John the Baptist, or John the Forerunner in the Eastern traditions, is an interesting figure. So important a figure was he in the early first century that a religious sect formed around him that lasts to our own day, and our Christian Gospels felt the need to dedicate a significant amount of valuable page space to his ministry. Called ‘the last of the prophets,’ he survived on what he could find in the wilderness, and spent his days calling the people to repentance and calling out the injustices of their leadership. Far from a glamorous life, and one that eventually got him killed. But he saw his greatest mission as preparing the way for, recognizing, and pointing out the Messiah, the chosen, anointed one sent by God to save God’s people. And in today’s Gospel reading, we see this mission accomplished.
Set the day after John is challenged by emissaries from the religious leadership questioning his authority, the reading begins:
The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1.29-34)
John recognizes Jesus as the ‘Lamb of God’. As we saw last time this reading came up in the cycle, this is a strange title, especially in connection with removing sin: Lambs did not feature in the Old Testament sin sacrifices, and where lambs did show up in a ritual context, it had nothing to do with the removal of sin. Really, of all the liturgical animals, the lamb might be the least likely to be associated with the removal of sins! But here we are. I concluded then, and I think rightly, that what John most likely had in mind was the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, a gentle figure who is unjustly punished like “a lamb led to slaughter” by the forces of oppression and false judgment. At any rate, recognizing Jesus as such, John points him out to his disciples, saying that he is the one who will baptize ‘with the Holy Spirit’ and testifying that he is the ‘Son of God’ (which in John’s context likely meant ‘the one who truly follows in God’s ways’ rather than being any claim to divinity).
Again the next day, John sees Jesus and points him out to two of his disciples, who then leave John’s side to follow him, recognizing him as the Messiah (1.35-42). These disciples’ immediate abandonment of John for Jesus may seem harsh, but as the broader reading tells us, this was nothing other than John’s mission: to prepare the way for and point to Jesus. Far from abandoning of John and his message, in following Jesus, they are fulfilling John’s mission. For John this was nothing other than a job well done.
As Christians, our mission is not really all that different from John’s. We too are called, through our lifestyles, values, words, and actions, to embody Jesus to the extent that we too point towards Jesus. Through our forgiveness of those who have wronged us, we say “This is the Lamb of God!” Through our compassion on those who are suffering or living in poverty, we testify, “This is the Son of God!” Through empowering others as Jesus has empowered us, we claim, “This is the Messiah,” the Christ!
And so, in these weeks after Epiphany, may we, with John and all the prophets before him, and all the saints after him, “let our light shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven,” in the name of Jesus, the one who came to save this bruised and battered world and all of us in it from ourselves. Amen.
Matthew Root 