John's Role; Jesus' Role from Jesus as Seen by John

Finally the introduction -- the prologue -- is over and we move into the story of Jesus. The story opens with John the Baptist as the first person on stage. He was actively preaching repentance and baptizing people. The crowds were coming from all over the hear and be baptized. But, the religious establishment was scandalized, John was baptizing without a license -- he had no credentials. Look at the scripture:

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
   He said, “I am not.”
   “Are you the Prophet?”
   He answered, “No.”
Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The questioning starts with the religious leaders asking John who on earth he thought he was. John responded by stating emphatically that he wasn't the Christ. Now, the word Christ means the anointed one. In the Jewish history, the anointed one was a king, a priest or a prophet, but prophecy had pointed to one who was to come -- the Anointed one -- in Greek, the Christ, in Hebrew, the Messiah.  John wanted to make it very clear that he was not the promised one.

This led to more questions from the experts; "Are you Elijah? How about the prophet?" John stated emphatically also that he wasn't them. Why did they ask about Elijah -- well again, the prophecies indicated that the great prophet Elijah would return before the Messiah came. The book of Deuteronomy indicated that there would be a great prophet in the spirit of Moses to restore things. John refused to take either of these titles. Finally, they asked him, "Then who on earth are you?"

John gave them this answer -- I am merely a voice crying in the wilderness telling the people to prepare the way of the Lord. The Lord is coming and we must be prepared for this. John's answer tells them that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, Chapter 40 -- the beginning of the book of comfort. 

The leaders accepted the answer but had to ask one more question, "Why then do you baptize?" The real issue to them was that John had not been authorized by the Sanhedrin. He was acting on his own -- and they didn't like that. As a historical note, baptism was not foreign to them. They just didn't believe that John had the authority to perform the rite.


John told them that he was just preparing the way because he was only doing a copy of what was coming. "I baptize in water, but there is one coming. . ." John said that his baptism was one of forgiveness, but there was one coming. . . He is close by and you don't know him, but his ministry will start as mine comes to an end. He is so far above me that I am not even worthy to be a slave in his presence. I can't even unlatch his sandals. This one will perform the real baptism -- the baptism in the Holy Spirit.


John is a great example for us. We are not to call attention to ourselves, we are called to point to Jesus. Of course that means that we need to understand who Jesus is ourselves. We must come to know him. Even though we feel loved and accepted by Jesus and Jesus is our friend, we must also understand who Jesus is. We, just like John, are really not worthy to even be his slave. The only reason that we are worthy to be in his presence is that he gave himself for us. It really is all about him -- not about us.