1:19-28
Who Are You?
This is the first time John uses the term “the Jews”. Although John uses the term in different ways in this gospel, it most commonly means Jewish leaders who did not understand Jesus and were opposed to him. This appears to be the case here, as they came from the Jews of Jerusalem.(19) They may have been sent by the Sanhedrin to figure out who John was and what he was doing.
John the Baptist stirred up a lot of interest among the Jews. There had not been a prophet in Israel for 500 years. The last prophets were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, all of whom prophesied during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Suddenly, then, John burst on the scene looking, acting, and speaking like a prophet. He lived in the wilderness, eating locusts and wild honey. He dressed in a garment of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. He preached repentance to prepare Israel to receive the Messiah (the Christ) and he baptized those who repented. Lots of people from Jerusalem and Judea were coming out to see and hear him. They confessed their sins and were baptized. (Matthew 3:1-6)
This caused the Pharisees to send some priests and Levites from Jerusalem to find out who John was. The Jews were also looking and waiting for Messiah\Christ to come and they wondered if this unusual preacher could be him. They asked John if he was the Christ. That question is not stated here, but John’s answer is. He answered the question two ways for emphasis. He confessed, and did not deny, that he was not the Christ. (20)
The word “Christ” is a transliteration of the Greek word Christos. Christos is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Maschiach, which means anointed one. Maschiach is transliterated in English to “Messiah”. John’s use of Christos probably means he expected most of his audience to be Greek speakers, either Gentiles or Greek speaking Jews.
After John denied being the Christ, the Jews kept asking John to identify himself. They want to know who he is and what authority he has to baptize. Their exchange with John is rooted in the Old Testament.
They asked John if was Elijah. They asked this because Malachi, the last prophet, stated that God said “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction” (Malachi 4:5)
The Old Testament prophets were God’s prosecutors. They were sent to condemn Israel when the nation strayed from God into sin. There were Jews, however, that believed that Elijah would literally come in person because he did not die. He was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot. (2 Kings 2)
So, John denied that we was Elijah. He was, however, sent in the spirit and power of Elijah, according to the angel’s word to Zechariah, John’s father. (Luke 1)
The next question was “are you the prophet”. There the Jews were referring to the words of Moses, who said “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you…it is to him you shall listen”. (Deuteronomy 18:15) Some Jews believed that the Prophet was an end times figure, maybe even the Messiah.
John denied that he was the Prophet Moses spoke about. He would certainly do that if some people thought the prophet was the Messiah.
The Jews had to have been frustrated that John had not identified himself and they did not want to return to their superiors and say they had not found out who this preacher was and by whose authority he baptized. (22) So, they asked him again, saying “what do you say about yourself”.
So, John identified himself by referring to another Old Testament passage He said he was the “voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘make straight the way of the Lord’”. John was referring to Isaiah 40:3.
As a side note, by quoting this passage, John speaks of the deity of Christ. Isaiah referred to Yahweh, as you can see from the capitalization of the word “LORD”. John applied that passage to Jesus.
The final question was “why are you baptizing”. (24) In other words, if you are not one of these end times figures, what authority do you have to baptize?
John’s baptizing was certainly an anomaly for the Jews. Some of the Pharisees may even have considered it heresy, for only Gentiles converting to Judaism were baptized. So, John’s baptism implied that Jews could also be unclean and, therefore, unfit to be part of God’s people unless they were cleansed. The Jewish leaders would instead believe that anyone born a Jew was part of Israel and the kingdom of God.
And, of course, this was John’s exact point. They needed to repent, and demonstrate their repentance via baptism, to be prepared to receive Jesus and enter into his kingdom.
In this passage, John does not directly answer the question as to why he baptized; he simply pointed to Jesus. (26) Pointing to Jesus was the second part of his role. He was to prepare the way for and point to Jesus as the Messiah and savior. This was told to John’s father by an angel before his mother was even pregnant. (Luke 1)
John said one was among them who came after John, in terms of ministry, but was so much greater than John that John was not worthy to untie his sandal straps.
Untying sandal straps, removing sandals from the feet, and washing feet were jobs given only to lowly servants. Students or disciples of great teachers were also expected to perform these tasks.
John was saying that Jesus was so much greater than him, he was not worthy of being Jesus’ lowly servant or disciple. This is a reminder to us. Jesus is God and we are not. He saved us by his grace. None of us was so good that Jesus saved us because we deserved it.
1:29-34
The Lamb of God
The very next day, John saw Jesus in person. He immediately jumped into his role as the herald of Christ, saying “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (20)
What a moment that was, as John was the first person to identify Jesus as savior. As a lamb might be sacrificed for its owner’s sin, Jesus would be sacrificed to take away, or atone for, sins. And it would not be just for believing Jews, but believers from all nations and races, the “world”. Yet, it is likely that few in the crowd understood what was happening.
John himself knew Jesus as the Messiah, because he saw the Holy Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and remain on Jesus. (32) The Lord had told John that the person on whom the Spirit descended would be the Messiah. It also fulfilled Isaiah 61:1, which says “the Spirt of the Lord God is upon me, because he anointed me to preach good news to the poor.”
And John said the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit. (33) This is a statement that foretells Jesus sending the Spirit to indwell all believers.
John did finally reveal under whose authority he baptized. He said “he who sent me to baptize with water said to me”. (33) God sent John to proclaim the coming of Jesus and to prepare the way by calling for repentance symbolized by baptism.
Lastly, John said he bore witness to what he saw and that Jesus is the Son of God. (41-ESV) There is an interesting fact regarding the translation of the Greek as “the Son of God”. If you have the newest version of the New International Version, it says “Chosen One of God”. There is one Greek manuscript that uses these words, and a somewhat recently discovered papyrus. If this is the correct translation, it would be written to point to Jesus’ fulfillment of Isais 42:1, referring to God’s chosen servant in whom he delights.
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