John the Baptist, from calling people in the wilderness to dying in Herod’s prison

John the Baptist’s story begins before the birth of Jesus. His father Zechariah is a priest from the division of Abijah, and his mother Elizabeth is also descended from Aaron. They are introduced as people who live rightly before God, keeping his commands and regulations. Yet they have no children, and both are advanced in age. The story does not tell why they had waited so long, or what their earlier lives had been like.

When Zechariah is serving as a priest and it is his turn to burn incense in the temple, an angel of the Lord appears to him. The angel says that Elizabeth will have a son and that he is to be named John. John will drink neither wine nor strong drink and will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before birth. He will turn many Israelites back to the Lord their God, preparing people for the Lord by turning hearts and bringing the disobedient back to the wisdom of the righteous.

Zechariah asks how he can know this, since he and his wife are old. The angel says that because Zechariah has not believed the message, he will not be able to speak until the child is born. People waiting outside wonder why he is delayed. When he comes out unable to speak, he communicates only with gestures. After his service ends, he returns home, and Elizabeth becomes pregnant.

About six months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Mary comes to visit her. At Mary’s greeting, the child leaps in Elizabeth’s womb. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and blesses Mary. After Mary leaves, Elizabeth gives birth to a son. Neighbors and relatives expect the child to be called Zechariah after his father, but Elizabeth says that his name is John. Zechariah writes, “His name is John,” and at once he can speak again and praises God.

Zechariah sings that his son will be called a prophet of the Most High and will go before the Lord to prepare his ways. Luke says briefly that the child grows and becomes strong in spirit, and is in the wilderness until the day he appears publicly to Israel. Scripture does not say when he goes there, who lives with him, or how he learns to live in the wilderness. When he does appear, however, his public life is tied not to Jerusalem’s temple but to the wilderness around the Jordan River.

Zechariah’s song makes his son’s work clearer. John will go before the Lord to prepare his ways and give the people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins. Zechariah sings of light shining on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. That childhood scene does not say exactly how John will lead people later, or when he will begin baptizing. After the brief line about his time in the wilderness, Luke moves across many years to the day when God’s word comes to him.

In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, the word of God comes to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He goes through the country around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew and Mark say that he wears clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt, and that his food is locusts and wild honey. People from Jerusalem, Judea, and the region around the Jordan come out to him, confess their sins, and are baptized in the river.

John’s words are not simply comfort for people gathering by the water. He says that the ax is already laid at the root of the trees and that every tree not producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. He also speaks of one who holds a winnowing fork to clear the threshing floor, gathering wheat into the barn and burning chaff with unquenchable fire. Luke adds that John exhorts the people in many other ways and announces good news to them. His preaching about repentance and judgment comes with concrete demands on the way people live.

John does not let people assume that coming to him will make them safe by itself. When Pharisees and Sadducees come for baptism, he tells them not to rely on being Abraham’s descendants and calls them to produce fruit worthy of repentance. To people asking what they should do, he says that those with two coats should share with those who have none, and those with food should do the same. He tells tax collectors not to collect more than they are authorized to collect. He tells soldiers not to extort money or accuse anyone falsely, and to be content with their wages.

People begin to wonder whether John himself might be the Christ. John plainly says that he is not. He baptizes with water, but someone stronger is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. In John’s Gospel he also says that he is neither the Christ, Elijah, nor the prophet. He calls himself a voice crying in the wilderness and says that someone is already standing among the people whom they do not know.

Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. Matthew says that John first protests, saying that he needs baptism from Jesus instead. Jesus answers that this is fitting for the present in order to fulfill all righteousness, and John permits it. As Jesus comes up from the water, heaven opens, God’s Spirit descends like a dove, and a voice from heaven calls Jesus the beloved Son. John’s Gospel says that John sees the Spirit descend and remain on Jesus; afterward he points to Jesus as the Lamb of God.

The next day John is standing with two disciples when he sees Jesus pass by. Again he calls Jesus the Lamb of God, and the two disciples follow Jesus. One of them is Andrew. Andrew finds his brother Simon and tells him that he has found the Christ. John appears here as someone who watches people leave his own circle for the one to whom he has testified. John’s Gospel later says that he is still baptizing near Salim, close to Aenon, where there is plenty of water.

Some of John’s disciples begin to follow Jesus. When John hears that Jesus is baptizing and that many people are going to him, he says that no one can receive anything unless it is given from heaven. He repeats that he is not the Christ, but the one sent ahead. Like a friend who waits for the bridegroom and rejoices at his voice, John says that his joy is complete. He says that Jesus must increase and he must decrease.

John rebukes Herod for taking Herodias, the wife of his brother, and for the other evil things Herod has done. Herod puts John in prison. There John hears about Jesus’ works and sends disciples to ask whether Jesus is the one who is to come, or whether they should wait for another. Jesus tells them to report that blind people see, those who cannot walk walk, people with leprosy are cleansed, deaf people hear, the dead are raised, and good news is announced to the poor.

After John’s disciples leave, Jesus speaks to the crowd about John. He asks what they went into the wilderness to see: not a reed shaken by the wind, and not a man dressed in fine clothes. Jesus calls John more than a prophet, the messenger sent ahead to prepare his way. The words show how Jesus sees the work John has done while John himself is no longer standing before a wilderness crowd. Yet Jesus does not promise that John will be released from prison.

At Herod’s birthday banquet, Herodias’s daughter dances before the guests. Herod promises with an oath to give her whatever she asks. Following her mother’s direction, she asks for John the Baptist’s head. Herod is distressed, but because of his oath and the guests, he gives the order. John is beheaded in the prison, and his disciples come, take his body, and bury it. The New Testament’s account of John’s life ends here: the man who prepared the way before Jesus dies in Herod’s prison.