John's Perspective

John’s Perspective
Gospel – Mark 1:4-11 – The Baptism of Jesus
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
11 And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

After reading the Gospel, I walked to the center aisle of the church and delivered this sermon

Good Morning, My name is John the Baptist and I don’t believe many of you have ever heard my story before so I thought I would share it with you this morning. I was Jesus’ cousin, my mother Elizabeth was Mary’s aunt. I always knew that there was something different, something special about Jesus. In fact, when my mother was in her sixth month of pregnancy with me, Mary came to visit my mom, to tell her about the news that she was pregnant with a baby that would bring salvation to the world. The funny thing though, before Mary actually reached my mom I could sense Jesus in her womb and I got really excited. My mom said that I leaped in her womb.
I grew up with Jesus and I always knew there was something different about him. I remember when we were five years old. Jesus and I were playing down by a pond that was formed after it had rained for what seemed to be days. Jesus commanded the water of the pond to be clear and it was. Then he took clay from the pond and formed twelve sparrows. It was Saturday and some of the boys that were watching Jesus went to tell his dad that Jesus was doing this on the Sabbath. So, Joseph came down to the pond and started to ask Jesus why he would do such a thing on the Sabbath, when it was against the law. Jesus hearing this opened His hands, and said to the sparrows, “Go up into the air, and fly; nobody shall kill you.” And they flew, and began to cry out, and praise God Almighty. [Infancy Gospel of Thomas Chapter 4]
Another time we were all playing on the flat rooftop of one of the neighbor’s house and one of the boys fell down through a back-door and died immediately. We were afraid so we all ran away. Jesus however remained in the house. Soon Sinoo’s parent, that was the boy’s name, arrived and started to accuse Jesus of causing their son’s death, speaking against Jesus. “Surely you made him fall down to his death.” Jesus came down from the house, stood over the dead child, and with a loud voice called out to him. “Sinoo, Sinoo, rise and say whether it was I that made you fall down.” And suddenly Sinoo rose up, and said, “No, my lord.” Witnessing this, Sinoo’s parents glorified God and adored Jesus. [Infancy Gospel of Thomas Chapter 7]
When the time came for me to start my ministry I was in my mid to late twenties and I lived in the desert and I survived on locust. I know most of you are thinking, eeewwwwhhh locust, but wild honey and locust go together quite well. Anyways, I was out in the desert trying to prepare people for the coming of the Messiah. I kept telling people that they needed to change the way they were living. See, everyone was interested only in themselves. The motto of the time was “You have to take care of number one”. Well, I told them that if they started to take care of each other they wouldn’t need to worry about themselves. “Repent” I said. Well, I guess that’s the true meaning of repentance, to turn around completely; you know, to turn 180 degrees and to head the other way, to care for others more than yourself. At first it didn’t seem like anyone was listening. Then, a few started to follow and listen and actually change.
Next, I started to baptize people into the faith. As a Jew we had a practice of using baptism to accept Gentiles into the Jewish faith. See, if you weren’t born a Jew, if you were a Gentile, you really didn’t have a way of becoming a Jew. So baptism was used to symbolize a rebirth, as a Jew. So I thought it quite appropriate to use baptism by water, after all if a person really repented or changed their way, wouldn’t that be a new person, a changed person. It also was symbolic of entrance into a new community, a changed community that was interested in loving and helping others.
So people were really changing, repenting, and being baptized. And soon, I was in the water all day long from morning until night, up to my waist in water. This was exciting. Then one day it happened, there must have been a thousand people in and around the Jordan River and as I looked out over the crest of the hill I saw him. It was Jesus, and I knew this was the time and the place and I yelled out, “Look, the Messiah, God in human form, the One promised to us who will change the world forever!!”, actually I said it in the vernacular for the day, “Behold, The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” [John 1:29]
All of a sudden there was a buzzing going on all around me. People were talking. I heard a voice from the right of me say, “That can’t be the Messiah, he’s only a man” and I heard another voice to the left of me say, “Isn’t that Joseph’s kid, the carpenter’s son, we’ve all seen him before, a bit of a fanatic if you ask me.” I thought to myself, this can’t be happening, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this, no one is accepting Jesus as the Messiah. What is going on?
And then it even got stranger, Jesus walked into the water and approached me saying, “John baptize me with water”, well, I was really freaking out now. I couldn’t understand what was going on, so I said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you and you are coming to me to be baptized?” Jesus replied, “John, trust me, this must be done to complete righteousness.” I didn’t know what to say or do so I did as Jesus asked of me. I baptized him in the river and I remember it as if it just happened yesterday. As I was lifting Jesus out of the water, I could see the water glistening from his face and hair in the bright sun, and then, and then like nothing I have ever seen. The heavens opened up and the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove, it wasn’t a dove, but it’s the closest thing I can think of. And the Spirit showed upon him. And a voice came out of the heavens and said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” [Matthew 3:13-17]
It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop and everyone, I mean everyone believed. After this my ministry decreased and Jesus’ ministry began and increased. He became greater, and I became lesser, and that was the way it was suppose to happen.
Amen