If Not the Messiah, Who Else on the "God Appointed" List could John Be?

John 1: 21                                           February 11, 2021

¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ ²⁰He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ ²¹And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ ²²Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ ²³He said,
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord” ’,
as the prophet Isaiah said.

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. ²⁵They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ ²⁶John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, ²⁷the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ ²⁸This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

            So when it came to leaders arising who carried a message of religious and spiritual renewal to a level that the Jewish leadership took notice of, it seems they sent out a blue ribbon panel of priests and Levites to investigate.  It seems that John the baptizer has achieved that status, demanding an investigation.  They have already come to see him and demanded “Who are you?”  If this were an episode of CSI, that would normally entail a murder with The Who providing an overlay to the opening credits.  But this is not CSI. 

            It does seem that this blue ribbon panel came with a list.  It might be something of a checklist to see if an up and coming religious leader did, in fact, have Old Testament, God-approved credit to their ministry.  Because the first thing that came up was the question of Messiah.  A Messiah was promised.  And it is like the Arthur Paradigm, the fulfillment of the promise coming in time of great need.

            The southern Kingdom of the Jews, Judea, returned from the Babylonian Exile in 538 BC (ending an exile that began back in 597 BC).  The Romans became the next in a line of occupiers when they conquered the Greeks in 63 BC.  This passage in  John takes place somewhere around 30 AD.  To make a long story short (too late?), the parameters for a time of great need had existed for a VERY long time.  In that time, the blue ribbon panel for the investigation of suspiciously popular religious leadership types had perfected their investigative techniques.

            So it is not the Messiah, the Holy One of God sent in the popular concept of King David.  That John the baptizer has ruled out.  Now, to be clear, John did not rule out ANYTHING for the one coming after him.  But they were not interested in the one coming after, only the one in front of their faces.  So, if not the Messiah, than whom?

            Elijah?  The prophet who did not die?  Elijah is perhaps the best known of the prophets of the Old Testament.  He certainly takes up a lot of space in the book of Kings.  If you did Sunday School like I did, the contest, Elijah versus the 400 of Baal’s best and brightest, was always a popular story of his strength in the Lord.  He is the prophet who did not die because, at the end of his life, there is an involved chase scene where Elisha (his chosen successor), chases after him to the end of Elijah’s time here on earth.

            And it is not described as Elijah dying, but rather, Elijah being taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot.  So Elijah probably has more of the Arthurian ‘return’ magic surrounding him.  And the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, makes prophetic reference to Elijah returning “before the great and terrible day of the Lord” according to the header on Google.  So, there is the Messiah, and a forerunner to the great and terrible day of the Lord, usually understood as great for Jews, terrible for their enemies.  This is point two on the checklist.  Are you, John the baptizer, perhaps, this Elijah…?

            Again, he replies, “I am not.”

            Which leads to the third inquiry, “Are you the prophet?”  This is in opposition to “a” prophet.  In Deuteronomy 18, a prophet “like Moses” (actually “like me”, but Moses is talking) will be raised up by the Lord.  It is more generic than the prophecy about Elijah, but there it is.  I have seen this passage used to predict Islam, that Muhammed is the prophet spoken of here.  But that is another debate.

            For the purposes of our interpretation, the blue ribbon panel of priests and scribes are looking for a sign of divine enabling in John the baptizer.  What I am not sure of is whether this is to rule John out or if they are seeking in some kind of desperate hope for someone to be sent to them from God.  But again, John’s answer is “No”. 

            From here, the blue ribbon panel, having checked off their list, will ask John for his self-identification.  That is for tomorrow.