IDENTITY CRISIS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “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 an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands One you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps 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

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When John emerged from the wilderness, exhorting people to repent of their sins and be baptized, he drew the interest of many to include the Jewish religious authorities who must have caught wind of John’s work at the Jordan River. Curious as to what was going on, we see in today’s scripture passage that a delegation of sorts was sent on a fact finding mission, interviewing John to try and establish who he was and by what authority he was doing what he was doing. Look again at these verses from the Gospel of John:

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “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 an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands One you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps 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

The very end of this passage tells us the encounter between John and the Pharisees, priests, and Levites took place at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, the place where John was conducting his baptisms. The questions came immediately, centered on who John was and as we see, there was a real identity crisis in play.

Note that John wasted no time in telling him who he wasn’t, confessing freely that “I am not the Messiah.” That ruled out John being the one who had been prophesied to come as the great Deliverer of the Israelites, the one the people of God thought would free them from their oppression at the hands of the Romans.

So if John wasn’t the Messiah, who was he then? The Jewish religious representatives started down a list intended to provide some form of identification or connection point.

The scriptures tell us they asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

Elijah had been predicted as returning before the Messiah arrived but John was not THE Elijah. It wasn’t as if John was Elijah in resurrected form. Rather, John was the one the prophets referred to as an Elijah who would come and announce the way for the long awaited Savior.

Given this, that John was not Elijah himself, John replied, “I am not” which prompted yet another question, reflecting the eagerness of the Pharisees, priests, and Levites to get to the bottom of who John was. They asked:

“Are you the Prophet?”

There’s a couple of schools of thought regarding what the Jewish religious leaders were asking.

The first involves the belief that other prophets outside of Elijah would come back to life and reappear. Thus, those asking the question may have thought John was Jeremiah or Isaiah or Ezekiel if he wasn’t Elijah.

The second popular idea is that the Pharisees, priests, and Levites were referring back to these words of Moses:

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to Him. Deuteronomy 18:15

Of course, Moses was referring to Jesus in this verse and so it couldn’t have possibly been John.

Regardless of why they asked the question, we see John give the same answer, “No.”

Unable to pin down John’s identity, we get a sense the religious leaders were growing frustrated in being rebuffed over and over again. And since they weren’t doing a very good job guessing who John was, they simply put it in his court, making the following demand:

“Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

John’s answer had to bring both clarity and a little bit of embarrassment at the same time:

“I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

The Pharisees, priests, and Levites were supposed to be well versed in the law and the scriptures to include the prophecies that had been spoken over the years. And yet, when it came to recognizing who John was, there was no connection to the words of Isaiah, no consideration that John may indeed be the messenger beckoning the coming of the Messiah, the voice calling out in the wilderness for everyone to make straight paths to welcome their Deliverer. As I said, it had to be more than a little embarrassing as John revealed himself and his purpose.

Well, with the identity crisis over, we get a real sense the Jewish religious leaders were ready to move on and change the subject. The Pharisees within the group asked this:

“Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

In other words, they were essentially asking, “By what authority are you baptizing others?”

Tired of the spotlight being on himself, we find John turning the attention of the Pharisees, priests, and Levites toward Jesus, the one John told them he had come to proclaim. He told them:

“I baptize with water but among you stands One you do not know. He is the One who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

What was John doing with these words?

It’s simple. He was fulfilling prophecy. He was the voice of one calling from the wilderness and letting the Jewish spiritual leaders know that the Messiah was coming, a Messiah that they did not yet know but soon would in a big way.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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