Under the roof of motherly love, Christ grew to His service. The wilderness became the mother and father of the one who was to become a minister of the Word. And in the silence of the desert he prepared to speak with the voice of Truth in the desert of men. And who else but God with angelic nourishment raised him, gave strength, wisdom and boldness to Elijah.

"John himself had a robe of camel's hair... and his food was locusts and wild honey," the Holy Gospel testifies about the Forerunner after his departure to serve people (Matt. 3:4). repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). Sternly, but also comfortingly, John addresses his fellow countrymen: "... spawn of vipers.. Bring forth the worthy fruit of repentance..." (Matt. 3:7, 8).

Sinners of the most sinners, the way to salvation, to life, is now opening up to you. Repent, only repent! And the life-giving waters of the Jordan for the first time washed the people who repented of their sins.

And how John's heart leaped at the first meeting of his Lord. With trembling John clung to the feet of the Saviour, who appeared on the Jordan and demanded baptism. And his faith was confirmed from above and became knowledge – knowledge, for John saw the heavens open and saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending on Christ.

He, John, at the moment of Baptism came to know God the Father, bearing witness to the Son, and heard His voice. He knew God the Son, Who appeared in the flesh, having seen and touched Him, having bowed the head of Christ with his hand. He came to know God the Holy Spirit "in the form of a dove" when he saw Him descend from heaven. John the Baptist received the fullness of God's knowledge. With his heart he felt, with his mind he knew and with a voice he proclaimed for all to hear: "... I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God" (John 1:34). "Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) – giving the world new life. «... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit..." (Matt. 3:11).

John the Baptist is a broadcaster, a prophet of the Triune God, the Triune Godhead. And his mission was accomplished by this. Christ enters into His ministry, preaches, works miracles, and only begins His path to Golgotha, to the Cross. John the Baptist, by this time taken into custody and languishing there for denouncing the lawless king Herod, who had taken away his brother's wife, was preparing for his departure, and his days were numbered. He must again precede Christ in death.

But why, for what reason is such a tragic, ridiculous and senseless death in the human view?

The lawless king, surrounded by even more lawless wives, is a creature of the devil, where lies and hypocrisy, debauchery and malice are all intertwined in a rebellion against truth, purity, and God. It intertwined and poured into a feast, choked first with wine, and then with righteous blood. And alone against the whole ocean of this evil is the righteous prophet, whose "life is blameless and the previous is honest," John, the preacher of repentance and the denunciator of temptation.

"Thou shalt not have the wife of Philip thy brother," resounds the menacing denunciation of the desert dweller, the revered prophet, of the depraved ruler and his even more lawless concubine.

This "ought not" sounded from the wilderness where the prophet asceticized, it sounded from the crowd of people when John went out to preach, and the people's rumor repeated after him: "It is not right, it is not lawful for him who is called to keep it to violate the Law of God." This "must not" could not be held by either prison locks or chains. It must not," God commanded. "Each has his own wife, and each has her own husband..." (1 Corinthians 7:2). And this "one must not kill the prophet" sounded in the conscience of the king, when the evil bloodsucker, the dissolute Herodias, reveled in her bloody revenge on the righteous man and prophet.

But what was it only for John to be silent, to close his eyes to the iniquities of the king, as did the teachers of the people's law, the wise men of this age? Why did John persist in his preaching-denunciation, thus hastening the hour of his insolent death, when the shameless hands of the prostitute would carry his sacred head, still smoking with blood, on a platter amidst a vile feast, revelry of all kinds of passions and violent drunkenness, and when the devil in the form of a woman in the triumph of his victory over the truth would prick with a needle the tongue that proclaimed the truths of God?

Why did John not spare his life? Because he is the Voice of God, the Voice of Truth. Because he "kept the law of righteousness." Because he had to stop the temptation that corrupts those for whose sake the Son of God came to earth. Zeal for God devoured him and did not allow him to remain silent. And God suffered the unlawful murder of His prophet, as He suffered the death of His Son, in order to save the world.

May the will of God be done!

And God's people – the lamps in the world – follow God through the "shadow and shadow" of death, carrying with them the light of truth in the darkness of a world swallowed up by lawlessness. And the truth of their prophecies, fulfilled in the world, strengthens the faith of some people and gives birth to faith in others. And the truth of their life and death, which proclaims heavenly truths, gives strength and abundant consolation to those who henceforth follow God in patience with unrighteousness, evil and sickness from those who rise up against God's righteousness.