Not What He Expected (Mark 1:1-11)

When I was a teenager I was introduced to a pamphlet by Campus Crusade For Christ called “The Four Spiritual Laws.” One of the laws said, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” That sounded good to me! As a teenager I was pretty sure what that wonderful plan should look like. However, long before I reached thirty I realized that God’s plan wasn’t the same as mine. When I look at the life of John the Baptist I think there is a strong possibility that his life didn’t turn out how he expected.

At the height of John’s ministry, when crowds were flocking to him to be baptized, he pointed them to the coming Messiah. He told them that he baptized with water for repentance but the Messiah would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The imagery of the Messiah was drawn from the prophet Isaiah. “Then suddenly, in an instant, you will be visited by the Lord of Hosts with thunder, earthquake, and loud noise, storm, tempest, and a flame of consuming fire” ( Isaiah 29:5,6). John pictured Him coming with a winnowing shovel in His hand, ready to clear the threshing floor, gather the wheat, and burn the chaff with a fire that would never go out. Then suddenly Jesus appeared, having walked from the small town in Galilee called Nazareth.

Jesus asked John to baptize him. This wasn’t what John was expecting. John’s birth had been miraculous, foretold by an angel to his father Zechariah. The angel had told Zechariah that his child would, “turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people”  ( Luke 1:16,17). John’s father was a priest who would have taught him all the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. John was surprised by Jesus’ humble request to be baptized. However, John had been told by God that “The One you see the Spirit descending and resting on—He is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). John saw and testified that Jesus was the Son of God.

I’m curious if John had ever wondered what his position would be after the Messiah came on the scene? The day after Jesus’ baptism two of his disciples left him and began to follow Jesus. However, it was only after John was arrested that Jesus went to Galilee and began preaching. Why was John arrested? It was because John had been faithful to preach the message of repentance even to the reprobate King Herod who had taken his brother’s wife. I don’t think this was what John had expected to happen after the long awaited Messiah had finally come.

There is no account of Jesus ever going to see John in prison even though he was there during the height of Jesus' ministry. While John was in prison he heard about what the Messiah was doing, so he sent a message by his disciples and asked Him, “Are You the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else” (Matthew 11:3)? Jesus responded by saying, “Go and report to John what you hear and see; the blind see, and the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news. And if anyone is not offended because of Me, he is blessed” (Matthew 11:1-4).

Jesus answered John by pointing to the prophets. “‘Be strong; do not fear! Here is your God; vengeance is coming; God’s retribution is coming; He will save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, and water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:4-6). That, however, wasn’t the only prophesy Jesus quoted. He added another quote from Isaiah. This quote referred to the Messiah as, “a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare” (Isaiah 8:14,15).

John had not expected to be in prison when the Messiah came. However, he didn’t trip over the Rock of offense but was faithful to death. Jesus said of him, “I assure you: among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared..." (Matthew 11:1).