John the Baptist

MARK 1

As was stated at John's baptism, John's purpose was to prepare Israel for the coming of the promised kingdom that would be brought about through Jesus. To prepare Israel for the new kingdom which was expected to be political and military in nature, John was to help the people to confess their sins by baptizing them. Mark focused on 3 aspects of John's ministry.
1 - His baptism was marked by the confession of sins
2 - He dressed and ate strangely
3 - He pointed the way to Jesus who in contrast with John would baptize not in water but in the Holy Spirit

Mark's focus is on Jesus who came to John to be baptized and when he was baptized the Holy Spirit came on him and a voice from heaven declared that he was the Son of God (see above where it is used for Caesar and other ancient kings).

All that can be said about politics has been discussed already. In the prophecy of John's father Zaharias, we saw that although John was to prepare Israel to receive their king, Jesus was to be far more political in the thoughts and the hearts of the people.

MATTHEW

Matthew built on Marks' outline adding information otherwise unknown. After saying pretty much what Mark did with a bit more detail he added the fact that Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized. This should not be too surprising to us because John's father was a respected priest in Jerusalem. What was surprising is that John turned the religious leaders away telling them to bring fruits showing they had repented before they could come to be baptized.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were the wealthy and powerful of John's day, so it seems that there may have been some class division here. The upper class no doubt deemed themselves to be above the need of repentance and changed life. In their minds they were already good enough in God's eyes. John points out that this certainty lay in the fact that these religious leaders had Abraham as their biological and spiritual father. It was not enough for John's baptism.

Matthew's John the Baptist also lays down a very strong warning about the day of judgment about to come. In all likelihood, he believed that with the coming of the new kingdom there would be not only be redemption from Israel's enemies, there would be judgment as well -- judgment not only for the nations, but for Israel as well. This judgment was the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was to bring. John defines this Baptism of the Holy Spirit as a baptism of fire because it would purge the nation.

Lastly, to be ready for the coming kingdom John expected to see fruit -- the result of repentance from everybody.

LUKE

Luke adds even more to what has already been said. In the book of Luke John the Baptist explained what the "fruit of repentance" actually was. Upon hearing that they needed to bring fruit, the people asked for clarification, "What should we do?"

John tells the people to share their possessions with people who lacked. He told the tax collectors to be ethical in their business and he told the soldiers to be content with their pay, not to take advantage of their power by bullying others, and to be honest.

JOHN

The book of John adds nothing to the political leanings of the people nor of Jesus. It does suggest that the people were looking for different people to begin or to establish God's coming kingdom. A prophet like Moses (perhaps the Samaritan hope), Elijah who was to prepare the coming of the messiah, and the messiah himself. Being asked if he were any of the above, John denied all three.

In the book of John, John the Baptist also gave some of his disciples to Jesus. With the Gospels and with Acts, one gets the impression that the early church faced issues with the disciples of John, issues that the church sought to reconcile by acknowledging John's ministry and by emphasizing that Jesus was more important than John even to John the Baptist himself.