Luke 1: 57-66, 80

When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, ‘No! He is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘There is no one among your relatives who has that name.’ Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, ‘His name is John.’ Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. All the neighbours were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, ‘What then is this child going to be?’ For the Lord’s hand was with him. 

And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.

I was mulling over the Bible Readings for this week with mounting discomfort. The passage was about Jesus at his most disruptive (Matthew 10: 24-39) but then, to my relief, I remembered that the Feast of John the Baptist was coming up and I could swap the Readings! Instead of a scene in which Jesus was dismantling his culture’s social order we have the touching story of an elderly couple rejoicing over their miracle baby. I relaxed into my Study chair, but unfortunately this preacher’s happiness was short-lived. What are we to make of John the Baptist? He was one of the most serious and dour men of his generation.

As this week’s Collect Prayer says, John is known for preaching Repentance. He used choice words to put the fear of God into his hearers whether they were peasant or price. He was the warm-up act for his cousin, Jesus, but he went cool on him when Jesus didn’t conform to his expectations. Eventually his confrontation with Herod cost him his life. In the late middle ages, after having recovered from the plague, people were in a particularly somber frame of mind. They wanted to keep their heads down and dutifully go about their business lest they incurred another disaster. It was in such a context that many churches chose John the Baptist as their pin-up patron saint. 

Today John is as popular as ever with those who believe we have gone soft on religious discipline. I agree we’ve gone soft, but I can’t get away from the fact that John was not God’s lead character. Jesus was the main act. When comparing John and Jesus, the Gospels talk of two very different personalities and two very different approaches to piety. Don’t get me wrong: Jesus knew how to be serious and to challenge us out of our spiritual complacency but he won his followers by being irresistibly attractive as a person. It was those who glimpsed the glory of God in his words and actions that went on to be his most devoted followers. 

John’s birth is of huge significance in the Gospel story, and we will return to it nearer Christmas. But for now let us correct those who think being a Christian is dull and prescriptive. Follow Jesus and share the joy!