Luke 1:5-25
Struck dumb at the altar
An old priest is chosen by lot to burn incense and meets a messenger beside the altar. He asks how he shall know, and is unable to speak until the child is named.
People of the Bible
John the Baptist
Drew bigger crowds than anyone in the country and spent his whole ministry telling them he was not the point.
John is born to elderly parents after an angel appears in the temple, and grows up in the deserts until the day of his showing. He wears camel hair and eats locusts and wild honey, which is a costume with a message: this is what Elijah looked like. He preaches repentance and baptises in the Jordan, and Jerusalem and all Judea go out to him. Asked directly whether he is the Christ, Elijah or the prophet, he answers no three times and then says he is a voice. Then he is arrested for telling a king about his marriage.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of John the Baptist
- 01
- 02
Matthew 3:1-12
The axe is laid to the root
Camel hair, a leather girdle, locusts and wild honey. He calls the religious leaders a generation of vipers and tells them not to say they have Abraham as their father.
- 03
Matthew 3:13-17
I have need to be baptised of you
He tries to prevent him and is told to permit it for now, to fulfil all righteousness. Then the heavens open, and the voice.
- 04
John 3:22-30
He must increase
His disciples come with the complaint that all men are going to the other man. He answers with the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him and rejoices greatly.
- 05
Matthew 11:2-11
Are you he that should come
From prison he sends two disciples with a question. The answer is a list of what is happening rather than a yes, and then the highest thing Jesus says about anybody.
- 06
Mark 6:14-29
A dance and an oath
Herod fears him, hears him gladly and does many things, and then makes a promise at a birthday party in front of his lords. The head is brought in on a platter and given to a girl.
Why it matters
Jesus says no one born of women is greater, and in the same breath that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he, which is the whole shape of the man. His one job is to point, and he does it even at cost: when his own disciples complain that everyone is going to Jesus, he says he must increase, but I must decrease. He is also allowed to doubt on the page. From prison he sends to ask, are you he that should come, or do we look for another.
32 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3:1-20; John 1:19-34
Prepare the Way
Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15
Give Ye Them to Eat
