John the Baptist

135:11.1John had a lonely and some­what bit­ter ex­pe­ri­ence in prison. Few of his fol­low­ers were per­mit­ted to see him. He longed to see Je­sus but had to be con­tent with hear­ing of his work through those of his fol­low­ers who had be­come be­liev­ers in the Son of Man. He was of­ten tempted to doubt Je­sus and his di­vine mis­sion. If Je­sus were the Mes­siah, why did he do noth­ing to de­liver him from this un­bear­able im­pris­on­ment? For more than a year and a half this rugged man of God’s out­doors lan­guished in that de­spi­ca­ble prison. And this ex­pe­ri­ence was a great test of his faith in, and loy­alty to, Je­sus. In­deed, this whole ex­pe­ri­ence was a great test of John’s faith even in God. Many times was he tempted to doubt even the gen­uine­ness of his own mis­sion and ex­pe­ri­ence.

135:11.2Af­ter he had been in prison sev­eral months, a group of his dis­ci­ples came to him and, af­ter re­port­ing con­cern­ing the pub­lic ac­tiv­i­ties of Je­sus, said: “So you see, Teacher, that he who was with you at the up­per Jor­dan pros­pers and re­ceives all who come to him. He even feasts with pub­li­cans and sin­ners. You bore coura­geous wit­ness to him, and yet he does noth­ing to ef­fect your de­liv­er­ance.” But John an­swered his friends: “This man can do noth­ing un­less it has been given him by his Fa­ther in heaven. You well re­mem­ber that I said, ‘I am not the Mes­siah, but I am one sent on be­fore to pre­pare the way for him.’ And that I did. He who has the bride is the bride­groom, but the friend of the bride­groom who stands near by and hears him re­joices greatly be­cause of the bride­groom’s voice. This, my joy, there­fore is ful­filled. He must in­crease but I must de­crease. I am of this earth and have de­clared my mes­sage. Je­sus of Naz­a­reth comes down to the earth from heaven and is above us all. The Son of Man has de­scended from God, and the words of God he will de­clare to you. For the Fa­ther in heaven gives not the spirit by mea­sure to his own Son. The Fa­ther loves his Son and will pres­ently put all things in the hands of this Son. He who be­lieves in the Son has eter­nal life. And these words which I speak are true and abid­ing.”

135:11.3These dis­ci­ples were amazed at John’s pro­nounce­ment, so much so that they de­parted in si­lence. John was also much ag­i­tated, for he per­ceived that he had ut­tered a prophecy. Never again did he wholly doubt the mis­sion and di­vin­ity of Je­sus. But it was a sore dis­ap­point­ment to John that Je­sus sent him no word, that he came not to see him, and that he ex­er­cised none of his great power to de­liver him from prison. But Je­sus knew all about this. He had great love for John, but be­ing now cog­nizant of his di­vine na­ture and know­ing fully the great things in prepa­ra­tion for John when he de­parted from this world and also know­ing that John’s work on earth was fin­ished, he con­strained him­self not to in­ter­fere in the nat­u­ral out­work­ing of the great preacher-prophet’s ca­reer.

135:11.4This long sus­pense in prison was hu­manly un­bear­able. Just a few days be­fore his death John again sent trusted mes­sen­gers to Je­sus, in­quir­ing: “Is my work done? Why do I lan­guish in prison? Are you truly the Mes­siah, or shall we look for an­other?” And when these two dis­ci­ples gave this mes­sage to Je­sus, the Son of Man replied: “Go back to John and tell him that I have not for­got­ten but to suf­fer me also this, for it be­comes us to ful­fill all righ­teous­ness. Tell John what you have seen and heard—that the poor have good tid­ings preached to them—and, fi­nally, tell the beloved her­ald of my earth mis­sion that he shall be abun­dantly blessed in the age to come if he finds no oc­ca­sion to doubt and stum­ble over me.” And this was the last word John re­ceived from Je­sus. This mes­sage greatly com­forted him and did much to sta­bi­lize his faith and pre­pare him for the tragic end of his life in the flesh which fol­lowed so soon upon the heels of this mem­o­rable oc­ca­sion.