Matthew 3

John the Bridge

John the Baptist sits oddly at the start of the Gospels like some strange figure from a bygone era walking in the present day.  Imagine going down the street and seeing someone dressed as a Roman or a Celt, as Abraham Lincoln or Charles Dickens.  He is a vivid and living piece of the Old Testament at the start of the New.

John carries many of the hallmarks of an Old Testament prophet.  He speaks to the people a message of repentance and holiness.  He speaks with a harshness and fierceness that we would expect from the likes of Ezekiel or Isaiah, comparing the religious leaders to a brood of vipers.  He also operates within the political sphere of Israel in much the same way that Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah would have done.  He speaks boldly to the king about his own moral and religious failings and, like Jeremiah before him, ends up in prison for it.

Indeed Jesus himself compares him with Elijah and says later in Matthew, “He is the Elijah who was to 

come.”  The comparison with Old Testament prophets only goes so far however as there is a marked difference between the direction of their message and the direction of John’s.  Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel all called God’s people back to the Law of Moses.  They saw the new and dangerous paths down which Israel was walking and called them to repentance and a turning back to the trustworthy and fruitful paths of God’s covenant.

John’s direction is radically different.  He calls Israel to repentance just like an Old Testament prophet but he then points Israel forward to something new that is to come.  He points them forward to Jesus.  He acts as a bridge between the Old and the New.  Jesus says as much when he tells the crowds, “For all the Prophets and the Law (what we would now call the Old Testament) prophesied until John.”  The era of the Old Covenant and the era of the New meet in John and Jesus as John, at Jesus baptism, hands over the baton to Jesus.

All very fine and historical but despite his strangeness there is something of our everyday experience in the work of John.  In a very real sense we all work as spiritual bridges bringing our everyday working and resting lives to Jesus.  John brought the history and traditions of his people and points them towards Jesus.  This is something that we should be doing all the time.  The Bible describes followers of Jesus as a Kingdom of Priests.  The old Latin word for priest (handily enough) is bridge or bridge builder, one who connects the ordinary world of us here and now with the supernatural and ultra-real world of God. 

So whilst we know him more often as John the Baptist, John the Bridge would also be a suitable title. 

Is it a suitable one for you?  Kieran the Bridge?  James the Bridge?  Mary the Bridge?...