John the Baptist was born to bear witness that Jesus was the Christ. (John 1:6-8) Like Jeremiah before him, while he was yet in the womb the Almighty anointed him to prepare the way of salvation for Israel. (Jeremiah 1:4-5; Luke 1:13-17) And what a dramatic witness he made. For he came to his calling as if he were the last of the Old Testament prophets. (Luke 16:16) Certainly, he must have looked the part the day he burst from the bare Judean hills -- his long hair streaming, his black eyes blazing -- to proclaim to the world that the long-awaited Messiah had come. (Matthew 3:1-3)

I

Here was no "reed shaken by the wind." (Matthew 11:7) Here was a herald who had come unscathed through the austerity of the desert with lightning bolts scoring crags above his head, sandstorms lashing hapless…