The Emergent Prophet and John the Baptist

Emergent Prophet here. I’m feeling a bit surly today because I am a little upset about my friend John. He has been taken and put in prison and I am pretty sure that it ain’t gonna work out too well for him. He’s somewhere across the Jordan River in Herod’s summer palace and I’ve heard that he may have been beheaded already. Not sure, but that is the word on the street. Something about some exotic dancer chick getting Herod all worked up about something and he gave her whatever she wanted and she wanted John dead and his head on a platter (she really needs to stop playing those zombie video games) or something like that.

Anyhoo, I am a bit miffed because it didn’t have to work out this way, and I just need to vent. So here goes… I had talked with John just a few months ago, maybe it was more than that, I don’t remember. But I had told him that he was pushing his personal limit and that he needed to change his method of ministry or it wasn’t going to end well. But he wouldn’t listen to me, no sir, he just kept talking something about being on a mission from God, announcing the Messiah and all. I wish he would have taken my advice, and then he could be here right now. Safe and sound. I had been following John around for a while, and we’d become friends, after all, we are both prophets, right? We had some of the same friends, read some of the same blogs, and shared a passion for ministry. Hanging out with John was a trip. Everybody knew who he was, “come out and see the wild man of Judea, watch him eat grasshoppers” and all that. He was a powerful speaker, man, that guy could turn on the heat.

The problem was, and I told him so, was that he was gonna offend some people, some powerful people if he kept on preaching about sin and so forth. I told him to tone it down. As a matter of fact, I told him a bit more than that, I said that if he would clean up his act, I mean, cut your hair, trim your beard (look a little bit more metrosexual, GQ, you know), get some proper clothes then people would be more likely to listen to what he had to say. I think that this was some good advice. I mentioned that he should change his diet a bit, too. The bug thing had to stop. The folks at PETA were getting upset, as were the good people from Animal Planet and it just didn’t look good. It wasn’t like people would give you your own reality show or something if you bit the heads off of defenseless animals. I said that he should consider going Vegan, at least give it some thought. And the honey sometimes would be stuck in his beard and it just gave an impression of someone that was, you know, not normal. Like a Jeus Freak or something.

Besides that most excellent advice, I suggested that he tone down his message. I mean, this was the main thing – people don’t want to hear about their sin and be told that they need to repent. This is the first century after all, I told him he needed to stop sounding so BC (I mean, BCE, I forget about the PC terminology, it’s hard to keep up), we don’t talk about sin anymore. I suggested that he share with people about the God of Love and that this God wouldn’t let anyone go to Hell and that if they would just give Him a shot, then He could truly help them to have their best life NOW, not later, but NOW. That’s Love Winning, right? That’s what people want to hear. Not about giving up sin (I mean who can really define ‘sin’ anyway, right? – that’s just opinions, I mean some would say that sin is just not being true to your own values…how can you argue with that logic?).

So I said, why don’t you talk about God having a wonderful plan for your life and just try Jesus, if He doesn’t work…take Him back. You know whatever it takes to get a disciple, right? Well anyway, John wouldn’t go for it, he kept on preaching about repentance and the kingdom of God and the Messiah. Which probably wouldn’t have been too bad except for then he made the cardinal sin (there’s that word again) of breaking the separation between state and religion. He started preaching about Herod’s tendency to have lots of women, in particular the wife of his brother. John told him that this was wrong and he needed to stop it, and repent (of course). I warned him that preaching and politics didn’t mix and that it was the job the evangelist to just tell people about Jesus -- not getting mixed up in politics and moral issues. I mean, you can’t legislate morality right? And didn’t John even listen to Jesus tell us not to judge people? And not to talk to them about the speck in their eyes when we all have these monstrous logs in our own eyes? I guess John missed that sermon series, I don’t know, but whatever got into him, John thought that it was important to stand up for God’s values even in an immoral culture and to stand up to an ungodly administration. Besides, Herod isn’t even a Jew, how could anyone expect him to live up to God’s laws that were written thousands of years ago and really just applied to the Hebrews, back in the day. I knew he was asking for trouble. Why don’t people listen to me?

Luke 13:3  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 

Acts 17:30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent