Why All This Fuss Over The Passion of St John The Forerunner?

 

Very few saints--in fact, exactly two--get both a nativity feast and a death-day feast, namely St Mary the Virgin and St John the Forerunner.  And only one saint's death-day gets to be called a "Passion," namely the aforementioned St John on 29 August.

Why all this fuss over the Baptiser?

The secret, it seems to me, is in the name given to him by the Lord Jesus:  "Friend of the Bridegroom" (Jn 3:29).  We read in the Fourth Gospel--

John [the Forerunner and Baptizer] answered, "No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven.  You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.  He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full" (Jn 3:27-29).

 The Jewish custom of the "friend of the bridegroom" is analogous to our modern "best man," except the Jewish "friend of the bridegroom" has a more specific role to play, as John pointed out to his (temporary) disciples:  To announce the arrival of the bridegroom to the wedding party.

As the last of the Old Testament prophets (Lk 16:16), John stood at the end of a long line of those who proclaimed God's purpose in wedding the children of Israel to himself.  Finally at the advent of Jesus Christ, Godhead is wedded to Manhood in the Incarnate Word (cf Jn 1:14), in Whom the the entire human family is invited to be sharers in divinity (2 Pt 1:14).  Those familiar with the Latin language cannot miss the deeply nuptial meaning of Jesus' last words, "It is finished!" (Jn 19:30), which the old Romans heard as consummatum est!--because the Lord consummated his nuptial love for Israel upon the Cross (cf Rom 5:8).  In the Apocalypse, we have a mirror of this when the majestic, enthroned Christ will declare "It is finished!  Consummatum est!" (Apoc 21:6), and afterwards His Bride--the Church--is displayed in her full splendour (Apoc 21:9f).

That being said, our question becomes more insistent:  What was the prophetic quality of St John the Forerunner's Passion?  What did his martyrdom highlight about his role as "Friend of the Bridegroom" and Jesus' role as "The Bridegroom" of the Church, of the renewed Israel?  On the flip side of our question is this:  What did unlawful union of Herod Antipas with his sister-in-law Salome have to say about the message of "The Friend of the Bridegroom"?

Setting aside the historical details of Salome's previous marriage with Philip the Tetrarch and Herod Antipas' previous marriage with Phasaelis, John simply points to the unlawful character of the union and its obscuring of the very purposes of marriage, that is, the perpetual and permanent exchange of love between a husband and a wife.  As the political leaders of the Judean province and puppets of pagan Rome, as well as religious leaders of a sort (his father, Herod the Great, initiated the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple, still unfinished in Jesus' day), their union had in fact tarnished the mirror intended to reflect God's nuptial love for Israel.

By calling Herod Antipas and Salome to account, John was shining a light not only on the divine purpose of marriage but also on his role in heralding the advent of God's eschatological nuptial love finally realised in Jesus Christ.  In criticising the king and Philip's wife, John was criticizing their obscuring of Jesus' mission.  The evangelists say that Herod Antipas enjoyed listening to John preach even as he was imprisoned, suggesting that a change in heart was possible for the adulterous king, but Salome succeeded stilling his tongue by severing his head (Mt 14:8; Mk 6:19).

The friend of the bridegroom usually fulfilled his purpose when he announced the arrival of the soon-to-be husband to the Jewish wedding party.  John, on the other hand, fulfilled his purpose completely when his life was ended, as that was when Jesus began a new stage in His public ministry (Mt 14:13; Mk  6:30-31), thus beginning the final year of His earthly life.

When John began, however, he identified himself by the prophecy of Isaiah, 

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: / Prepare the way of the Lord, / make His paths straight.  / Every valley shall be filled, / and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, / and the crooked shall be made straight, / and the rough ways shall be made smooth;  / and all flesh shall see the salvation of God! (Lk 3:4-6; cf Is 40:3-5 LXX)

It would be too facile to say that he merely pointed out the long-expected Jesus; it would facile, too, to say that he preached repentance to the hearts waiting to receive Him.  As "The Friend of the Bridegroom," St John the Forerunner insistently preached upon a bridal love for Jesus, a love that is committed, exclusive, and permanent.

Thus the Christian sacrament of marriage likewise serves to mirror the nuptial love of Jesus the Bridegroom for the Church His Bride in the exclusive, stable, and perpetual love between a wife and her husband (cf Eph 5:31f).

John, therefore, pointed to the concubinage of Herod Antipas and Salome as the mirror of unfaithful discipleship, like Gomer's unfaithfulness to Hosea.  But--

...in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, "My husband," and no longer will you call me, "My Baal."  For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more.  And I will make for you a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds fo the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety.  And I will espouse you for ever; I will espouse you in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.  I will espouse you in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord (Hosea 2:16-20).

The question put before us by John's martyrdom, therefore, is this:  Will we be the world's concubines, picking up "spiritually transmitted diseases," or will we devote our hearts exclusively to Jesus the Bridegroom?