come again

With Yochanan's coming,
the kingdom of heaven broke through.

Yet, although Yochanan was the greatest among "those born among women,"
the least in the kingdom of heaven would be greater than he: Yochanan the Baptist made the breach through which the kingdom of "G d" could break, but he himself was never a member of that kingdom.

We may state it another way. At his baptism Yeshu was illuminated by the heavenly voice concerning the beginning of the messianic kingdom. Yochanan was the precursor, "the breaker," for the advent of that kingdom, but he himself did not belong to the kingdom. He was, so to speak, a member of the previous generation. This paradoxical insight on the part of Yeshu highlights both the distinction between Yochanan and the messianic kingdom, as well as the historic link between Yeshu and the Baptist.

Nevertheless, Yeshu's experience at his baptism invested him with a new and separate function.
Yeshu could not become a dosciple of Yochanan. He would have to move to the villages around the Sea of Galilee and proclaim the kingdom of heaven.

Now we understand why Yeshu's reply to the Baptist's inquiry ended with a warning, "Blessed is he who is not wrong about me." The Hebrew verd that in those days was expanded to mean, "to be led into sin, to go astray from the right understanding of the will of G d," was rendered in the Greek of the Gospel literally
"to stumble."

Following a later document (1 Pet. 2:7-, Yeshu is, as it were, the touchstone, a cornerstone for believers,
a rock of offense, and a stone of stumbling (Luke 20:18; cf. 2:34) for unbelievers. When the Baptist sent his inquiry to Yeshu, Yeshu rih=ghtly gueassed that he could not go along with him, because Yochanan, the greatest member of the former generation, did not belong to the kingdom of G d. It may even be that Yeshu had concrete indications of Yochanan's hesitation. We are not told what the Baptist's reaction was to Yeshu's message. Nevertheless, the movement he started carried on an independent life parallel to that of the emergent Christianity (cf. Acts 19:1-7).

As we have seen, many thought that Yochanan was Elijah come again. The Old Testament itself tells us that Elijah never died, but was transported up to heaven. How, then, could this immortal one, having re-turned at the end of time as Yochanan, be irrevocably by Herod? There were indeed men who thought that Yochanan the Baptist had risen from the dead (Luke 9:1) and had reappeared in Yeshu.

It is obvious that many of Yochanan's disciples shared this belief in their master's resurrection.
Nevertheless, Yochanan's own preaching rules out the possibility that he regarded himself as the Messiah.
He looked for another to come who was greater than himself (Luke 3:16). Yet, there were those among his disciples who, even during his life, toyed with the idea that he was the greater. In any event, after his death there is evidence of belief in the Baptist as the Messiah. Clearly, however, because he belonged to a priestly line, he was regarded as the priestly, not the Davidic, Messiah.

The logic of the accounts requires that Herod must have been quick to see the danger that the Baptist re-presented.He did not leave him free for long. Yeshu's activity, too. after Yochanan's arrest, was obviously restricted to a short space of time. Herod, the fox, had not been asleep. After he had executed Yochanan,
"Herod, the tetrarch, heard about the fame of Yeshu; and he said to his servants, 'This is Yochanan the Baptist, he has been raised from the dead'" (Matt. 14:1).

Later, some of the Pharisees warned Yeshu that Herod was seeking his life.
Thereupon, Yeshu sent word to Herod that he would spend two or three days more in the district, and then move on to Yerushalayim, "for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Yerushalayim"
(Luke 13:31-35). As we saw, Herod also had his share in the blame for the crucifixion.

After Yochanan's execution, Yeshu pointed out to his disciples the tragic connection between that execution and the end that threatened himself. "And the disciples asked him, 'Then, why do the scribes say that first Elijah mist come?' He replied, 'Elijah does come, and he is to restore all things; (Yeshu here alludes to the tradition of the "scribes," but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Som of man will suffer at their hands.'
Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of Yochanan the Baptist"
(Matt. 17:10-13).

Earlier than this, at the beginning of his ministry, when Yochanan the Baptist was still preaching in the wilderness, Yeshu had compared himself with Yochanan teh Baptist. "But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places calling to their playmates, "We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.' For Yochanan came neither eating nor drinking
and they say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds"
(Matt. 11:16-19). Yeshu evidently depends here on the fable of Aesop.

It was impossible to please anybody.

They said that the ascetic desert precher, Yochanan, was mad ~ as they said later that Yeshu was using an evil spirit ~ and they found fault with Yeshu, too, on account of his openness to the world. From this saying of Yeshu we learn indirectly that the content of each man's preaching was closely linked with his character. The good news of love was related to Yeshua's Socratic nature; penitential preaching was related to Yochanan's somber inclination toward asceticism.

It happened, it happened before, it happens & it will probably happen again & again & again.

Until ...