He was meant to be different. From the extraordinary events surrounding his conception and birth, we fast forward to the grown man, prowling the desert and howling at the injustice of his time.
Because there were reasons to howl. Israel was ruled by the most powerful empire the world had known, Rome. It inspired all sorts of sects and religious movements. Among the communities living in isolation close to where John was preaching and teaching were the Essenes.
They were a strict religious community closed off from the outside world who through the pursuit of holiness sought to bring about their salvation.
John was different. He had no interest in retreating, his message was very much on the offensive while being disarmingly simple;. The big issue was that the religious, temple establishment faced opposition from more devoted followers of Jewish law. They felt that everyday religious life was not hastening the rule of God and the overthrow of their oppressors.
For us today, our faith needs to challenge the established form of religious expression. All traditions can get stale and lose its heart. But people today crave an authentic spirituality as much as they did two thousand years ago. This is as much a challenge to our own religious comfort and conformity as it was in his own time.
He practised what he preached and his preaching was pretty straightforward; repentance Greek metanoia. This also included the rite of baptism to signify the repentance of sin. John lived his life completely consistent with his beliefs and calling because he had turned away from the standards of the world.
It will be hard sometimes but the fruits of that life and decision are so worth it. John was a great prophet of God. You could say he was the last prophet of the Old Testament as he bridges the two covenants leading to Jesus. Yet he remained consistent in his calling, to prepare for the coming of someone greater.
According to Josephus, sometime after baptizing Jesus, John the Baptist was killed at the palace-fortress of Machaerus , located near the Dead Sea in modern Jordan.
Built by King Herod the Great, the palace was occupied at the time by his son and successor, known as Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas initially resisted killing John, because of his status as a holy man. But after his stepdaughter danced for him at his birthday party, he offered to give her anything she desired.
A skull identified as the head of John the Baptist is on display at the Church of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome, built to house artifacts from the Roman catacombs. The 13th-century cathedral in Amiens, France was built specifically to house the head of John the Baptist, which a Crusader supposedly brought back from Constantinople in In addition, museums and monasteries in Istanbul, Egypt and Montenegro, among other locations, claim to have other body parts belonging to John the Baptist, including his right arm and right hand with which he baptized Jesus.
He lived on wild honey and locusts for years, while preparing himself for the mission of preaching the coming of the Messiah. He baptized others and called for repentance of sins, preaching that One greater than him was coming. When Jesus arrived to be baptized by John, he immediately knew that He was the Messiah. Jesus insisted on being baptized by John.
Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. He was the last and greatest of the prophets who prepared the people of Israel to receive the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
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