“It happened in his thirty-fourth year. By then our other brothers and I had all married and were living with our families in the village while Jesus remained with our mother and sisters. One evening he came to my door and invited me to walk with him, a strange request, since he usually spent so many hours alone in the nearby hills, when he was not at his bench, that he had become the butt of many jokes among the people. As we walked, he with his hand on my shoulder, Jesus asked that I look after our mother and sisters so that he might go to hear John the Baptist, who was preaching at Bethabara, no more than a day’s journey from Nazareth.”

“This was he who eventually died under the blade of Herod Antipas?”

“The same. More than nine hundred years ago one of our greatest prophets, Elijah, worked many wonders against the evil forces of Queen Jezebel and Ahab before he was swept up into heaven by a whirlwind. It has been the belief of our people that someday Elijah would reappear to prepare and restore our land for the coming of the Lord. Some were now claiming that John was Elijah, while others believed that he was only a forerunner for Elijah, who was yet to come. Jesus wanted to hear what John was saying to the multitudes on the banks of the river.”

This was as good a time as any to clarify a definition that had always puzzled me in its scores of variations. “James,” I asked, “help me to understand. What is a prophet?”

“A prophet is a messenger from God, the word in Hebrew meaning ‘one who speaks for another.’ He can be rich or destitute, educated or unlearned, from noble ranks or the fields. Elijah was a poor shepherd, Isaiah was a teacher, and Jeremiah came from a priestly family. Prophets always speak with no concern for their own welfare or safety, warning men and nations, kings and beggars, that only doom and misery await those who turn away from the laws of God and fall into habits of evil and sin. No new prophet had come forth unto Israel in nearly two hundred years, and so John’s appearance had caused great joy among the people while creating apprehension in Herod, the priests, and others in authority.”

“Jesus went to hear this prophet?”

“He did, but he failed to return within the time he had allotted, and my mother was soon beside herself with worry. Finally I went in search of John, who told me that he remembered Jesus when he came and asked to be baptized although he had not seen him afterward.”

“Describe this service that Jesus asked John to perform for him.”