John the Baptist

135:6.1Early in the month of March, A.D. 25, John jour­neyed around the west­ern coast of the Dead Sea and up the river Jor­dan to op­po­site Jeri­cho, the an­cient ford over which Joshua and the chil­dren of Is­rael passed when they first en­tered the prom­ised land; and cross­ing over to the other side of the river, he es­tab­lished him­self near the en­trance to the ford and be­gan to preach to the peo­ple who passed by on their way back and forth across the river. This was the most fre­quented of all the Jor­dan cross­ings.

135:6.2It was ap­par­ent to all who heard John that he was more than a preacher. The great ma­jor­ity of those who lis­tened to this strange man who had come up from the Judean wilder­ness went away be­liev­ing that they had heard the voice of a prophet. No won­der the souls of these weary and ex­pec­tant Jews were deeply stirred by such a phe­nom­e­non. Never in all Jew­ish his­tory had the de­vout chil­dren of Abra­ham so longed for the “con­so­la­tion of Is­rael” or more ar­dently an­tic­i­pated “the restora­tion of the king­dom.” Never in all Jew­ish his­tory could John’s mes­sage, “the king­dom of heaven is at hand,” have made such a deep and uni­ver­sal ap­peal as at the very time he so mys­te­ri­ously ap­peared on the bank of this south­ern cross­ing of the Jor­dan.

135:6.3He came from the herds­men, like Amos. He was dressed like Eli­jah of old, and he thun­dered his ad­mo­ni­tions and poured forth his warn­ings in the “spirit and power of Eli­jah.” It is not sur­pris­ing that this strange preacher cre­ated a mighty stir through­out all Pales­tine as the trav­el­ers car­ried abroad the news of his preach­ing along the Jor­dan.

135:6.4There was still an­other and a new fea­ture about the work of this Nazarite preacher: He bap­tized ev­ery one of his be­liev­ers in the Jor­dan “for the re­mis­sion of sins.” Al­though bap­tism was not a new cer­e­mony among the Jews, they had never seen it em­ployed as John now made use of it. It had long been the prac­tice thus to bap­tize the gen­tile pros­e­lytes into the fel­low­ship of the outer court of the tem­ple, but never had the Jews them­selves been asked to sub­mit to the bap­tism of re­pen­tance. Only fif­teen months in­ter­vened be­tween the time John be­gan to preach and bap­tize and his ar­rest and im­pris­on­ment at the in­sti­ga­tion of Herod An­tipas, but in this short time he bap­tized con­sid­er­ably over one hun­dred thou­sand pen­i­tents.

135:6.5John preached four months at Beth­any ford be­fore start­ing north up the Jor­dan. Tens of thou­sands of lis­ten­ers, some cu­ri­ous but many earnest and se­ri­ous, came to hear him from all parts of Judea, Perea, and Samaria. Even a few came from Gal­i­lee.

135:6.6In May of this year, while he still lin­gered at Beth­any ford, the priests and Levites sent a del­e­ga­tion out to in­quire of John whether he claimed to be the Mes­siah, and by whose au­thor­ity he preached. John an­swered these ques­tion­ers by say­ing: “Go tell your mas­ters that you have heard ‘the voice of one cry­ing in the wilder­ness,’ as spo­ken by the prophet, say­ing, ‘make ready the way of the Lord, make straight a high­way for our God. Ev­ery val­ley shall be filled, and ev­ery moun­tain and hill shall be brought low; the un­even ground shall be­come a plain, while the rough places shall be­come a smooth val­ley; and all flesh shall see the sal­va­tion of God.’”

135:6.7John was a heroic but tact­less preacher. One day when he was preach­ing and bap­tiz­ing on the west bank of the Jor­dan, a group of Phar­isees and a num­ber of Sad­ducees came for­ward and pre­sented them­selves for bap­tism. Be­fore lead­ing them down into the wa­ter, John, ad­dress­ing them as a group said: “Who warned you to flee, as vipers be­fore the fire, from the wrath to come? I will bap­tize you, but I warn you to bring forth fruit wor­thy of sin­cere re­pen­tance if you would re­ceive the re­mis­sion of your sins. Tell me not that Abra­ham is your fa­ther. I de­clare that God is able of these twelve stones here be­fore you to raise up wor­thy chil­dren for Abra­ham. And even now is the ax laid to the very roots of the trees. Ev­ery tree that brings not forth good fruit is des­tined to be cut down and cast into the fire.” (The twelve stones to which he re­ferred were the re­puted memo­rial stones set up by Joshua to com­mem­o­rate the cross­ing of the “twelve tribes” at this very point when they first en­tered the prom­ised land.)

135:6.8John con­ducted classes for his dis­ci­ples, in the course of which he in­structed them in the de­tails of their new life and en­deav­ored to an­swer their many ques­tions. He coun­seled the teach­ers to in­struct in the spirit as well as the let­ter of the law. He in­structed the rich to feed the poor; to the tax gath­er­ers he said: “Ex­tort no more than that which is as­signed you.” To the sol­diers he said: “Do no vi­o­lence and ex­act noth­ing wrong­fully—be con­tent with your wages.” While he coun­seled all: “Make ready for the end of the age—the king­dom of heaven is at hand.”