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Updated: May 20, 2025
Shadows were creeping into the gorge as evening approached. Groups started away toward the near-by towns. "Did you hear what the Galilean said to John the Baptizer?" asked John. Without answering, Andrew started toward the knot of people near the Prophet, and John followed. Andrew asked a man beside him, "Did you hear what the Galilean said to the Prophet?" "Yes," the man answered.
But Jesus shook his head. "My followers," he said, "do not think that I was sent to bring peace to this nation. I came to bring strife. It cannot be any other way. Men enter the Kingdom of God only through conflict and pain." When the disciples arrived in Capernaum on the day after the Sabbath, they heard a report that dismayed them: John the Baptizer had been thrown into prison by King Herod.
When I saw that Judah was dead, my boyhood dream crumbled. I have never forgotten." The fire had burned out while Simon talked. The morning sun glared on the gray ashes. Lost in thought, the men gazed at the dead fire. Finally Simon said: "It seems that every time we fight for the Kingdom of God we suffer all the more. How does John the Baptizer explain that, Andrew?"
When they piped wedding music, the ones who wanted a funeral wouldn't dance. And when they piped funeral music, the others quit. It was impossible to please them all. "You and your teachers are like children who are never satisfied. John the Baptizer came and fasted often and you said he had a demon. Now I come eating and drinking like other men and you call me a glutton and a drunkard.
Simon knew that he sensed the discouragement and doubt of his followers. "The Pharisees say that you are trying to break down the Law of Moses," replied John hesitantly. There was a long silence. "Some people think you are John the Baptizer risen from the dead," added Andrew. The Zealot said: "I hear some saying that you are Elijah come down from heaven to prepare the way of the Messiah.
"Then go and be like that yourself!" said Jesus. Simon looked at Jesus amazed, the net in his hand completely forgotten. Not even John the Baptizer would say the Samaritan was better than the others, he thought to himself. No wonder Andrew and John had talked so much about this Rabbi whom they had first met in Judea! Attracted by the crowd, many more people had come down from the road.
Christian baptism seems to have come from Jewish proselyte baptism: the proselyte was by immersion in water symbolically cleansed from sin and introduced into a new religious life, and such was the significance of the rite practiced by John, though his surname "the Baptizer" probably indicates that he gave it a broader and deeper meaning; he overstepped national bounds, receiving Jews as well as non-Jews.
"Are you Moses come back to us?" "No." "Then who are you? The rulers in Jerusalem have sent me to find out. What have you to say for yourself?" Andrew and John glanced at each other. The rulers! John the Baptizer called out boldly to the whole crowd, "I am a voice crying in the wilderness, 'Clear the way for the Lord!" The priest from Jerusalem interrupted again.
"We shall have a revolution on our hands if this really is John." Herod turned to the officer who had spoken last. "Who is he, if he isn't John?" "People say different things. Some say he is Elijah; others say someone else, but they all think he is a prophet." "That is exactly what they said about John the Baptizer," exclaimed Herod. "John never sent out missionaries!" objected the Herodian.
"If John the Baptizer really was Elijah," exclaimed Peter, "then the Kingdom ought to be very near!" "Will John be raised from the dead?" asked James. "Jesus said that the Messiah would rise," remarked Peter. James said, "I don't see what he could mean by that." "Do you remember the voice from the cloud?" interrupted John.
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