When John the Baptizer enters the scene, there was a tremendous expectation that he was the one promised in Malachi’s prophecy (4:5). The lengthy period between Malachi’s prophecy and the new age exacerbated the expectation for the Elijah-to-come. In many ways, when John comes, he becomes an immediate celebrity figure of the day. When he appears from the desert places dressed in prophetic attire, he enters as a promised leader who would turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents. The throngs of people sought out the prophetic Elijahian voice as the great unifier of the Jewish people, who would usher in the new age of Jewish life bringing justice and equity.
How shocking it must have been that the great hope of Israel, her first celebrity came promising judgment calling upon the very ones who viewed themselves as true descendants of Abraham to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The religious leaders quickly turned against the Elijah-figure by seeking to entrap him. And soon enough, John utters the words of prophecy taking us from Malachi to Isaiah (Is. 40) promising that Israel must turn away from their sins and prepare the way of the Lord. John is indeed the great unifier, but not of blessings to a fruitless generation, but he is a unifier of biblical prophecy combining the wisdom of Solomon, Isaiah, Malachi, and so many others into one transcendent turn in history as he presents to the world the one who entered in lowly estate and captured the ire of leaders low and high and who did not draw crowds initially, but stone-throwers and religious antagonists.
John’s celebrity status as a prophet, whose foot was planted in the Old and another in the New, brought all the attention to himself so that he could introduce Another greater than he whose sandal-straps he was not worthy to untie (Jn. 1:27). John’s initial attention was merely a sacred ploy to release a Jewish rabbi into the scene whose entire existence shaped and fulfilled the salvation-system of Israel and the entire cosmos.
In the end, John’s heralding ministry ended in decapitation, not as a sign of loss, but as a sign of victory. John succeeded in introducing the world to Messiah Jesus. For while the head of John was cut off by unjust rulers, the head of the Serpent was trampled by a just King. John’s decrease–his death–increased the life and ministry of Jesus. Behold, among women, no greater prophet has arisen than John.
