John 1:19-28

Now this was John's testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed - he did not deny but confessed - "I am not the Christ!" So they asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not!" "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No!" Then they said to him, "Who are you? Tell us so that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" John said, "I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way for the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said." (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. ) So they asked John, "Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not recognize, who is coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal!" These things happened in Bethany across the Jordan River where John was baptizing.
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One of the challenges of reading the Bible is to factor in the cultural and temporal distance between us and the people who first received a portion of Scripture. The early church would have read the text aloud in their meetings because the painstakingly hand written copies would be exceedingly rare and precious.

Today, we can read the text for ourselves from bound copies of the Bible or electronic versions on various devices. As such, we may miss the dynamics of how the text sounded.  And so read this text aloud and right off the bat one can probably feel how it was written for the ear.

Note the triplet of negative confessions by John the Baptist: "I am not the Christ!" "I am not!" (Elijah) "No!" (I'm not the Prophet).

There was no question that John the Baptist was a compelling figure. His potent message had attracted considerable attention resulting in followers and opponents. It would have been very easy to let all of that acclaim go to his head. But he knew his mission and his role and so the triplet of negatives.

He then went positive to explain his role: I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, "Make straight the way for the Lord."

He followed up by pointing to someone greater than himself: I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not recognize, who is coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal!

A couple of months back, I heard a podcast by Prof. Fred Sanders. He was making a point about the challenge of "pointing." As Christians, our role is to point people to Jesus. That isn't always so easy because of our own weakness but also the weakness of the one watching us pointing. He explained by way of illustraion, when we point at something, a dog may look at what we are pointing at or at the end of our finger. The more we point, the more the dog is intrigued by our finger. Thus, as human beings, in regards to pointing at spiritual truths, we may often get stuck looking at the fingertip and not what is being pointed at.

The people saw the dramatic preaching of John the Baptist and the positive responses of many of the listeners and thus, they wonder, Is He the Christ?

John the Baptist immediately, says, no, no, no. I'm pointing to someone else who is far greater. I'm pointing to someone else who is going to do something else far greater than I.

This notion of "pointing" or "signs" will turn out to be a useful template to view much of the Gospel of John. In future passages, Jesus would do miracles and these acted as signs pointing to something greater. But many in the audience would focus on the miracle itself and miss the point!

And so what is the point? The Prologue in John 1:1-18 and the purpose statement of John 20:30-31.

Sprinkled throughout the Gospel of John will be little "sermons" of what the point is interspersed with episodes of people missing the point or struggling to get the point. In some cases the people involved eventually come to recognize that Jesus is "God who became flesh to give us light and life."

Lord, have mercy. Help me NOT to miss the point. Help me to be someone willing to be like John the Baptist and speak for and point to Jesus, the Christ. Amen.