The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.’” John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. (Mark 1:1-4)
St John the Forerunner is an essential witness to Christ in the gospels – all four evangelists mention John. The Old Testament prophets had spoken about him with his task of preparing the way for the Messiah. John was given a special revelation from God to be able to point out the Messiah to others (John 1:32-34). John then endeavored to confirm that he had in fact identified the Messiah correctly.
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.” (Matthew 11:2-6)
And many crowds approached Jesus, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others, and threw them at his feet; and he healed them; So that the crowd was astonished when they saw mutes speaking, the maimed made whole and the lame walking and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. (Matthew 25:30-31)
What John’s disciples saw fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
In that day, the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of those in darkness and in a fog shall see. The poor also shall rejoice exceedingly in gladness because of the Lord, and the hopeless among men shall be filled with gladness. (Isaiah 29:19-19)
Be strong, you relaxed hands and feeble knees. Be comforted, you fainthearted. Be strong, do not fear. Behold, our God renders judgment and will render it. He will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will speak clearly. (Isaiah 35: 3-6)
Since all four evangelists mention St John (in comparison, only 3 of the Gospels mention Mary the Theotokos by name and only 3 mention Mary’s husband Joseph by name), they obviously think his witness is an essential confirmation of the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament concerning how the people were to recognize the Messiah when He came. John is the personal witness to the prophecies, endeavoring to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to see and understand the Christ of God. Most of the people were illiterate, and so didn’t have bibles in their homes to read and remind them of God’s promises. The people did not have to rely only on what they knew or remembered of messianic prophecies, for John was a living reminder to them of what God promised in the Old Testament Scriptures. He was a herald of God’s incoming kingdom.
Fraternized 