Good Monday morning! 48° this morning, predicted high of 98° this afternoon... that's quite a swing in temperature for one day. I'm kinda hoping that the hot days of late summer, and it is very late summer, are over soon. I guess that I'll get my wish one way or another. If the hot days occur on the other side of this Thursday, I'll have to whine about the hot days of early autumn. Okay, so the world is once again not completely to my satisfaction, but it certainly could be worse. Today, we read a parenthetical verse, or one in parentheses.
(This was before John [the Baptist] was thrown into prison) John 3:24
Yesterday we read that John the Baptist was doing the thing for which he earned the nickname, the Baptist, at a place where there was plenty of water. Today, we learn something that John surely didn't like - he would be thrown into prison. Now at first read you might think this little addition might be unnecessary in the Bible, but as usual we would be wrong in that. John the disciple gives us a detail that might be important in later years. We will later learn that John the Baptist doesn't make it out of prison alive. The Roman jailers or the Jewish leaders did not allow John to baptize while he was in prison, another important detail. In Acts, we meet the Apostle Paul, who does get imprisoned more than once and is allowed to write his great letters while in prison. Details can be important. We also know from John the writer's perspective that this account is written after these events happened. Only in fiction writing can we set events in the future and write about them in the past tense. John was a witness to these things, this is not a prophecy for that Baptist fellow, another important detail. John is telling us, "I remember..."
I find it interesting that even though John the writer is thought to have possibly been one of John the Baptist's disciples, he doesn't go into a lot of personal detail about John the Baptist. John the writer might have been writing about a distant stranger whom he happened to meet in the wilderness. On the other hand, John writes extensively and quite personally about Jesus. Perhaps John the Baptist was so much into his mission that he didn't have any close associates. We don't know for sure, but I sure want to meet John the Baptist one day.
Have a wonderful new week!
Bucky
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