"Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.... From that time Jesus began to proclaim, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near'." [Matthew 4:12-13, 17]
If Jesus' ministry is like a burst of fireworks (or a powder keg), this is the fuse.
That is to say, as Matthew retells it in this passage which many of us heard this past Sunday, the event that kickstarts Jesus' public ministry is the arrest of John the Baptizer. Jesus is aware that John's habit of speaking truth to power (in particular, speaking up against the crooked decadence of the Roman puppet king Herod) got him into trouble, but like another John from twenty centuries later (the late John Lewis) would call it, it was always "good trouble." And when that landed John the Baptizer in one of Herod's prison cells, Jesus makes the choice to pick up the mantel of the wilderness prophet John.
This scene is such a powerful one, and it's worth spending a moment to unpack what is going on here, and what it means for our lives and our calling as followers of Jesus. John the Baptizer had brought a central message, according to the Gospel writers: "Turn around, because the Reign of God is here!" He was announcing God's new in-breaking kingdom, and that also brought him to speak up against the inadequacies and vices of leaders like Herod, who claimed the title of "King of the Jews" but revealed that he didn't care much at all for real justice and mercy. John made it his job to bear witness, whether that set him against Herod and his soldiers, the Respectable Religious Leaders, or anybody else. And so when John's message landed him in shackles (and soon enough, awaiting an unjust execution without trial), it was clear what the costs could be for this kind of stand. John would pay with his life... and likely so would anybody else who carried on with John's work.
And that's why this moment in the Gospel is so pivotal. Jesus now knows what the stakes are, and up to this moment, he could have reversed course. He could have decided to settle back down for a quiet life in Nazareth and started a construction business like Joseph had worked in, or maybe raised a family. He could have been a non-controversial rabbi like the Respectable Religious Leaders around him, too, and just avoided any risk of getting himself into trouble. But instead, Jesus chooses to continue precisely in John's work, echoing the Baptizer's message and deliberately picking up with it when John had been arrested--in other words, precisely at the point when John could no longer continue his public witness. So rather than leaving John's message behind, Jesus takes up John's announcement (including the way it provoked pretenders and blowhards like Herod) in a word-for-word echo of the Baptizer: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Jesus knows precisely what he is doing here, and he knows the danger of doing it. But he does it anyway.
Tyrants and authoritarians like Herod inevitably attempt to silence the ones who stand as a public witness against them, hoping that if you get rid of one troublemaker like John the Baptizer, it will scare everybody else into keeping their mouths closed. Jesus, however, is fully aware of what Herod's forces have done to John, and he willingly steps up to be next in line. Jesus chooses to continue witnessing to God's Reign as John had, knowing the cost. Of course, the word "witness" in the New Testament is "martyr," and as Walter Wink once put it, martyrs "are not helpless victims, but fearless hunters who stalk evil out into the open by offering their bodies as bait." Jesus and John both know that they are risking their lives in their confrontation with the powers of the day, but they take that risk at least in part to make those crooked powers show their hand and reveal their rottenness, so that the Reign of God may be seen more clearly in contrast.
I am reminded, too, of how the marchers and participants in the non-violent demonstrations of the Civil Rights movement used the same strategy. They knew that the police would likely turn the fire hoses on them or turn the dogs on them. They knew that they would be arrested, likely beaten, or even killed for their witness. Some were. But they also knew that if someone else was jailed for the cause, it fell to the next person to take their place and continue their witness of nonviolent resistance. Jesus picks up John's place in much the same way: carrying the same message precisely at the point when John has been arrested, so that their witness to God's Reign will continue.
These days, we are watching similar choices being made by those who risk their lives as witnesses even when it is costly. Others have faced arrest, injury, or even death, in the attempt to witness to God's Reign and to hold the Herods of the day to account. At some point the question falls to us--what will be our witness, and how will we carry on with the work Jesus (along with John) have begun? We are, after all, called to follow in the way of Jesus, even though we know full well that Jesus will often lead us into his kind of good trouble. We are called to be witnesses of God's Reign for the world, which often means pointing out how God's arrangement of things is different from the order of Herod, Caesar, and their ilk. When we see others who have stepped up in such moments being treated like John the Baptizer, will we let it push us into fearful paralysis, or let it spur us, like Jesus, to pick up their work and message?
For Jesus, after all, the arrest of John didn't stop him or snuff out the spark. It was the fuse.
Lord Jesus, give us the courage to carry on in your witness to God's Reign, whatever the cost.
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