JOHN THE BAPTIST
(John 1:19-36)
Our articles are concerned with the first man with whom our Lord came into contact in His public ministry, so far as the records reveal. Indeed, we have no account of any words passing the lips of Jesus apart from those uttered to His mother at twelve years of age, until we find Him face to face with His great forerunner. In this case, as in all that follow, we shall attempt first to see the man, and then to watch our Lord's dealing with him. It should immediately be said that there is something unique in this account, because John had a special and great function in the Divine economy. According to the records, he was a supernatural child, and he was born for this definite purpose, which he most gloriously fulfilled.
In considering the account of John there are three things that stand out pre-eminently. They are those of his essential greatness, his evident discontent, and his one great expectation.
As to his greatness, we are not left to speculation. In his case the portrait of the man is drawn for us by our Lord Himself. His estimate of John is recorded by Matthew and by Luke in chapters' eleven and seven respectively. We will take that as recorded by Matthew, which is indeed almost identical with that of Luke. In referring to John on a memorable occasion, Jesus said:
"Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist; yet he that is but little in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
In passing, it is interesting to notice that Luke in recording those words of Jesus uses the phrase "the Kingdom of God," where Matthew says "the Kingdom of heaven." The terms are really synonymous in their deepest meaning.
This reference was unquestionably to what we may speak of as the natural ability and greatness of this man John, and declared that among all others "born of women," none greater than John had arisen. The phrase, "born of women" is in itself suggestive and clear. We call to mind another phrase used by Paul of Jesus Himself, when he said:
"When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman."
The Old Version read, "made of a woman," and our revisers in changing it, have not improved, but indeed, have hidden the suggestiveness of the Greek phrase. It is not the same word that our Lord used of John. That phrase literally meant, "Born of a woman." That which Paul used of our Lord meant something preceding birth, namely generation.
Surveying the history of the human race after Adam, every member of which was born of a woman, our Lord declares that none greater had arisen than this man John. Another translation would be perfectly permissible here, which would read:
"I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not been raised up a greater than John."
If that is the true rendering, reference is not so much to the whole human race as to those specially raised up to fulfill some special function in the Divine economy. We need not discuss the different possibilities. It is enough to accept this estimate. It is, however, remarkably illuminated by the contrast suggested, as our Lord said:
"He that is but little in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
In these words there was an implicit recognition of the greatness and finality of the mission of the Messiah, of which John was the herald. The reference is, in the last analysis, to the sovereignty of God, rather than to any particular territory. John announced that Kingdom was at hand. It was a reference to the new order to be ushered in by the work of our Lord Himself, that order that, according to John, was not available to men through the baptism of water, but through the baptism of the Spirit. The words of Jesus by no means excluded John from that Kingdom. As a man supernaturally born, and equipped for a mission, he was great; but the Kingdom that he announced included all such, himself also, who went beyond the prophetic hope to the practical realization.
Further, concerning the man in the angelic announcement at his birth made to his father within the priestly office, this most remarkable thing was said concerning him:
"He shall be great in the sight of the Lord . . . and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb."
This necessarily bears further testimony to his greatness.
This is revealed, moreover, in the office which he held. One of the ultimate glories of the Hebrew nation had been that of the prophetic gift. The true meaning of that gift may be gathered from the varied appellations by which those having it were designated. Sometimes the prophet was called a seer, quite simply, a man who sees. Sometimes he was called a man of God that is revealing, of course, the sign of his authority. Once incidentally by quotation, he was referred to as a man of the Spirit. The prophetic order commenced with Samuel, and comprised within its sweep such men as Elijah and Elisha; and later on, of course, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest, with whose names we are familiar. Splendid as that succession was, none among all the prophets was greater than the last of the long line. Presently our Lord indicated that, when He said to the multitudes that they had seen in John "more than a prophet." Thus we are certainly looking at a remarkable man in human history, and the last fact which reveals his greatness was that of the coming to him of the Word of God. We remember how carefully Luke marks the date of that coming, by using a Roman emperor, a Roman governor, three tetrarchs, two high priests, to indicate the hour.
Having thus seen his greatness, we are next impressed with his discontent. By that we intend to emphasize the fact that his ministry was mastered by an almost overwhelming consciousness of the sin of his age, (Physician needed) and of his people. He had lived a secluded life for many years. He was:
"In the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel."
There are different interpretations of the exact meaning of that statement. Personally I believe that it referred to a period of about ten years. We remember that John was a priest in priestly succession, and that his mother was also of the priestly line. In the ordinary run of events, he would have taken up the course of preparation for the priesthood at twenty years of age. Quite evidently, under a Divine call and announcement, and probably as the result of his earlier training, because his father and mother knew the purpose for which he was born, he turned aside from the priestly, and prepared for the prophetic office. When the moment came for him to emerge from his seclusion, and begin his public ministry, he spoke as one who, as we have said, was burdened with a sense of the sin and failure of his age.
This sense is specially manifested by his answers to individual questions. To the multitude he said:
"Begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father."
He saw formalism covering corruption, trusting to fleshly relationship, and so making of no effect all spiritual values and moral results.
When the publicans came and asked him what they should do, he said:
"Extort no more than that which is appointed you."
He clearly saw dishonesty practicing under the cloak of officialism.
When the soldiers asked him what they should do, he said:
"Do violence to no man, neither exact anything wrongfully, and be content with your wages."
He saw the tyranny of the conqueror and rebuked it. All this proves that he conducted his ministry with an overwhelming sense of the sin and corruption of his time. (Doctor needed)
While this consciousness of sin is apparent, there is another note which is utmost. Hope was singing a great song in the soul of this man. He was conscious of an approaching crisis. He clearly saw the evil, but to employ his own figure, he saw the ax laid at the root of the tree. The ax at the root of the tree is the symbol of a process, that namely of pruning in order to the provocation to fruit-bearing, but it is also the symbol of judgment, for if the provocation does not produce fruit, the tree will be cut down. He saw the crisis centered in a Person whose activity was to be that of the fan and the fire. He clearly saw, moreover, that this One would exercise a power which he described as a baptism of the Spirit and of fire. He declared unequivocally that his baptism which was with water was not sufficient in itself to deal with the situation. It symbolized the necessity for repentance, and confessed the need for something more than repentance. In the coming One he saw One Who would supply that which was needed, namely a new life, which he spoke of as baptism with the Spirit. In John's account of those earliest hours in the ministry of Jesus, which were of course the closing years in that of John, he tells of how six weeks after the baptism of Jesus, he said:
"In the midst of you standeth One Whom ye know not."
This was the One Whom he declared should baptize men with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Here, then, we see John, a man than whom none born of women was greater, greater in intellectual power, and greater in the high office that he was called to fulfill. As he himself declared, he was not the Messiah, not Elijah, not even the prophet that Moses promised should come. His own account of himself was that he was the voice crying in the wilderness, whose advent had been foretold by Isaiah the prophet; the voice preceding the Word, and declaring the near advent of the One for Whom that people had looked and longed and watched for long centuries.
We are now to observe how our Lord dealt with this man. It is really most arresting to remind ourselves that we have only one occasion on record when they spoke to each other, and that was at the baptism of Jesus. Six weeks later than this, the temptation in the wilderness having intervened, Jesus returning from it in victory, John had said concerning Him that already quoted:
"In the midst of you standeth One Whom ye know not;"
And on the next day he had singled Him out, and identified Him in the words:
"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
On the day following he had indicated Jesus Himself to two disciples as He passed by. Later in his ministry John sent to Jesus a deputation expressing, for the moment, his sense of bewilderment. I repeat, however, we have no record of a direct conversation between them.
The one occasion, then, when we see our Lord contact with this man is at the baptism. When Jesus approaches John it is important to remember that the herald did not know that He was the appointed Messiah. This he made clear in his declaration that he knew not who He was, except by the sign granted to him, of the Spirit descending upon Him. This was not given until after he baptized Him. Whether John knew Jesus as the Child of Mary, Who had been legally adopted by Joseph, it is impossible to say. Enough for us that when Jesus approached him and sought his baptism, John hesitated, not because he knew He was Messiah, but because John being a man of clear prophetic insight, and perhaps because he had known something of Him personally, he knew there was no place for his baptism in the life of Jesus. He was calling men to repentance, and repentance always involves a confession of sin. John realized that there was no need for repentance on the part of Jesus; and in effect declared that he could not baptize the Sinless as he was baptizing the sinner. It was then that our Lord spoke to him, and in these words:
"Suffer it now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness."
It was a declaration that the only way in which sin could be dealt with, and righteousness established was by the identification of the Sinless with the sinning. He was indeed numbered with the transgressors in His baptism prophetically of His numbering with them ultimately, for dealing with sin, and bringing in righteousness.
Thus He dealt with John. The question naturally asks: Did John understand Him? The answer is that there is no doubt that he did. Whether that understanding was immediate, it is impossible to say. Be that as it may, John consented and baptized Him, and Jesus passed on His way. After six full weeks, He returned, and in the method of John's identification of Him we have a remarkable revelation of understanding.
"Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
He who had spoken of the coming of Messiah with a fan and a fire, and a baptism with the Holy Spirit, had said no word about the bearing of sin until then. At this point I am inclined to indulge myself in imagination, which may be received for what it is worth. I imagine John, after he had baptized Jesus, and had witnessed the identifying sign of the Holy Spirit, and after Jesus had passed out of his sight, taking down the roll of Isaiah, and looking over it. He had claimed that he was the voice of one, crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Going on from that point in the prophecy, he would come to the chapter declaring the advent of the Servant of the Lord, and so on and on until he read what we call the fifty-third chapter. As he did so, probably he understood. When Jesus returned, therefore, he identified Him as Messiah, but he did not say, Behold One coming with fan and fire, and an ax. He was not contradicting all the truths contained in those figures of speech. The Messiah wields the fan, casts the fire, and uses the ax. He does lower the mountains and exalt the valleys, but the greatest fact is that which John now did:
"Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
This whole account is the account of the merging of the old economy into the new, not the contradicting of anything of moral force in the old, but the proclamation of a new method of grace equal to dealing with the whole situation. In introducing Him John spoke of Him as "the Lamb of God." To that Syrian crowd listening to him the very word suggested sacrifice, and inevitably associated itself in their minds with the great Day of Atonement. Moreover, it may be mechanical and incidental, but it is at least suggestive that the first time we read the word "lamb" in the Old Testament, the spokesman was Isaac, who said to his father:
"My father . . . behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
The first time we find the word in the New Testament is here in the announcement of John, "Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
The voice of the Old spoke "Where is the lamb?" The voice of the New declared, "Behold, the Lamb of God."
Thus John, who had been burdened with a sense of sin, beheld in Jesus God's provision for dealing with it, and immediately he declared:
"I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."
The Lamb of God is the Son of God.
We have the record, then, of one brief sentence falling from the lips of Jesus directly spoken to John, and for John the whole outlook was changed. Nothing had been said which contradicted the great preaching of John, but the word illuminated the whole situation. Reverently it is as though Jesus had said, Yes, John, herald of Mine, voice sounding in the wilderness, sin must be dealt with, and there is only one way in which that can be done. Denunciation may be perfectly proper and necessary, but it cannot deal with the malady.
At last John said to his disciples:
"This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled . . . He must increase, but I must decrease."
Here our minds necessarily run on to that hour later when John sent to Jesus, asking the question:
"Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for another?"
With regard to this, it has been suggested that he was crystallizing suggestions raised by his own disciples. That may have been so. It has also been suggested that it was a question arising out of a moment of depression, a doubting like that of Elijah beneath the juniper tree. F. B. Morton in his book, "The Steps of the Master," describes the situation of the castle in which Herod had imprisoned John, and the description makes us feel that it would have been no wonder if he had been depressed. I believe, however, that his question was not due to any flagging interest. It was born rather of perplexity created by the methods of Jesus. As reports of His work reached John in prison, it did not seem that He was doing the things that John expected would be done. His question was the question of intellectual perplexity. If we are inclined to wonder at John's question being raised at all, it is best to read again the account of the answer of Jesus as recorded in Luke. The first movement in that answer was that when the deputation arrived, our Lord was healing the sick, preaching the Gospel to the poor, raising the dead; and He left the deputation waiting while He continued that work, the very work which was puzzling John. Then, addressing the deputation, He told them to go back, and report to John exactly what He was doing. He was healing the sick, He was raising the dead; but the most important thing was that He was preaching the good tidings of the Kingdom of God, and thus leading men to the true franchise of their lives, by bringing them into relationship with that Kingdom.
This was followed by those words characterized by great tenderness, and yet by an element of rebuke:
"And blessed is he, whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in Me."
In effect this meant that He declared to John, if he could not understand, he was called upon to trust.
Moreover, it was in this very connection that Jesus had given His estimate of John, to which we referred at the beginning, and had declared his greatness, both as to natural equipment and as to the prophetic office.
Thus in that critical hour of the baptism He had spoken to John in such way as to illuminate all his ministry; and at the last He is found defending him against a possible misunderstanding, resulting from his own trembling in faith.
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