Thursday in the Time After Christmas, January 3, 2025

John 1, 29-34

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.” John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

After receiving the baptism of John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit drove the Lord Jesus into the wilderness where he fasted and was tempted by Satan.  Following this, instead of returning to Galilee, he lingered in the Judean countryside, near the place where John continued his work.  He stayed there because it would be John who would make him known at the proper time.  We see how Jesus does not force himself on anyone, who does not appear to compete with John or to overshadow him while he is still at work.  As zealous to redeem mankind as he was, he waited for the time arranged by the Father in his marvelous Providence.  

And then the day, the moment, arrives.  John looks up out of the river and sees Jesus walking alongside the bank.  It is the first time he has seen him since the baptism, weeks before.  John had been overwhelmed at this appearance of the Lord and at the Lord’s insistence on being baptized.  And coming out of the water, the Lord had seemed to flee from him.  John said nothing to anyone else at the time, but now he sees him and the Holy Spirit prompts him to speak.

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  The Prophets had not spoken of a “Lamb of God”.  John announces something unprecedented.  The people present with John would have heard but not understood.  But they would have wondered.  John goes on: “A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.”  The disciple is never as great as his master.  A son is never as great as his father.  A descendent is never as great as his ancestor.  These were unchallenged beliefs in the culture of the time.  But here is John, making this extraordinary claim.  For the Jews, this was as perplexing as John calling him the Lamb of God.

“I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.”  That is, I did not know him previously in the days before I began to baptize.  John could be saying that he had not met Jesus before or that he did not recognize him as the Redeemer until the baptism.  The Jews would have understood John to be saying that he “knew” him through the revelation of God.  “On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”  This makes it seem that John did not know who Jesus was until after he baptized him, which would contradict what the other Gospel writers say.  John knew that Jesus was the one whom he had been sent to make known to the people, the one greater than he.  And then, as he was baptizing Jesus, the Father revealed to him that Jesus was the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit, and the sign of this would be the sight of the Spirit coming down and remaining on him.  And now, John reveals that he had indeed seen the Spirit, in the form of a dove, do exactly this.  

“Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”  We should notice that John does not testify that Jesus is the Messiah.  The people were taught by the Pharisees that a hero raised up by God would deliver Israel from the Romans.  John sees that this is a false and misleading understanding of the Savior who would indeed come and so does not use the term.  Instead, he points to Jesus as he truly is: the Son of God, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.