The Singular Case of the Second-Guessing Prophet

John the Baptist was the second most important person of his generation. The angel Gabriel announced his miraculous birth. He lived a life that distinguished him from his contemporaries. Sinners came to him to repent. Pharisees came to argue with him. Roman soldiers came to hear what he had to say. He attracted a committed group of disciples who stayed faithful to him and to his teachings for years after his death. The Gospel writers have a tendency to look to Old Testament prophecy to explain his life. Everyone in Israel knew who he was, and had some opinion of him. People wondered if he was the reappearance of the prophet Elijah, or even the Messiah.

He wasn’t the Messiah. He was the Forerunner. He was the man who bridged the eras. He was the B.C. man who prepared everyone for the A.D. He was the MC of Israel, whipping the crowd into a frenzy of excited expectation before the main act. He was the last Old Testament prophet – he just happens to be in the New Testament.

And like all prophets, he ended up persecuted. In this case, imprisoned by Herod Antipas, son of Herod “the Great.”

In prison, he has time to reflect. His life’s purpose was to prepare the way – to announce the main act – to call the people to repentance in anticipation of The One Who Is to Come.

Matthew 11:1-6
After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not stumble on account of me."

The imprisoned prophet can preach no more. No more baptizing. His only audience is curious king, who at a moment’s notice might take his life. He must depend on his disciples for any contact with the outside world. His life’s work is essentially over.

And he had fulfilled his role. Or had he? Matthew, Mark, and Luke are curiously quiet about John’s reaction to Jesus’ baptism. There is his statement that it is Jesus, his cousin, who needs to baptize him. But they don’t really go into detail.

So the prophet needs to know, straight-up, no messing around, from Jesus – is Jesus the The One Who is to Come? Is he the one we have set our hopes on since the times of Abraham, and David, and the never-quite realized glorious return from exile? Is he The One who will change everything and set things right? John is nearly at the end of the line. He needs to know if he has backed the winning candidate. He needs assurance that what he had done mattered. He needs to know that his work has not been in vain.

And Jesus answers his question as only Jesus can do. “Watch me. Look closely at what I have done, and what I do.”

Apparently Jesus invited John’s disciples to travel along with him for a few days and report back what they saw. Jesus helpfully summarizes by quoting the book of Isaiah (he knew John would like that). It’s Isaiah 35 – the eyes of the blind will be opened, the deaf will hear, and Isaiah 61 – the poor have the gospel preached to them.

The case of the second-guessing prophet is not as singular as we might like to think. Anyone who has been called to be a prophet and proclaim the word of the Lord, and cry out in the wilderness in some sense or another will come to the point John came to. The place where you can’t do what you did before. Where you have to depend on the people you taught to carry on in the way you taught them.

And I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that every Christian will come to this point sooner or later. We want to know if the One we have put our hopes in is really who we hoped he was. We still want to know if He is the One Who is to Come. We need to know if was have baked the winning candidate, that what we have done has mattered. We need to know that our work has not been in vain.

And Jesus says, “Watch me. Look closely at what I have done and what I do.”

The last word today goes to the Chinese pastor, writer, and martyr Watchman Nee – “God will answer all of our questions in one way and one way only, namely, by showing us more of His Son.”

Around the Office: Two Good Things in One

Everyone likes to have things around them at work that fill them with a sense of happiness or well-being. Whether you work at home, an office, a cubicle, the driver’s seat of your vehicle, or a off-shore oil rig, chances are you have stuff in your work space that makes you happy.

Here’s one of mine:


That’s right. It’s a combination of two of my favorite things: puppets and John the Baptist. Look at him. Doesn’t he make you just want to repent and be baptized? I made John here several years ago during an “art therapy” session with a college student. I am especially proud of his tissue paper dreadlocks.

Here’s a close-up of his hands:


Looks like John is about to do lunch! Mmmmm. Locusts and wild honey! Nutritious and delicious. J.the B. is also sporting his 100% camel-hair tunic. All the rage among desert-dwelling prophets. Wrinkle-free!

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #20 - "Put your hand into my side" - John 20:27

“Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” – John 20:27

The above painting is one of my favorites. It’s “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas,” by the Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio, painted in 1602 in Rome.

Caravaggio is quite the character. He’s a spectacular artist. This article describes his style as “radical naturalism which combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, approach to chiaroscuro, the use of light and shadow.” One of his contemporaries describes his personal character as follows, “after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him.” He was an artist, all right. He was exiled for killing a man in a brawl.

The “radical naturalism” mentioned above manifests in some interesting ways in his work, which you can review here. A lot of his paintings have very visceral, or even violent subjects. A partial explanation of that he is working in Renaissance Italy, with work largely commissioned by churches on Biblical themes – and there are a lot of violent biblical stories. And, of course, he seems to have been a violent person in general.

But, man, look at the list! Amongst the “Baskets of Fruit” and portraits, you’ve got several crucifixions, “Boy Bitten by a Lizard,” “Tooth Puller,” two different “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” and two different pictures of Jesus’ flogging. Both of his pictures of St. Francis have a skull in them! He seems to have been particularly enamored of beheadings – there are two different paintings of David with Goliath’s head, three of the beheaded John the Baptist, one from the apocryphal book Judith with her in the act of beheading a guy, and Medusa’s chopped off head. Wow.

All this to say – Caravaggio has a thing for visceral paintings. And the above is no exception. It’s one of my favorites because it tells a little story in itself of how the scene described in the Bible might have happened.

The title is “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” – but look at Thomas' expression (click on the picture to enlarge it). That isn’t doubt. Or at least, not the kind we normally associate with Thomas. It’s the “I can hardly believe this is happening to me” kind of doubt, as opposed to the “I don’t believe what you are telling me” kind that we normally associate with him.

Look at the expressions on the other disciples’ faces. Look how their heads are grouped together – they want to be as close as possible to the action.

Look at who is guiding Thomas’ hand. Jesus is holding his wrist, guiding his hand to the place where He was stabbed with a spear. Jesus' pierced hand is at the center of the painting. He is not just having Thomas touch the wound, but put his hand inside the wound, just like the verse says. This is the part of the painting that astounds me, and made the verse come alive for me in a new way. It’s as if Jesus made the invitation for Thomas to touch His wounds, and Thomas initially refused. And Jesus said, “No - you said you wanted to touch the wounds – so touch the wounds.”

Have you ever felt someone’s scar? Placed your hand on flesh that has been torn and then put back together? It sends shivers down your spine. It puts you in the moment - lets you imagine the hurt that person must have gone through in a unique way. Maybe that’s the expression on Thomas’ face. Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus received that wound. The disciples behind him weren’t there either. They had fled, and abandoned Jesus to die. Is Thomas imagining what it must have been like for his Lord? Is it that Thomas, from touching Jesus’ wounds, more than any of the other disciples, realized what it must have been like to die on the cross? And now, seeing Him alive, is that why he says, “My Lord and my God!”- ? It is at that moment that John has him express more than anyone else in the gospels has about who Jesus is.

Finally, look at Jesus’ face. Caravaggio has it in shadow, to symbolize that even at this most intimate moment, He is still unknowable to some degree. But His expression is not one of frustration, or anger. He wants Thomas to know – He wants Thomas to believe, and to understand exactly what has happened. He wants to erase any doubt that He is alive.

He still wants to do that.

“Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #18 - "He must increase, I must decrease" - John 3:28, 30

“You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ He must increase, but I must decrease.” – John the Baptist, John 3:28, 30

You know who is kind of a big deal? John the Baptist.

All four gospels either start with John the Baptist, or start to explain Jesus’ ministry by starting with John’s ministry. Considering that there aren’t that many things outside of the Passion narrative that appear in all four gospels (the feeding of the 5000 and the cleansing of the temple are the others), that makes John the Baptist a big deal.

And the gospels continue to refer to John. He is even referred to in Acts, when Paul finds Apollos and several disciples in Ephesus – hundreds of miles from Israel, and a decade or more after John’s death – still ordering their lives on the things taught by John the Baptist.

Sinners come to him repentant. Tax-collectors, Roman soldiers, Pharisees, and even freakin’ King Herod are fascinated by him and want to hear what he has to say. He has a large group of committed disciples. People wonder aloud if he is the second coming of Elijah, and even ask him breathlessly if he is the Messiah.

Remind you of anyone?

In Luke’s gospel his going ahead of Christ starts in a prenatal state, as his parents receive an angelic birth announcement in an old-school “barren woman conceives” scenario. Eventually, love him or hate him, everyone in Israel is talking about him. People compare him and Jesus early on, and even after his horrific death “what do you think about John the Baptist” is a sort of spiritual litmus test Jesus gives to his opponents.

I like to think of him as the Last Old Testament Prophet. He plays a central role in the gospels, and yet, we Christian types really don’t talk about him all that much. Why?

Because he did his job, and he did it well.

His job, even before he was born, was to fulfill the prophecy and be the voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord.” To turn the hearts of Israel back to toward their God. To prepare for the One Who Is To Come. To be the forerunner. And then – when the real Messiah stands up – to stand back. The last prophet of the Old Covenant turns it all over to the Living Word of the New Covenant. To prepare the way, and then get out of the way.

It makes sense. But it could not have been easy. I can only speak for myself, but one of the hardest things for me to do as a minister is to stand back and get out of Jesus’ way. To yield the stage, the attention, the ability to influence – to Jesus.

I like attention. I like it when people laugh at my jokes. I like it when people think I am deep, spiritually discerning, and wise. If someone asked me, like they did John the Baptist, “Are you the second-coming of Elijah?” I’m pretty sure I’d be humble enough to laugh and say no, but I’m not sure I’d be humble enough not to let that affect my perception of myself for the rest of my life.

I fantasize about being famous. About being the next Rob Bell, or the next (insert your favorite famous Christian pastor here), or get a VERY big mural with the stuff from Revelation on it and be the next John Hagee, but a moderate version.

Or, if not a famous pastor, I fantasize about writing the children’s book that lives in my head and being the next J.K. Rowling. (I mostly fantasize about the fame, but the money would be nice too.)

Part of that fantasy is the culture that we live in that continually tells us that your worth is based on your name recognition, but a bigger part of that is that I like attention and, most of time, would like to have more of it.

And that’s where John 3:30 comes in. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John the Baptist was famous, not just in Israel but all over the ancient world. He was talked about with awe, so when he said he wasn’t worthy to tie the shoes of the Messiah, people were REALLY in awe of the Messiah. He was famous, and so when he said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!,” everyone turned around to look at Jesus – and then didn’t turn back. John handed it over to the one who was all the things he was not. Messiah, Savior, Lord, Son of God, and worthy of worship. We don’t talk about John the Baptist because he did what he was supposed to do – pointed people to Jesus, and then got out of the way.

I apologize in advance for the very, very nerdy example, but I think of the scene in the Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo offers the ring of power to Galadriel, the Elven Queen. She is surprised that he offers it freely, and she gets sort of excited. You can tell she is excited because she starts glowing, talking in a very deep voice, and saying things like, “All shall love me and DESPAIR!!!!”

Then she stops moving toward the ring, stops glowing, catches her breath, gets her normal voice back, and says, mostly to herself, “I pass the test. I shall diminish, and remain Galadriel.”

John the Baptist passes the test. He will diminish, and remain the forerunner.

Another verse that freaks me out about John the Baptist is Jesus' tribute to him, in Luke 7:28: “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

Let’s break that down:
1)John the Baptist, according to Jesus, was the greatest human being ever born
2)But the one who is lowest on the totem pole in God’s kingdom surpasses him

Interpretation by your friend and mine, F.F. Bruce – being part of the kingdom of God is exponentially more important and more valuable than being great (or famous).

And when it comes down to it my job is pretty similar to John's. To point to Jesus and say, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” – and then get out of the way.

I think we can say with great certainty that the greatest Christians who ever lived are unknown to us. That they made sure to decrease, so that Christ would increase, to the point that they are anonymous, unknown, and forgotten….except to the One who sees what is done in secret.