You’ve seen him in pictures and maybe also on TV. Dressed in rags, eating bugs, shouting angrily at people. You understood why eventually he was locked up and died in prison. You never looked closely at him. Why would you spend your time on someone like that?

For Christians, John remains something of a puzzle, even 2,000 years on

The fact that I could equally be talking about a homeless person in your city, or John the Baptist as most people imagine him, might not surprise you – but it should.