For the most part the Bible depicts people in a warts-and-all kind of way, which is to say that both their good and bad points are highlighted. However, whereas the stories of personalities like David or Peter reveal a complicated and nuanced portrait of a fellow struggler, other figures seem to be depicted in a more one-dimensional kind of way. For example you’d be hard pressed to find anything admirable in the Bible’s depiction of Jezebel or Herod. Inversely, the Bible doesn’t offer much dirt on figures such as Ruth or Daniel. John the Baptist falls into this last category. The Bible doesn’t offer us much biographical information about John the Baptist, but what we do know tells us that he was a good, humble and sincere man.
Even so, after reading everything that the Bible has to say about John the Baptist I feel certain that the man would be upset if we came away celebrating his relative goodness rather than the perfect righteousness of Jesus. His message was clear, focused and unwavering. His pursuit of God’s calling on his life was unflinchingly humble and honest. His passion was the coming Kingdom of Jesus.
I hope you can join us online this Sunday at 9:30am as we study the role of John the Baptist in heralding the arrival of Jesus as the Messiah. We’ll be unpacking John 1:19-34 together!