When the Israelites from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he
was, John gave this testimony. He freely admitted, “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 something
to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
John replied using the words of Isaiah, the prophet (40:3), “I am one voice
crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of our Savior.’” Now some of
those who had been sent were Pharisees, and they asked, “Why, then, are you
baptizing, if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John
replied, “I baptize with water, but there is One among you whom you do not know.
He is the One Who ranks above me, the thongs 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.
(John 1:19-28)
Word of John’s preaching reached all the way to Jerusalem, and the religious leaders became concerned about the stories they had heard of some raving preacher dressed in “jungle” clothing drawing and baptizing large crowds of people. They wanted to know who this young upstart was, so they sent a delegation made up of priests, Levites and Pharisees to find out what John was up to. The priests were authorities on theology, the Levites dealt with the rituals and worship in the temple, while the Pharisees were strict interpreters of the Law. When questioned, John immediately denies he is the Messiah.
Messiah is the Hebrew word meaning The Anointed One. In Greek, the word is Christ. For centuries, the Jewish people had awaited the coming of the promised Messiah. In fact, scholars today believe the Messiah was first foretold by God to Adam and Eve and recorded in Genesis 3:15. Where did the concept of Messiah develop? Until the time of Isaiah, Israel looked to a time when God would raise up a king who would restore their ravaged country to the way it was in King David’s time. Isaiah, on the other hand, disagreed. Isaiah taught that God was not concerned exclusively with the Israelites, but with all of humankind. God’s actions in the world are to benefit all humankind.
The prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, and the rabbis, on the other hand, believed that the Messiah would be an ordinary human being, anointed by God, with perhaps supernatural powers. To the Messiah would come all the promises given to David. Messiah would, in a sense, be king of the world.
Then again, Ezekiel (21:27) held that Messiah, as God’s agent, could bring peace to otherwise disastrous, ruinous events.
The prophet, Micah (5 ff.), foresaw the rise of One who would rule Israel forever, bring peace, security and prosperity.
2 Esdras deemed that the Messiah would be of David’s lineage (12:32), and a mortal (7:28), yet would also be the Son of God (13:32 ff). 1 and 2 Esdras are two apocryphal books. Interestingly enough, apocryphal though they may be, these passages reflect historical, as well as current Christian doctrinal teaching on Jesus as Messiah.
As you can see, there was a great deal of diversity in understanding of who Messiah would be. Fortunately, none of the divergent views claimed exclusive authority, so they all could easily coexist.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (vol. 3, pg. 333) states, “The whole (of) Jewish literature agrees on only one feature of the Messiah: he will be a political ruler and national hero. His saving power requires that he deliver Israel from its oppressors and restore the authority of the law. In postexilic Judaism, anointing designated a status directly below God rather than a specific task or function. Judaism…never reached agreement on what to expect of the future, except that all believed that God would eventually vindicate God’s people.”
When the delegation asked John if he was Elijah, they were reflecting on the Jewish expectation that Elijah would return. Since scripture tells us that Elijah didn’t die but was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, Israel looked for him to return. The prophet, Malachi, prophesied that Elijah would return to announce the coming of the Messiah (Mal.4:5-6). Further, John seemed to identify with Elijah in his manner of dress and in his deportment, so the question of the delegation was not so far-fetched.
Scholars are not clear as to who is meant by the Prophet. Most believe it refers to a promise made by God to Moses as recorded in Deut. 18:15: “Your God will raise up for you a prophet like Me among your own people. You must listen to him.”
When pressed by the delegation as to what John could say about himself, he quoted the prophet, Isaiah. The quotation intimates that John is calling the people to prepare themselves for the coming of the Savior. What is especially significant is that when John used the words: “I am one voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of our Savior,’” John was using the words of a herald announcing the arrival of an important personage. Roads in those days were not paved, but could become overgrown rather quickly. His words were akin to: Clear a path. The Savior of the world is coming!
Now, the Pharisees wanted to know why John was baptizing the people. Jewish people didn’t need to be baptized–baptism was for gentiles only, when they converted to Judaism. If there would be an occasion for the people needing baptism, that would be because someone great believed it so–someone like the Messiah, Elijah or the Prophet; surely, not someone as ordinary as John. It may very well be that the delegation, coming as they had from Jerusalem, did not know John and did not realize that John, by virtue of his birth, was a priest. The only qualification for the priesthood in Israel was birth. All descendants of Aaron were automatically priests, whether they desired the position or not. Zecharias was a descendant of Aaron and a priest, and John was Zecharias’ son. John explains that he is not trying to convert anyone. His baptism is not about religious affiliation, but it is an outward symbol of repentance, of spiritual cleansing.
John perhaps intimates to the delegation that though he isn’t the Messiah, the Messiah has indeed come. King David had identified the Messiah as “...a priest of the order of Melchizedek...” (Psalm 110:4b), so He certainly would have been eligible to stand in the company of the delegation, as One among them. This personage, John said, was so important that John wasn’t worthy to perform the tasks of the lowest of slaves on His Person. The lowest slave had the task of removing the sandals and washing the feet of guests at a host’s home.
Apparently, there were two villages named Bethany–one near Jerusalem, on the west side of the Jordan, and another on the other side of the Jordan, which is where John was baptizing. Its exact site remains unknown.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sins of the world! This is the One of whom I said,
‘After me is coming the One who ranks above me.’ Because He was before me. And I
didn’t recognize Him. By the same token, I came baptizing in water that He might
be made known to Israel.”
John proclaimed, “I saw the Holy Spirit descending out of heaven in the
appearance of a dove, and the Spirit rested on Him. I did not recognize Him, but
the One who sent me to baptize in water, that same One said to me, ‘The One on
whom you see the Spirit descend and stay, that is the One who baptizes in the
Holy Spirit.’ I have witnessed and testify that this One is the Son of God.”
(John 1:29-34)
It has been over a month since the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the desert where He encountered Satan, and a day after John’s encounter with the religious delegation from Jerusalem.
John proclaims to the crowd that Jesus is “…the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” Lambs held a significant place in the history of the Jewish people. Lamb was one of the very first offerings ever sacrificed to God.
Genesis 4:4 tells us that Abel brought an offering of the firstborn of his flocks. It is telling that this action brought about Abel’s death. When Cain, angered over the fact that God accepted Abel’s offering but not Cain’s, Cain killed Abel.
Genesis 22:1-14 tells us the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of his son, Isaac. After nearly one hundred childless years, Abraham and his wife Sarah finally had their first-born son. Some time later God told Abraham to take Isaac to a mountain and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. Abraham did as God commanded. Bringing Isaac to the mountain God had chosen, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied Isaac up and laid him on top of the wood. He then took out a knife, but just as he was about to kill Isaac, God called to Abraham and told him to stop. Abraham looked up to find a ram caught in a bush, so he took it and sacrificed it instead of his son.
Leviticus 14:12 tells us that the offering of lambs was a guilt offering.
John and Jesus were relatives, so it is very likely that they had known each other growing up. But here John says he didn’t recognize Jesus at first. Perhaps what John meant was that he hadn’t before grasped the full meaning of Who Jesus was till then. God had called John to baptize the people in water, and had also informed John that One of those who would come to him to be baptized would be the Son of God. That One would baptize people in the Holy Spirit. As a sign, so that John would know of Whom God spoke, John would see the Holy Spirit come and alight on Him and remain. John’s mission of baptism was intended to call attention to Jesus so that Israel would recognize Him.
But more than that, when John called Jesus “…the Lamb of God…,” John may very well have made the connection between Jesus and the prophesy of Isaiah (53:7): …”He was led like a lamb to the slaughter….” Likewise, John may have connected Jesus with the slain lamb of the Passover story.
Like that lamb in the Passover story, Jesus would save His people from destruction. Exodus 12 tells the story of how the Israelites, in captivity in Egypt, were finally released. When Pharaoh refused to free the Israelites, God had rained down eleven plagues on the Egyptians, but still he wouldn’t budge. There would be a twelfth plague. God directed Moses to tell each household to kill a lamb and smear its blood on the doorframes of their houses. The angel of death would then visit Egypt and slay the firstborn of every family whose home does not have the lamb’s blood on it. Those homes the angel would pass over. That night the first born of every Egyptian died, but of the Israelites, all were saved. They were saved by the blood of the lamb.
John now understood that Jesus would do more than baptize people in the Holy Spirit–Jesus would be the sacrificial lamb–offered up to God for the guilt of humanity.
This ends our study for today.
Points to Ponder