Vigils Reading – Martyrdom of St John Baptist

THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

By Cardinal Jean Daniélou1

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John’s death appears as the supreme expression of sin. It revealed the sin

of the world. Herodias’ action in obtaining the head of John the Baptist was a

clear manifestation of the human desire to be self-sufficient and to set oneself

up apart from God. It was a victory for the inhabitants of the earth who, as

Revelation says, rejoiced over the death of the prophets, “because they had been

a torment to those who dwell on the earth“. It was an expression of a

triumphant world, a world which had done away with God. No longer could

anything disturb its pretension that it was giving itself its own law. In that

respect John’s death set a pattern: in a decisive moment of history, it summed

up the whole world of sin.

John’s death was also the expression of the supreme condemnation of the

world. His blood “fell upon this generation“, together with all the innocent

blood that has been shed. Thus, did it call for the supreme condemnation. It was

the judgment on the world, bringing down on it the cup of wrath spoken of by

Revelation. It showed forth the mystery of iniquity; it revealed clearly that

mankind is the slave of sin. Just as John the Baptist marked the last stage in the

preparation for the parousia in the long line of the prophets, so his death

marked the last stage in the preparation for the parousia in the order of the

mystery of sin…

But John’s death also marked the end of this history of condemnation for,

after John’s blood, another blood was going to be shed. It would not fall as a

condemnation upon those who shed it, but it would be poured out as

redemption for many. John’s death prefigured the death of Jesus. Jesus wished

to say first of all that his death resembled John’s: ‘”I tell you that Elijah has10

already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they

pleased. So also the Son of man will suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples

understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.’ The rejection and

death of John the Baptist prefigured the rejection and death of Jesus. This latter

death was really the high point of evil. Jesus fulfilled completely the figure of

the servant of Yahweh rejected by the sinful world.

But John only prefigured Jesus, for with Jesus the shedding of blood

takes on a different meaning. Blood was not shed for condemnation but for

redemption. The unresolved conflict between prophets and sinners came to an

end with the prophet who took the sins of the world upon himself. John had

pointed out Jesus as that lamb. He knew that he himself still belonged to the

world of denunciation of sin, not that of liberation from sin. The Spirit had been

given to the prophets; blood had been poured out by sinners. The Spirit had

been poured out as a blessing, but blood had been poured out as a curse. John’s

blood was the last to belong to this order. Henceforth the blood which would

gush forth from the side of Jesus would be spirit and life.