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Bethlehem and John the Baptist

Have you ever noticed how often we tell the story of Christmas and skip over the birth of John the Baptist? I don’t think we should. To neglect John in telling that story is like neglecting your preparations for Christmas until the morning of.

Before there was John the Baptist, there was John the baby.

Before Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote of Jesus, John the Baptist kept a record first. As in his life, John pointed people to Jesus, so too did he in his birth.

Before Gabriel came to Mary, he appeared to an old man named Zacharias in the Temple. “Fear not, Zacharias,” he said, “thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John” (Luke 1:13). The angel promised that this little boy would bring much joy to many people, but not just because he was a baby, but because he would “be great in the sight of the Lord…. Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God” (Luke 1:15-16). John would go before the Savior and “…make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17).

Zacharias struggled to believe what he was hearing. I don’t blame him! Elizabeth was an older woman. Nonetheless, Mary’s miraculous conception was not the first. Before Mary went into hiding with a child she couldn’t explain, Elizabeth was there.

One day, a beautiful young woman, sent by an angel, came into the courtyard of Elizabeth’s home and called out a greeting. In the womb, John leaped for joy, and he and his mother were filled with the Holy Ghost. It is sublime that at that moment John bore witness of the Messiah before he even had a voice. The two sons of prophecy and their sainted mothers spent the next three months together.

As John prepared the way for Jesus, so Elizabeth prepared and consoled Mary. Before the people heard the shepherds’ witness of a coming Messiah, they were astonished at the new voice and testimony of Zacharias.

His prophecies resonated through the hills and hearts of the Jews, filling them with grand expectations. Then and later, all who ever knew John couldn’t wait to meet Jesus.

On the night of the Savior’s birth in Bethlehem, John was three months old in Hebron. Knowing what Elizabeth knew of Mary and the bond they shared, I wonder how far away she really was from her young cousin.

When Herod’s soldiers came, you know they were looking for two famous babies—not one.

While the angel sent Joseph and Mary into Egypt to save Jesus, Zacharias sent John and Elizabeth into the wilderness. Joseph and Jesus escaped, but the soldiers killed Zacharias. He would not give up his son. As Jesus grew up with his Father, hewing wood, so John grew up in the wilderness, eating locusts and wild honey. As Jesus waited and prepared to bring men to His Father, so John waited and prepared to bring men to Jesus.

Luke’s story of Christmas tells of a special babe whose birth pointed men to Jesus’ birth and John was born to prepare the way for Him. God grant that we be like John, that in all that we are, all that we say, all that we do, men want to learn of Christ.