As a curate i spent about nearly 4 years at the Church of St John the Baptist and so i am rather fond of this slighlty bizarre man who wanders around in camel skin eating honey and wild locus (it is a bit like an episode of I'm a celebrity get me out of here).
John the baptist is the great fore runner of Christ. He has his own brand of ministry - although I am not sure calling a congregation a brood of vipers would go down overly well now. John is the link between the Old Testament Prophets and the Christ - but even John realises that he is not the one.
Between the 4 Gospels we get a different picture of John and if we read John's Gospel it is almost as if he and Jesus dont know each other and had bever met. Did he know him as a person but forgot the prophecy about the Christ we don't know- yet this is the child who jumps in the womb of his mother when she comes into contact with the Blessed Virgin Mary who is with Child. Also I'm sure Jewish families would know their relatives - but what ever the case John says "I am not worthy" and "He must increase and I decrease". John points to the Christ.
So often we have people who cling to ministry and clearly refer to it as my ministry - and forget that it is God's minstry. John knows his role and is prepared to hand over to the one who is greater than him. A lesson for us all.
But even this Holy and ecentric man gets frightened and when he is imprisioned he sends his disciples to check out are you really the one and the message that returns is you have seen the blind see and lame walk etc.
what can we learn about ourselves through John - I love the fact that this holy man, a relative of Jesus, who has such certainty at the beginning starts to doubt before something big happens. The bible points to real people who dont have all the answers but the other thing we can learn from him is how we can look to CHrist in all things and seek the extension of His kingdom and not our own desires.
May God enable us this advent time to follow John's example of in the presence of Christ decreasing and allowing Him to increase.
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