It Seems that the Ministry of John is Tied to Who John is, According to the Pharisees

 

John 1: 25                                           February 17, 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 the Pharisees are not questioning who John is, but what John is doing.  Implicit in their question is that if John were one of these aforementioned prophesied individuals, it would be appropriate for him to be baptizing. 

            This is interesting.  It is not only the Gospel of John that records the ministry of baptism that John the baptizer was engaged in at the Jordan River.  But here, in the Gospel of John, the Pharisees are challenging him on this practice, because of, pardon the inverse, who he’s NOT.  But what is not explained is why John is here baptizing in the first place.  In the other accounts, we know that John is calling on the people to repent, and baptism is a sign of that repentance.  It is so powerful, that even Pharisees and other leaders of the Jews were coming down to John to be baptized.  But that information is not shared in this gospel.

            It is not the focus of John the gospel writer to lay down those details.  John the baptizer’s testimony is all about Jesus, the ministry of baptism as well, is all about Jesus.  So this background of John’s ministry loads the question that the Pharisees are asking with more weight.  The Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet, those figures, when they come, will come also, apparently, with a call to repent.  A call to return to right relationship with God.  This seems to be in the minds of the priests and Levites as well, as they ran down their list.  Something from God is going to occur.  That is their presupposition.  Is John the one to do that something?

            It is not a question of skepticism.  Their presupposition is not that this guy out in the desert is a fraud, and it must be proven.  Rather, that there is something divine in the ministry, and we have to figure out what it is.

            Why baptism?  In the bible, it is mentioned here and then it goes on to become the sacrament of ‘initiation’ into the Christian faith.  But it seems that this was a more common practice in the days of Jesus.  An interesting explanation was given while I was there soooo long ago.

            Israel is basically a desert.  Water is either scarce or violent.  In the dry season, it is scarce.  In the rainy season, the wadis and gullies that cut through the landscape can flood to drowning strength in what seems like the blink of an eye.  The bodies of water that they are familiar with in Jerusalem are the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean.  The Mediterranean is a violent body of water for someone who has no experience with it.  The Dead Sea is rather self explanatory.  To be dipped into water in baptism is to be dipped into death.  To be brought back to the surface is to be returned to life.  This is why baptism is described in parallel to Jesus’ death and resurrection.  But, more generally, it seems to be a widely used ritual in this time period to mark repentance, old life to new life, separated by the death of going under the water.

            It is not a ritual described in direct terms in the Law of Moses (although there are hints of it as in the story of Naaman being cured of leprosy). 

            What I am getting at is there is a background to baptism.  It seems as though John the gospel writer is taking it for granted that his readers will have some sense of what that background is.  They may not have the lengthy explanation that I have been given, but they do know what John the baptizer was seeking to accomplish in this ministry. 

            Thus, we have an explanation, in part, for why there are four gospels.  Their writers have different experiences with Jesus, they are inspired to bring forward similar and different details of Jesus’ life and ministry.  Taken together, they provide for a richer understanding of our Lord and Savior.

Pastor Peter