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Last October I was in Rome and was able to visit for the first time the Borghese Gallery, in which some of the treasures of Rome are displayed. In the gift shop, I bought a poster of Carravaggio’s beheading of John the Baptist. I guess I have always wanted to emulate the courage of John the Baptist. I’ve always wanted to have a prophetic dimension to my life. I’ve had the poster almost a year, and I just found a frame for it the other day, but I have not yet put it up anywhere . . . I’m thinking maybe in my study. It is a pretty gruesome picture. Actually, scripturally, it is incorrect. The beheading of John the Baptist by Carravaggio shows not an executioner beheading John, but the daughter of Herodias herself, with her vengeful mother watching on. Let’s put it this way, if I do put it up, it will be a conversation piece.
John’s martyrdom seems so meaningless. For the cousin of Jesus, the one who prepared His way, the last and the greatest prophet, the one who baptized our Lord in the Jordan, I would have expected a more public martyrdom. John’s martyrdom is certainly dramatic, and the story memorable, but the martyrdom happens in relative seclusion, without John’s having the chance to make a last testament. What a lesson in courage and humility the Baptist gives us – John fulfills his mission and then exits the stage without further ado, seeking no special favors for himself. He is true to his mission to decrease, so that Christ may increase!
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