John the Baptist - repentance and recognition

I think perhaps lots of us have a “John the Baptist” experience where we have discovered that “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isa 30: 21), and which leads us on to Christian Science.  John recognised the Christ – “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1: 36).  Two of John’s disciples (Andrew and his brother Peter*) heard that, and accepted that Jesus was indeed the Lamb of God.  Note the definition of Lamb of God in the Glossary of Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “The spiritual idea of Love; self-immolation; innocence and purity; sacrifice.”)  They became his followers, and this entailed living in some degree that definition. 

In my wonderings about John the Baptist’s place, and remembering that Jesus said of him, "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist" (Luke 7: 28), I came across Helen Wood Bauman’s Christian Science Sentinel article, The Blessing of Repentance March 15, 1930 – Check out the article in the bound volumes at the Reading Room or go online to jsh-online at http://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1930/3/32-28/the-blessing-of-repentance

Bauman points out that John’s theme was repentance.  As Matthew has it, “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:1, 2).  She writes:

The Christ, Truth, comes to us as we consciously make room for it by destroying sin. Thus, in the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures we may see that the mental state which John the Baptist symbolizes is that most desirable state of repentance which precedes the fuller coming to individual consciousness of the Christ, Truth. With this fact before thought, we shall better understand what our Leader has written on page 15 of her Message to The Mother Church for 1900, "The Passover, spiritually discerned, is a wonderful passage over a tear-filled sea of repentance—which of all human experience is the most divine; and after this Passover cometh victory, faith, and good works."

So, as Andrew and Peter had been John’s disciples, they therefore had presumably been through the repentance stage, or at least started on that path; hence, they were ready to go forward as Jesus’ followers.

I am gradually coming to grips with John the Baptist’s role, and for that I am very grateful.  It truly amazes me the way my Redcliffe Book Club reading brings out the student in me.  I love it!

 

Joyce Voysey

 

*Ed – My reading is that Andrew and an un-named disciple of John heard John say “Behold the Lamb of God”, and that later Andrew went and told his brother Simon (later called Peter) about it.  How exciting is that!