John the Baptizer

One of the more ancient traditional memorials among Christians is the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, which is commemorated on August 29 in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions. This great man of God--the one who, according to Messiah Himself, has never been surpassed among those born of women (Matthew 11:11)--was beheaded at the birthday feast of Herod the tetrarch as the result of petty jealousies and vindictiveness. By convicting a monarch of sin, John lost his head, but gained eternal glory before that Lord whose way he came to prepare.

This John was the man that the archangel Gabriel was talking about when he told Zacharias, "You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:14-17).

I was born on this date. If the traditional date of John's beheading is correct, this means that I share a birthday with Herod Antipas. But far better, I was born on the same date that John, the great Forerunner of Messiah, was "reborn" through death into an unending life.