Enacted Exile or Why John the Baptist would have liked the Rolling Stones
This past weekend I preached on Matt 11:1-15, which is John the Baptist's (JTB) existential crisis of Jesus being the Christ (as) he expected. One part of Jesus' announcement to him of what his kingdom would look like stuck out to me: "The dead are raised." Symbolically raised people signified a return of Israel from exile (see Ez. 37 and the valley of dry bones, esp v. 12: I will open your graves and bring you back to Israel."
Now, change gears for a second: We all know how Mark announces the prophetic ministry of
JTB: "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord'" (Mark 1:3). The interesting thing is that this is not what Isaiah 40:3 says. Isaiah 40:1-2 announces the return of Israel because her sins have been paid for and 40:3 talks about a voice calling, "In the desert, prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God." Desert and wilderness, of course, have connotations of wandering between Egypt and the promised land and of being in exile. While in exile, says Isaiah, make straight paths for God. JTB, however, goes out to the desert and announces the LORD's coming! He enacts the exile of Israel in his own life to prepare God's coming. That is amazing.
Yet he still finds himself in a jam: He sits in jail while the one he announced leaves him there. Jesus' word to him that the dead are raised, though, may have brought a whole bunch of resources to JTB's mind: if the dead are raised, and return from exile is described as the dead being raised, maybe a greater return from exile is to be expected! Maybe a deeper and fuller
return from exile--a return to life--started to form in his mind.
Either way, we know JTB announced and enacted return from exile; would have known that return to life had symbolized a return from exile; wanted rescuing from prison by his King; and when such rescuing didn't come, still remained faithful to the point of being beheaded...
So, while JTB may have wanted rescuing, he really needed resurrection: And that's what he'll get. You can't always get what you want, and if you try sometime you find you get what you need.
Now, change gears for a second: We all know how Mark announces the prophetic ministry of
JTB: "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord'" (Mark 1:3). The interesting thing is that this is not what Isaiah 40:3 says. Isaiah 40:1-2 announces the return of Israel because her sins have been paid for and 40:3 talks about a voice calling, "In the desert, prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God." Desert and wilderness, of course, have connotations of wandering between Egypt and the promised land and of being in exile. While in exile, says Isaiah, make straight paths for God. JTB, however, goes out to the desert and announces the LORD's coming! He enacts the exile of Israel in his own life to prepare God's coming. That is amazing.
Yet he still finds himself in a jam: He sits in jail while the one he announced leaves him there. Jesus' word to him that the dead are raised, though, may have brought a whole bunch of resources to JTB's mind: if the dead are raised, and return from exile is described as the dead being raised, maybe a greater return from exile is to be expected! Maybe a deeper and fuller
return from exile--a return to life--started to form in his mind.
Either way, we know JTB announced and enacted return from exile; would have known that return to life had symbolized a return from exile; wanted rescuing from prison by his King; and when such rescuing didn't come, still remained faithful to the point of being beheaded...
So, while JTB may have wanted rescuing, he really needed resurrection: And that's what he'll get. You can't always get what you want, and if you try sometime you find you get what you need.
posted by Aaron Perry at
9:50 AM
2 Comments:
Another slam dunk. That was powerful! I'm glad to enact the return from exile; I'm risen! Christ not only lives in me, but He is my life. That must be what JTB was beginning to realize (though only in part, since Christ's ministry had a lot left in it).
Nein, I'm still working through Shake Hands with the Devil. Chosen is next on the list.
I got that sexy website design here: http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/
So, how WAS seeing Coldplay Live? ;)
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