What would it be like to be John the Baptist? Your life would have been filled with locusts and honey in the wilderness. Sounds awful! Also it said he wore clothes made from camel’s hair. It wasn’t comfortable at all.
In our world of comfort and material possessions it doesn’t seem to make sense, why sacrifice comfort or food when it is readily available? Just because John didn’t eat much doesn’t mean he solved world hunger. His next door neighbor might not have even known what John was doing.
Jesus knew something about what John had accomplished though. John came up in the conversation while Jesus was teaching and healing people and his is what He said about Him:
“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matthew 11:11-12)
There are a few things here that Jesus is saying, but one of the things He is saying that there has been a war in heaven until John. In other words, John is the end point. He is the closing of a war that has been going on in heaven. Until him there was violence in heaven. But what about after John?
After John came Jesus. And Jesus defeated the enemy. Hebrews 2:14 says, “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” Colossians 2:15 says, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities, and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
John fasted and lived the way He did to pave the way for Jesus, God with us here on earth. John said no to comfort, no to food he liked, and no to comfy clothing so that the war in heaven would be over. He sacrificed so that we didn’t have to sacrifice. He battled so that we didn’t have to battle. And He made the path straight for Jesus to come.
And now because of that we have been called greater than John. We can heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. We can live with the Spirit of God inside of us. We can be born again to ways not of this world. But sacrifice does not stop with John.
When God calls you to live like John did in whatever capacity, know this, that you are paving the way for the presence of God to be in your midst. A lifestyle without claiming your rights, choosing not to indulge on what you have even been given to you can pave the way for even greater things. John was a father. And that’s what fathers do, they sacrifice so that their children don’t have to. They pave the way for God to do greater things.
