One characteristic of prophetic messages is their note of urgency. We may not like what they have to say but they cannot be ignored; or more accurately, we ignore them at our peril. John the Baptist is a case in point. His very title shows what he was known for. He could have been “John the Prophet,” “John the Desert Dweller” or even “John the Oddball” –or the equivalent Aramaic phrase–considering his attire and diet of insects and sweetener, but the action for which he became known labeled him for all time as John the Baptizer. Why was this aspect of his ministry so significant?

We must recognize that John was not practicing Christian Baptism. The startling aspect of his actions was that in baptizing Jews he was treating insiders as outsiders. In Jewish minds, baptism was a ceremony that non-Jews went through in the process of becoming Jews. John’s message represented a radical call to repentance, not simply a routine act of daily repentance. He was calling for personal and national renewal in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. His message was urgent because the reign of God was at hand–i.e. fast approaching. The Messiah would come in salvation and judgment. Baptism in the River Jordan took place on the very frontier of the Promised Land. It signified a new exodus and occupation.

John preached in the desert and not in Jerusalem because the temple and the palace represented corrupt and oppressive rule. Protest movements begin away from the centers of power, where they can gather momentum. John saw himself as a forerunner to the Messiah, so the timing of his ministry was of prime importance. But although strategic, the Prophet does not draw attention to himself, even though he was a cousin of Jesus! He presented himself as a voice in the wilderness. His task was to get to the heart of the matter, to clear the way rather than to clutter it with speculation.

And the crowds flocked to hear the latest in a long line of prophets. They were especially curious and excited because there had been a prophetic silence for the past 250 years. In response to John’s preaching the people confessed their sins and submitted to baptism to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. John knew that among the crowd were Pharisees and Sadducees from Jerusalem who had come to keep an eye on things and to make their reports to the authorities. With biting sarcasm he challenges them, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Their entrenched attitude demonstrated their spiritual complacency and self-righteousness. John describes them not only as snakes, but as a breeding ground for snakes. They had not even met the conditions for baptism. First they had to demonstrate the fruits (the evidence) of true repentance. With all the bluntness of the prophet, John declares that the ax is already poised to strike the roots of the true, and then it will be too late to produce fruit. Once again, we see the urgency behind John’s message.

John understood that his baptism in water was a preparatory step towards a greater baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. The Holy Spirit represented the empowerment of the faithful and the fire was the fire of judgment. From his perspective the two would come synonymously with the appearance of the Messiah. But events did not work out precisely as John had anticipated. He believed that the baptism he described would come about with the inauguration of the earthly ministry of Jesus. However, by the time of his imprisonment by Herod neither had occurred, hence his uncertainty and sending of his disciples to Jesus to inquire, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:2). He was not to know that the baptism with the Holy Spirit would not occur until after Jesus Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension and the giving of the Holy Spirit. There is a divine order to follow. Like the prophets of the Old Testament, he saw salvation and judgment as coming with the Messiah. We now know that the fire of judgment is delayed until Christ’s Second Coming. We live in the last act of God’s plan of salvation described as the “day of the Lord” which represents the time of God’s patience. The message of this Advent season is one of anticipation and preparation, looking back to Christ’s first coming and forward to his second coming.

Our message of the good news of the kingdom must be proclaimed with all the urgency of John the Baptist’s preaching. Its call to God’s people is just as radical, but our urgency must not lead to impatience. Rather we must look to what is happening as signs of the kingdom. The Lord Jesus does not operate according to our time line and is not limited by our perceptions. We still see through a glass darkly, seeing a distorted and limited picture. Like John the Baptist we may have to live with delayed expectations.