PRAISES OF JOHN THE BAPTIZER
Synaxarion for Memorials without a Proper Office 

After the celebration of a great feast, the author of that feast is celebrated or congratulated. After the Feast of the Birth of our Lord, the Church celebrated the praises of the Mother of God. After the Feast of the Birth of Mary, the Church commemorates Anne and Joachim, her parents. Now, after the Feast of Epiphany, the Church calls to memory John the Baptizer, the one who fulfilled the will of the Father and who witnessed the manifestation of the divinity of Jesus. This feast is celebrated in all of the churches of the East.

John witnessed to the Lord; he pointed him out, saying, "There is the Lamb of God!" Afterwards, he was put in jail because of his criticisms of the lifestyle of the king. Even though he was in jail, John's interest did not leave Jesus. Like the other Jews of his time, John was expecting Jesus to conquer the world for his people. However, Jesus was to be another kind of King. He heard of his miracles, his preaching, and sent his disciples to inquire of Jesus whether he was indeed the awaited Messiah. Jesus told the disciples of John about the miracles he was performing and how he was fulfilling the predictions of the prophets.

After John's disciples had departed, Jesus himself began to praise John the Baptizer. (Perhaps John never heard of these praises.) He did this by asking three questions: "What did you go into the desest to see?"

"A reed swayed by the wind?" Jesus was telling everyone that John was not in jail because his teachings and exhortations were false, but rather because he would not bend in the face of the powerful or evil. John was a strong reed, a courageous martyr.

"A man dressed in luxurious clothing?" John is not like those people who are found in royal places (the ones who cast him into prison). Instead, he is a man of asceticism and holiness. He is a light pointing the way to the kingdom of God. He is calling us to conversion by doing penance himself.

"A prophet?" Yes, John has all of the characteristics of a prophet and is indeed a prophet, but much more. The prophets preached in the name of the Lord; John is announcing the imminent coming of the Lord. John is the link between the Old and the New Covenants.

Jesus closes his praise with the declaration, "I assure you, there is no man born of woman greater than John. Yet the least born into the kindom of God is greater than he." The Lord is assuring us that if we personally believe in him and commit ourselves to the kingdom of God, we can be even greater than this holy man of the desert, John.