John the Baptist
The joyful preparation of John the Baptist
John the Baptist Announced
There’s something about imagining a guy going around eating locusts, dressed in a camel’s hair tuxedo that just makes me chuckle. In reality though, if I came across this guy on the street today, I would be genuinely scared.
All jokes aside, John the Baptist had a pretty profound entrance into the world. Not only was he prophesied of in the Old Testament,1 his birth was also announced by an angel to his father Zechariah.2
But most significant is his response to Jesus’ presence when Jesus was just the size of an appleseed in Mary’s womb and John was probably no bigger than a pineapple in Elizabeth’s womb. We’re told he “leaped for joy.”3
Brimming with Joy
Not only is this passage a beautiful insight into life before birth, but it also shows how the Holy Spirit was at work even in the smallest of human beings. Everything about Luke 1 is brimming with joy and it is all directed at appleseed-sized Jesus. We experience the joy that Elizabeth and John both felt when Jesus and Mary arrived.
John the Baptist is the final and ultimate preparer of the way of the Lord and we see once again the theme of preparation when John begins his ministry and calls for repentance and baptism.
Preparing Our Hearts
Since it is Sunday, we can take a break to spend a moment basking in the brimming joy of John and Elizabeth and Mary. Let us remember the joy that John felt in the womb when he was in the presence of his Lord.
Isaiah 40:3
Luke 1:8-24
Luke 1:39-45