I expect you’ve all heard by now. Herod executed John bar Zechariah, whom most people called “the Baptizer,” two days ago.Nobody expected it, of course. Everyone knew that Herod was worried that John might be the real thing, and that God would get him if he didn’t tread lightly.
But Herodias, well, she’s another story. You remember she divorced her husband Philip to marry Herod, which since Philip is Herod’s half-brother made it incest. So John denounced them both and threatened God’s judgment not only on the family but on the whole country. That’s why Herod had him arrested and thrown in jail, to keep his mouth shut, since the common people mostly believed that John was a true prophet and they might actually rise up in revolt. Of course they’d lose, but Rome would probably relieve him of his nice cushy little job as their local enforcer. Not to mention keeping Herodias off his back. But jail wasn’t enough for her. She wanted John dead. And Herodias wasn’t only a stronger character than Herod, she was smarter. And so she set him up. She had Herod throw a party for the local bigwigs and some visiting dignitaries, and after the wine - unwatered, of course - had been flowing a while, her daughter Salome danced for the guests. Herod called her up afterward and offered a reward for having entertained the crowd so well; when he asked her to name her heart’s desire, Salome asked for the head of the Baptist.
Well, he couldn’t back down, d’ye see? He’d promised in public. And so that was the end of one more pesky prophet. I hear the head was actually brought up to display for the guests.
But that’s not why I’m here. You can get the details of the execution at any crossroads. Every traveler carries the story, without many exaggerations if you can believe it. The bare facts are dramatic enough, apparently. No, what I’m here for is to read John’s memoirs. Or maybe it’s a journal, or a letter. He didn’t address it to anyone, but it does sound as though he’s talking to his followers. It starts, oddly enough, with a denial.
“I’m not Elijah,” he begins. “My dear friends, I am not Elijah. I am Johannes bar Zechariah. I’ve told you all time and time again that I’m not the one Malachi predicted. Have I ever performed a miracle? You know that I’ve never claimed to be anything more than a mouthpiece for God. Yes, I know, the circumstances of my birth are more than a little unusual, and I’ve been dedicated to God since before I was born. My parents made sure I understood what I was expected to do and be. I’ve kept the Nazirite vows the angel required. I’ve dedicated my whole life to listening for the voice of God and telling people what I’ve heard I’ve never cut my hair or eaten meat or drunk wine. I eat simply and plainly, I live and dress rough. Which of course Elijah did also, but he wasn’t the only one. That’s part of why God calls prophets to dress and act in a distinctive way, so his people will get the point without a lot of time wasted on explanations. But I’m just another in the long line of Micah and Joel and Nahum, the only thing special about me is the way I was born. And, of course, the time.
And we have the wrong idea about Elijah, anyway. Oh, yes, he’s our greatest prophet - along with Moses, of course - and so close to the Holy One of Israel that he was taken up to heaven without experiencing death first. That’s only happened twice before in our history. But look at what he did! God called him when Israel was two king-doms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south, and as bad as Judah was, they still worshiped the true God in his temple here in Jerusalem. Well, mostly. But in the north! Well, of course, the whole kingdom was founded on idolatry because they wanted to be independent of Judah’s religious authority. And I need hardly tell you what a heretic Queen Jezebel was. So YHWH God sent Elijah to try to turn the people away from Ba’al and back to true worship. He spent years at it, and Elisha took over where Elijah left off.
But with all their miracles, all their prophecies, all their victories over the Canaanite Gods, nothing happened! Elijah stopped the rain for three years to try to make the people realize that YHWH, not Ba’al, is the source of prosperity and well-being. He actually destroyed Jezebel’s entire colony of imported priests during the affair of the dueling powers on Mt. Carmel. When he stayed with the widow at Zarephath he not only fed the family with miraculous provision but raised her son when he fell ill and died. And I can hardly begin to recount the wonders
Elisha performed to try to convince the people that YHWH is God. They promised blessings, they warned of judgment, and yet Israel stayed stubbornly on the same deadly course. It was so depressing and frustrating and seemingly futile that at one time when Jezebel’s soldiers were chasing him Elijah holed up in a cave and
asked God to let him die. And you all know how the story ends, with Israel being destroyed by Assyria.
I’m nothing like Elijah. I’m more like Samuel. Not just in the way we were born, with a child given to a barren woman, and in being dedicated to YHWH’s service from birth. No, we were more like advance teams. Samuel oversaw the establishment of the earthly kingdom, first with Saul and then with David. And I have the job of getting people ready for the true Kingdom, the final Kingdom, the Kingdom where God himself will rule the earth and bring the peace and justice we’ve despaired of for over 500 years. This is how my father put it when I was
born: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” [Lk 1:767] My job is to announce the coming of the Messiah.
The holy community at Qumran, where I was raised after my parents died,had been poring over the Scriptures for over a hundred years, and had been told of the angel’s words to my father Zechariah. They knew that God was going to act soon, and had made sure I knew to be ready when my time came. It would have been so much easier just to stay there and study with them. But when I turned thirty I knew that the time had come. And so I went out to call the people back to their true allegiance, to make sure they are ready for the Redeemer of Israel, repenting of their sins and changing their ways, so that the Day of the Lord will be one of rejoicing, not of judgment and mourning.
There is so much evil in the world! Everywhere you look you see cruelty and corruption, even among our own leaders. Many of them are ostentatiously observant in their prayers and sacrifices, but then they go right back to making cozy deals with the Romans, defrauding widows and orphans without a qualm. The most important thing that our God asks of us is to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with him. But even that is too much. We thought that when we came back from Babylon to rebuild God’s holy city, that we’d learned our lesson, that honoring God would result in being protected from our enemies. But we fell right back into our old ways.
From the very beginning we have been pulled this way and that between people who wanted power and people who wanted wealth and people who wanted security and didn’t care what they had to do to get it. I don’t think there’s ever been a time in our history when the people haven’t been torn between following the Holy One of Israel or turning aside to walk in the ways of our neighbors and their gods. First is was the Canaanites with their fertility rites. There were even some in the time of Manasseh when people turned to Moloch and gave their first-born sons to the fire. I can see the lure of temple prostitutes, but how could anyone choose burning their children alive over repentance, over purity and humility? I’ve never understood it.
As soon as we came back from Babylon some of our men married local women who seduced them away from the true faith. Ezra put a stop to that, of course, but they were still profaning the Sabbath, withholding their tithes and putting their own careers and advancement over rebuilding the city of God. Didn’t they know our history? idn’t they know what would happen? God punished us by giving us over to Alexander the Macedonian (whom people now call “the Great”), and his successors fought over us and our lands for 200 years. They trampled our vineyards and desecrated our temple, and enticed our young men into corruption even more foul than that of the Canaanite gods. And now the Romans with their phony half-Jewish surrogates are completing the ruin of our people. We can’t rule ourselves. We need God to intervene, we need the Lord of Hosts himself to come with his strong arm and destroy the evil that consumes us. And we need to be prepared, like Noah building the Ark, so that we will not be swept away when the flood comes.
And yet our religious leaders think they’re so holy just because they memorize the Scriptures and refuse to eat with Gentiles! Don’t they know it takes more than that? You don’t honor God when you cut shady deals today with the same people you refused to eat with yesterday. It’s the same thing Jeremiah preached against 500 years ago. “This house, which is called by my name, has become a den of robbers.” [Jer 7:11] I’m surprised that brood of vipers knew enough to come down and repent!
That’s what I’ve been up against. Some people jeer and spit, but hundreds and hundreds have come down to the river to be baptized, to be washed clean and begin anew, in holy dedication to God. Some of my followers are reporting that the temple establishment and the provincial governors are getting nervous, because the crowds are so big. But I’m not telling them to do anything but what God has been telling us to do for a thousand years. I told the soldiers not to extort money from the citizens, I told those who have food and clothes to share with the hungry and cold. I know that half of them probably go back home and don’t change a thing. I’m not naive. But this time I think it will be different, because the Messiah is actually here. You probably know by now that it’s my cousin Yeshua. We’ve kept the stories within the family, of course, because it’s been so dangerous for them. When they came back from Egypt, after the first Herod died, they asked us to say nothing until his time came. So we didn’t. But I knew he was coming.
That’s why it’s so important for you to understand that I’m not Elijah. You have to look past me to see the true Redeemer of Israel.
When Yeshua came down to the Jordan that day a few months ago I almost didn’t recognize him, since I’d been over in Qumran all the time we were growing up. But as soon as my eyes met his I knew him. My heart almost stopped. What was he going to do? Was he going to come and take my place? I almost turned back out of the water to invite him to take over. But something stopped me. Was he going to call the people to his side right then and there? Would there be angels and trumpets and earthquakes? Anything could happen! While he stood
there I turned back to the crowd and shouted,
"I have baptized you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." [Lk 3:16-17] And then I turned and pointed toward Yeshua, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' [Jn 1:29-30] He made a gesture as if to silence me; the crowd didn’t seem to notice, anyway. And then Yeshua came toward me down into the water and asked to be baptized. I started to argue, saying "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." So of course I consented. [Mat 3:14-15]
When he went up onto the shore an unearthly light seemed to shine around him, it formed into a shape almost like a dove, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." I don’t think you can imagine the thoughts whirling around my head. Part of me wanted to drop everything and chase after him. But I just continued in a kind of daze, receiving the people still waiting to be baptized, and something in me let me know that it was still my job, to call people to repentance, to turn their hearts back to God.
A lot of the young men who had been traveling with me, learning and helping, left to follow Yeshua. Some who stayed asked if I weren’t upset or jealous that he was gathering a bigger following than I had. How petty! I’ve always known that I’m not the main event. Warming up the people for God ‘s arrival is the biggest honor any mortal could ask for. Every person who left me for Yeshua was a trophy of mine, as a student honors his teacher by becoming greater yet.
“No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven. . . . [I’ve always said] I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease." [Jn 3:27-30]
No, that’s not what’s bothering me. What’s bothering me is that Yeshua is not doing what I’d expected him to do. I thought he was going to bring fire and brimstone down on the earth, to cleanse away the wickedness that is drowning us. I thought he’d call people to fasting and sackcloth, I even had fantasies that Herod’s palace and the Roman forts and the Greek baths would crumble into dust. But instead he’s eating with prostitutes and other ne’er-do-wells. He even has a tax-collector among his disciples! I’ll admit, Levi gave away all his ill-gotten gains and seems to be quite serious. But Yeshua’s also got women traipsing around after him! How can he maintain decent standards of morality under those circumstances?
So I sent Joel and Nathan to ask Yeshua what was going on. I told them to ask "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" [Lk 7:19] And when they came back they didn’t have a straightforward “yes-or-no” answer. Instead, he told them to report to me what they had seen: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.” [Lk 7:22] That is, so they tell me, how Yeshua began his ministry, by quoting Isaiah. And indeed those things are all the sign of the presence of God. And I know what I saw at the Jordan. But I still don’t understand. Where is judgment in all this? What is going to be done about the evil in the world? When will his reign begin?
And then what we’d all half expected happened. Herod’s soldiers showed up and hauled me off to a cell under the palace. He left my followers free, for which I am grateful. I’m not particularly upset by that, all prophets can expect to be martyred. Only a fool wouldn’t know that prison and even death are part of the package. I’m just glad I have writing materials and a small window through which I can occasionally talk to some of my disciples. The guards chase them off periodically, but they don’t abuse them. They’re not coming tonight, I told them to keep away. Herod’s throwing a banquet, and when powerful people get drunk you never know what they’ll take it into their heads to do.
