The vocation of St John the Baptist

It doesn't matter in what Time we live, we will always hear St John the Baptist's voice speaking to us. You can probably hear it now, calling you through the centuries. What does St John the Baptist say to you? What is his message?

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Our main image of St John is that he is a rather gruff, grizzled saint who doesn't spare the blushes of anyone who hears him. This, of course, gets him into trouble and will see him imprisoned and beheaded for calling out king Herod in marrying his brother's wife Herodias. As usual, we have a tendency to go straight to the end of St John's life for the really dramatic bit. In order to understand the Baptist, we need to look at the very beginning.

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Almost as soon as the baby has drawn its first breath, Zacharias can speak once more! Remember, he has been struck dumb because he did not believe that his aged wife would bear a child. It is with the child's first breath that Zacharias speaks his first words.

We say these words every morning in our liturgy be it at Lauds in the Breviary or in the Prayer Book Mattins, so perhaps time and familiarity have robbed them of their impact. Like the Magnificat, these words speak of the greatness and overthrowing justice of God whereby the human race will be reconciled to God whose righteousness will bring down tyrannical governments and raise up those who live in obedience to the rule of God. Unlike the Magnificat, Zacharias speaks directly to his son, saying:

And thou, Child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people for the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us;
To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Zacharias knows his son's vocation for the Angel tells him:

[H]e shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

 Indeed, it is Zacharias' own unfaithfulness that renders him dumb until St John is born. Indeed, it is the tiny baby who turns his father to the wisdom of the just by turning his heart to this little baby's faith. We know that St John has faith because, even before he is born, he leaps in his mother's womb at the presence of Our Lord who is, Himself, as yet unborn. It is this faith that St John communicates to his father just by being born. Zacharias becomes obedient because his son is obedient and will show this obedience all through his life.

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St John is utterly devoted to his vocation to bring back the children of Israel by telling them about their salvation through the remission of their sins. His is a baptism of repentance. We tend to view that very negatively because we hate being reminded of our sins, just like Herod and Herodias, but St John seeks to convince us, sometimes by hard truths, that we will be saved from our sins if we turn and recognise Our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God with power to save us, if we will let Him.

He stands apart from polite society in order for people to come out to meet him, and to meet him as he really is: not a reed blowing in the wind; not a rich important bishop in fine silk; not an academic with more degrees than the entirety of Oxford University. He stands as he is in his ragged simplicity seeking to bring about a Gospel that he hardly knows and will not see until his own resurrection at the hands of the lamb of God.

Is this something that can happen in this day and age?

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It is the Church that is called to follow this same vocation. We might as well hear Zacharias speak to us when he says "And thou child shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way". We ourselves become the children of Zacharias and share in the vocation of St John. We are to preach the Gospel by being obedient Christians and accepting the rule of Christ. We have to accept the same yoke that is laid upon his shoulders. We are to decrease so that Christ may increase in us and pour out from us.

Like St John, we must be prepared to acknowledge that the real and simple Truth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We should prepare to stand apart from society and speak the truth in love, not necessarily by our words but by living the Gospel. Our lives need to be devoted to repentance - not a constant turning from our sins in our own little world, but rather a constant turning to Christ in His kingdom. Bu turning to Christ, we necessarily turn from our sins. It will be the day-spring from on high that needs to dawn in us that we need to show in truth.

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There are churches, corrupted by dark thoughts, self-satisfaction and opulence and in cooperation with the morality of secular society.  The voices of these Churches will be silenced from the Word of God precisely because they are as faithless and unbelieving as Zacharias. Only when they allow the spirit of St John the Baptist to draw them to the light through the power of his - and our - God will they regain the ability to praise God and speak of His Gospel.