide an opposing opinion. They removed such people who spoke up in opposition to their hero. One might also ask, who took part in the nation’s only real insurrection, since the Civil War? They were zealots who couldn’t abide an opposing position and sought out such civil servants who opposed their hero in an effort to silence them. While John the Baptizer did, indeed, speak out against the authorities of his day, he did not encourage rebellion. He told the military and the zealots of his day to be satisfied with their lot in life and help those who were not as fortunate as they, to not abuse the authority they had over others, to do no violence to others or accuse folks wrongly (Luke 3:10-14).

Luke tells us that many of the people wondered in their hearts, if John could be the Messiah (Luke 3:15), vis-à-vis they were looking for a hero. In fact, this idea worried those in authority, but John denied it all, saying he was sent to prepare the way for the Messiah, the real hero (John 1:19-27), and John continued to remind his followers that he was not the hero they looked for (John 3:28-28). President Trump, on the other hand, once told the religious crowd at his rally that, if they had him, they had all they needed! For some, this may come as a surprise that Christians would support Donald Trump for President, but these Christians are one issue supporters. They assume the end justifies the means and are willing to overlook the many problems of supporting a man like Trump, if he will give them what they want regarding that single issue that defines their Christianity. No, John the Baptizer wasn’t like President Trump either. He refused to be the people’s hero and continually pointed folks to Christ.

In this context, then, we can consider Jesus’ question to the multitude concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” Was it to see a man who was unable to stand before the authorities? Did they go out into the wilderness to see a man who was shaken by the wind (Matthew 11:7), vis-à-vis the current theological or political agenda? Men of authority are shaken by the winds of the times. They hold up their wet finger to see the direction of the wind’s movement before they speak or commit themselves to any matter. Many, if not most, men of authority have no integrity. They are shaken in the wind and go with the flow. The people of John’s day didn’t go out into the wilderness, expecting to see someone like this.

Perhaps a prophet! Did they go out into the wilderness to see a prophet? During John’s day, there was a famine in the land, but not of food, a famine of the word of God. For over four centuries, from the days of Zechariah and Haggai, the land had no word from God through a prophet, until John. Yes, John was a prophet, but Jesus said John was more than a prophet. He was the man who prepared the hearts of the people to seek and embrace the coming of the Messiah (Matthew 11:9), because folks at that time weren’t prepared for his coming (John 1:11).

Indeed, John was the prophet, called by God, but he wasn’t a hero or the son of a hero. He was a man of integrity who took the focus of attention off himself and put it on Jesus, the Messiah (Matthew 11:10).