2 January 2021
Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church
Who is John the Baptist? He is not the Christ; he was sent to announce His coming, and indeed does when later he will say to his own disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me,’” (John 1:29-30). He denies being Elijah, and yet Jesus will one day say to the crowds, “…if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come,” (Matthew 11:14). John denies being Elijah perhaps because it is God who declares prophets, not the prophet himself. He is not the Prophet, Moses, for John gives no laws and makes no promises of leading the people into freedom; he is not the one of whom Moses spoke when he said, “A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kindred; that is the one to whom you shall listen,” (Deuteronomy 18:15), for it was Jesus who often said, “Whoever has ears ought to hear,” (Matthew 11:15), and it was He of Whom the Father spoke, saying on the mountaintop in the presence of both Elijah and Moses, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him,” (Luke 9:35).
Who is John the Baptist then? He is “…the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” not being the Lord Himself but a herald; not being Elijah but something new; not being Moses and leading people through the desert, but rather drawing people into the desert that they might repent of the sins that frustrate the Christ’s path into their hearts. For at the very end of the Old Testament the prophet Malachi writes “Now I am sending you Elijah the prophet, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and terrible day; he will turn the heart of fathers to their sons, and the heart of sons to their fathers…” (Malachi 3:23-24). John it is that shall breach the wall; Christ it is who shall enter and conquer. John is the bow; Christ is the arrow. John is the plowman; Jesus the seed. Considering then the identity and mission of John the Baptist, and being likewise baptized as prophets ourselves, we might imagine priests and Levites asking us the same question: “Who are you?”