No other biblical figure inspires me as much as John the Baptist.

He stands on the fringe of religious society. He speaks to the insiders from the outside. He’s not afraid to tell it straight to the people in power. He does weird things. He says we’d better change or there’ll be hell to pay.

He’s an iconoclast. But instead of destroying everything, he points back to the heart and the good.

I’ve spent most of my life inside the same religious groups that people like John would have called out. Yet, I’ve always been drawn to people like him. At my best, I would hope to be like Andrew–a good Jewish boy who first became a disciple of John, and after hearing his guru say there is an even greater one, switched to Jesus.

John was the purebred son of a priest and priestess. A favored child, born to parents in their old age, given a special name. Yet, he wasn’t anything like what his parents thought he would turn out like.

John makes straight paths to the Lord. God knows we could use that. Despite our oversimplification of the gospel, we’ve still managed to screw it all up. You can spend your whole life in church and never have moved an inch closer to God. John made it simple. If you’ve got two shirts, give one to someone who doesn’t have any. If you are stealing money from people, stop it. Repent.

John attacks the establishment. Even before Jesus made it cool, John was going after them. “You brood of vipers. You think you are something because you are a descendant of Abraham? God could whip up some kids out of these stones here if he got in the mood. You are about to pay for how you’ve missed the whole plot.”

John realized he wasn’t the end game. If anyone could have been the Messiah, it could have been John. He knew in the end, he was just a rabble rouser. “He himself was not the light, but he testified about the light.” “He must become more important; I must become less important.”

John doesn’t hold back. Sometimes we need someone who will give us a message of hope and love. Other times we need a message about a winnowing fork and inextinguishable fire. “If you reject the Son, God’s wrath remains in you.”

John is strange. He’s the kind of guy that my people would talk about all the time. “Something’s not right with that boy.” They would be shocked at his decisions, find ways to discredit him so that his words wouldn’t ring so true.

John had a weird diet. Locusts were still kosher food, but not quite what the city folks were eating.

John demanded action. He didn’t do a lot of theorizing and publishing books. He said, “Produce fruit that proves your repentance.” If you get it, then change your actions. That one stings for me. I feel like I get it, and “I wish I could be in the situation where I could put this into action.” John wouldn’t have much time for me.

John wasn’t about numbers. When the ‘influencers’ of his day came to join his group, he intentionally ran them off. When his own disciples tried to make a fuss about Jesus becoming more popular than him, he said, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.”

John doubted. When faced with prison and certain death, he didn’t hold on to a strong faith. He sent word out to ask Jesus if he really was who he said he was. Unlike Thomas, he didn’t get a chance to know for sure before he died.

John doesn’t know when to stop. He kept calling out people until he got to the top. He called out the king of the day and it landed him in jail and eventually executed.

John’s message resounds with Christ’s. Even Herod, when hearing about what Jesus was doing, got confused. He said “Wait, didn’t I already kill this guy? Is there another one now?”

The people loved John. The Pharisees are trapped by Jesus when he asks them if they really believed in John’s baptism. Even after he died, people are willing to stone the religious leaders if they denied the holiness of what John had brought.

His message went far beyond him. Just one or two decades after his death, a man (Apollos) who lived 1,000 kilometers away from Jerusalem (Alexandria) showed up in a different city 1,800 kilometers away (Ephesus), and was extremely familiar with what John had done and been teaching.

People like John get killed. They infuriate the wrong people and wind up with their head on a platter or a bullet in their body.

For whatever reason, I’m always looking for this person. If I see someone acting like this, I am drawn to them. Do I have the courage to really follow them and obey their teachings? Not usually. But I know there is something good and holy about them. People on the fringe with something to say.

These people keep me sharp, and keep my guilt at an appropriate level. I have one eye on making the most of my life as it is, and another eye wandering around, hoping someone will call me out of it.