“Make straight in the desert a highway for our God”

(Isaiah 40:3).”

John the Baptist draws me like a magnet! The more I think of him and of his magnificent life, the more stirred I am – in heart as well as in Spirit.

Here is a reflection which has been bursting upon my inward eye lately:

It is easy, I think, to forget that John the Baptist was an ordinary person – just like you and me. Extraordinary things happened to him, but he himself was “ordinary” in the sense that he had a vulnerable physical body, a mind that questioned, and a heart that pounded with feelings.

John’s burning passion from the very beginning of his life was for His Lord. He exulted in His Saviour before either of them were born!  

When John’s mother (Elizabeth) received a visit from Mary when they were both pregnant, Elizabeth exclaimed to Mary: “As soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy” (Luke 1:44).

Years later, John was the first one to call Jesus the “Lamb of God”. He declared: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Jesus, the Lamb of God, was his ardent focus. An essential part of that focus was to urge people to prepare for the coming of their Saviour. He called them to be baptised with water as a sign of repentance and a turning away from sin. John was calling for purity in all people – from the grassroots right up to Herod.

And that cost him dearly. It was John’s open denunciation of Herod’s blatant lack of purity – ie, his marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias – that caused John to be arrested and imprisoned. 

So John, whose pulpit had been the unlimited wilderness, suddenly found himself trapped within the walls of a prison. The fervent voice of the man whose life-purpose was to proclaim the coming of the Lord, preach repentance, and baptise the multitudes who flocked to see and hear him … was silenced.

Seemingly stripped of every element of his all-consuming calling, John began to wonder if he had got it all wrong. Perhaps he had misheard God’s voice? Horrors! What if he had baptised the wrong man! 

Can you imagine the agony and utter confusion in his heart? When I ponder this deeply, I feel so acutely for John that I want to fly back in time and jump into his prison cell – with words of comfort and reassurance!

But general words of reassurance were not what John needed – not even from Jesus Himself (as we will soon see). Words of general reassurance may be comforting, perhaps, for a short while, but the feeling of comfort would wear off, eventually. That is, unless those same words have been founded upon solid, lasting Truth.

Meanwhile, at a distance from the prison, and out on the streets of Nain city, Jesus had just been raising a widow’s son from the dead. Then John’s disciples came into view. They had set out to find Him, armed with a most poignant question: “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’” (Luke 7:20).

It appears that Jesus did not answer John’s disciples verbally, at first, but He certainly spoke volumes to them by performing miracles before their very eyes: “In that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight” (Luke 7:21, KJV).

Having done that, Jesus then went on to give the following verbal response to John’s disciples: “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:22).

What Jesus did was to communicate to John, by performing miracles in the presence of John’s disciples, and by echoing words from the prophet Isaiah, that He – Jesus – was indeed the Coming One. (It is clear from Scriptures that John was familiar with the prophecies of Isaiah.)

In this way, Jesus sent a powerful confirmation that He was fulfilling these prophetic words of Isaiah 35:5: “The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped”, as well as Isaiah 61:1 “the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor.”

It is striking that Jesus did also speak most wonderfully affirming words about John (see Luke 7:24-28) – but He waited until after John’s disciples had departed before declaring those more general words to the multitudes.

I believe that was because Jesus wanted to direct John’s focus like a laser beam upon the solid and lasting Truth of the Word of God – the unfailing Rock. That was the unshakeable source of comfort and reassurance that Jesus sent back to John’s prison cell. 

The Bible does not record John’s response to Jesus’ message, but I think we can assume that the Lord provided John with all the assurance he needed to finish his personal race with clear purpose and courage. He never withdrew his criticism of Herod’s unlawful marriage, and we know he died the death of a martyr.

I find this passage deeply moving and also very encouraging for us, as believers. When fears and doubts assail us, and when circumstances seem impossible, we too can find our reassurance, our comfort and our confidence in the Word of God. We can rest our hope fully upon the living Word, Jesus, who never leaves us nor forsakes us; whose promise is to guide us, protect us and lead us into all truth if we will put our hand in His and trust in Him.

By Ann Shakespeare 29 June 2021