The Greater Purpose

When we read the beginning of Mark's gospel, we are not introduced to men who heard angels singing, or to a young couple searching for a place to give birth to their child, but to a. man who had been listening to the silence of the wilderness most of his life.  His skin was darkened by decades of exposure to the burning sun of the desert and coated with layers of its dust and sand.  He was  born with the name John, but came to be known as the Baptizer.   

From his early adult years to the onset of his thirties, he was unseen and silent.  The only explanation for him coming out of obscurity is that it was time.  He was a part of the plan of God and his time had fully come in those days.  His appearance had been spoken and written about by the prophet Isaiah.  He was as sent by God as much as any prophet or Apostle.  When God's timing was full, "John the Baptizer appeared..." (Mark 1:4).  He wore the clothing of a prophet and his voice sounded forth with the authority of a man called by God.   

John was like a bright burning flame that only burned for a moment.  Before the lights on the stage of history had become fully focused on him, he was arrested and quickly died a martyr's death. This messenger of God who was called to "Prepare the way of the Lord,"  (Mark 1:3) spent the bulk of his life alone in tbe wilderness preparing for a ministry that would be measured more by months than years.  John served God as one whose voice announced the coming of the Lord and whose ministry pointed people toward Jesus.  Whether we are called for the lights of center stage or the shadows offstage, there is no greater purpose for our living than to be one, who like John the Baptist, points people to Jesus.