What did you go out into the Wilderness to see?

One of the most fascinating aspects of Jesus' First Coming was the ministry of John the Baptist.  What's fascinating about it is that he had a diverse and far-reaching draw.  He drew all social classes (prostitutes and tax collectors - Matthew 21:32), all walks of life (including solders - Luke 3:14) and both political parties (Pharisees and Saducees - Matthew 3:7).  The scope of the draw to his ministry is wrapped up in however one would understand the phrase in Matthew 3:5 which states that he drew "all Judea and all the region around the Jordan."

In other words John attracted the masses.  And he did so in a way that pushes against any and all convention.  He preached a radical message of holiness and repentance and yet he drew people who were in open sin (prostitutes and tax collectors).  He was a nobody who confronted and spoke truth to those in powerful positions and yet they still came.  He preached a message that would have been deeply offensive to the Jewish culture of his day (when he said that God could raise up sons of Abraham out of rocks - Luke 3:8) and yet they came anyway.

He wasn't particularly well dressed (Matthew 3:4) nor was he trendy (Matthew 11:7).  And he didn't have a good location - he started preaching in the wilderness.  I dare say that there would be nothing in the natural that would have drawn the normal guy out into the desert to hear John preach.  For who wants to sit in the sand and get all sunburned in the heat just to watch some guy who isn't hip to the times and who gets all up in your personal stuff?

So what was it then?

To be sure it was certainly something.  John's ministry was a cultural phenomenon.  John's endorsement carried so much weight that Jesus mentioned it to help people recognize who He was (John 5:33-34), the apostles referred to him often in their sermons (one example of this is Acts 13:24-25) and even the Jewish historian Josephus advised that the Jewish people saw Herod and his armies as being cursed because he had executed John (see Josephus' work "The Antiquities of the Jews" Book 18 Chapter 5 Section 2).  His influence was so great that the Pharisees were afraid to speak against him (Matthew 21:24-25) and his legend so astounding that the king who executed him literally thought that it was plausible that he had raised from the dead and was out doing miracles (Matthew 14:1-2).

A bit of reflection on that last point will really make you appreciate the shadow that John had cast in Herod's mind.  Here was the man who had executed John being so haunted by the guilt in his heart that he had murdered one of the prophets of God that when he heard news of miracles being done in his country that the thought that felt the most real in his heart was that God had justified his servant John and raised him from the dead and he was out working wonders.  Imagine the place Herod had to be physcologically for his first thought to be that God was rebuking him and justifying John and for him to believe it enough for him to tell it to his servants.  

What did you go out into the Wilderness to see?

I feel confident that I have proven that even though according to the natural mind John should have been irrelevant and completely forgotten by history he instead shaped history by his profound reach and deep impact.  But how did he do it?

Moves of God are in a certain sense lightning in a bottle.  While it is true that they are birthed by the saints laboring in prayer and speaking forth declarations of faith it is also equally true that they are fitted with a sense of mystery.  There are principles that we learn from past awakenings and we use those to help us prepare for when God brings about one in our day but at the same time we are also aware that we don't necessarily know what the next one will look like until it comes.

John's ministry was the manifestation of Isaiah 40:3-5 where from the desert a path was made for the Glory of the Lord - Jesus - to be seen by all flesh.  Hungry and desperate people from all walks of life went to an inconvenient place, to see a strange man who confronted them about all their stuff.  They didn't go because he made them feel good about themselves, they didn't go because he was entertaining and told funny stories.  They weren't there because he was hip.  They weren't there to be flattered.

It is my belief that they were there because they wanted to hear a Word from God.  They were a generation who were disillusioned by the loss of their nation's sovereignity and disheartened by the actions of their political leaders.  Where their grandparents had tasted a free Israel all they knew was the dominion of Rome and the tyranny of Herod.  Stories of the mass execution of young babies (Matthew 2:16) - some of whom would have grown up to be their brothers - were shuddering tales that shaped the way they viewed the world.

So what did they go out into the Wilderness to see?

They went to hear from God.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  They didn't want to hear from a man beholden to Rome.  They didn't want to hear from someone who was under Herod's thumb.  They wanted to hear the real, undefiled Word of God preached in a way that sought to honor Heaven alone.

And while I can't speak for anyone else I believe I'm there myself.  And it is my prayer for 2021 that God would raise up John's again.  That they would stand in the proverbial Wilderness again.  And that they would preach the undefiled Gospel yet again.

That is what I want.  Let it come oh Lord.

Amen.