Getting Ready
Read John 1:19-28.
I don't remember the original version, and only vaguely remember the revival version, but there was once a television primetime game show called "What's My Line?" (The original was the longest-running primetime game show in television history.) The goal of the game was to ask the right questions, get the right clues, and figure out what the contestant's "line of work" or occupation was. Ask the wrong questions and you could end up guessing the wrong thing.
The "quizzing" of John the Baptist at the beginning of John's Gospel sort of plays out like that game show. The Jewish leaders from Jerusalem have heard stories about this guy who is out baptizing and gathering crowds at Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan and so they send a contingent down to visit with him, to find out what he's up to. Jerusalem sits on the edge of the desert, but it would still have been quite a journey (about 27 miles on foot) to go down to see what John was up to. (Today, it requires a border crossing into the nation of Jordan to be able to go from Jerusalem to this Bethany.)
So they ask him a series of questions. Are you the Messiah? No. Are you Elijah? The Prophet? No and no. So who the heck are you? Why are you down here doing this? And John responds, "I'm basically the prologue, the predecessor, the one who prepares the way. I'm the opening act, the one who has come to get you ready for the main event."
What they should have taken away from this encounter was this: the main event is coming. The Messiah is on his way. What they took away from this in reality was: John is not doing what he's supposed to! He's "illegally" baptizing people! (Where did he get his credentials?)
Do we sometimes get so hung up on the rules we miss what God is doing right in our midst? That's what's happening to the religious leaders. Right here, in the next section of the chapter, they are the living proof of what John said earlier: "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him" (John 1:13). They missed the point; they couldn't see what was really happening because someone was breaking their rules.
John has clearly told them who he is, and who is coming on the scene next. They are not ready yet for the Messiah. Are we?
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| Bethany-Beyond-The-Jordan (looking toward the Israel side), Jordan (2017) |
The "quizzing" of John the Baptist at the beginning of John's Gospel sort of plays out like that game show. The Jewish leaders from Jerusalem have heard stories about this guy who is out baptizing and gathering crowds at Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan and so they send a contingent down to visit with him, to find out what he's up to. Jerusalem sits on the edge of the desert, but it would still have been quite a journey (about 27 miles on foot) to go down to see what John was up to. (Today, it requires a border crossing into the nation of Jordan to be able to go from Jerusalem to this Bethany.)
So they ask him a series of questions. Are you the Messiah? No. Are you Elijah? The Prophet? No and no. So who the heck are you? Why are you down here doing this? And John responds, "I'm basically the prologue, the predecessor, the one who prepares the way. I'm the opening act, the one who has come to get you ready for the main event."
What they should have taken away from this encounter was this: the main event is coming. The Messiah is on his way. What they took away from this in reality was: John is not doing what he's supposed to! He's "illegally" baptizing people! (Where did he get his credentials?)
Do we sometimes get so hung up on the rules we miss what God is doing right in our midst? That's what's happening to the religious leaders. Right here, in the next section of the chapter, they are the living proof of what John said earlier: "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him" (John 1:13). They missed the point; they couldn't see what was really happening because someone was breaking their rules.
John has clearly told them who he is, and who is coming on the scene next. They are not ready yet for the Messiah. Are we?
It is sad how caught up we get in the mundane that we miss the beauty of the moment.
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