John the Baptist

We read about John the Baptist in several places in Mark 1:1-13, Mark 6:14-29 and Mark 11:27-33. The opening verses of Mark focus on another man, the messenger, John the Baptist. It isn’t odd to start a story about one person by first introducing another to the reader. These people lay the foundations for what is to follow and give us a context to frame the wider story in.

As we will see throughout Mark’s Gospel there isn’t always lots of detail to go on and it is worth reading the following sections of Luke’s Gospel to learn a little more (Luke 1:5-25, 39-45, 57-80). What we can see from the glimpses we have of John is that he was called to speak out and that this call led to his sticky end.

The opening quote that introduces John to us comes from the Old Testament prophets Isaiah (40:3) and Malachi (3:1). It is no accident that these prophets should be used to introduce John. They act as a reminder that what we are about to read is built on the many stories that appear in the Old Testament. John is not being introduced to us out of the blue, but on the back of the many stories of how God has been at work in the world since the very beginning. Like Isaiah and Malachi before him John is a messenger, someone called to speak out.

The message that John brought was one of repentance and forgiveness, a challenge to those who heard him to change the way they lived. To be the people God had created them to be. As chapter 6 shows us this calling is a dangerous one. Those in power do not often want to hear the truth and will go to any length to stop it.