The contrast is stark: Isaiah paints a "dream world" to give new hope to a trodden down people (the grassroots), while John the Baptist rails against corrupt religious, political and economic leadership. John seems to have no programme except to wake people up. And Jesus? He takes up both approaches, that of Isaiah and that of John, with an emphasis, not of mass rallies (John) but the formation of a core group who would create a counter-culture in the soon-to-be-born House Churches.