On the Jogfree of the Land where John Baptized

John 1: 28                                           February 19, 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.

            Maps.  I love ‘em.  Many people could not have a higher degree of indifference to them.  But this is an important consideration to our gospel reading today, because there was Bethany, and then there was Bethany. 

            One of the staples of my childhood was “All in the Family.”  Took place in Queens.  Urban racist and bigot Archie Bunker and his family.  Yes!  A situation comedy!!  He worked a blue collar job and there was an episode that rotated around an order from the plant gone terribly wrong, London instead of London.  London, England, across the Pond, the Atlantic Ocean, versus London, Ontario, in Canada, 10 hour drive.  I remember him griping about places with the same name when his deeply wise, ‘dingbat’ wife Edith reminded us of one ‘close to home’ for them: New York, New York! 

            Because if you are a bible nerd, you might remember a different Bethany, one right outside of Jerusalem.  A few things happen there.  Lazarus, and his sisters, Mary and Martha, live in Bethany.  Without looking it up, I recall Jesus coming through Bethany on his way in to Jerusalem for what we celebrate as “Palm Sunday”.  But this isn’t that one. 

            But in our passage, we are in a different Bethany, one where the priests and Levites and Pharisees were meeting up with John, across from where he was baptizing.  Trying to decipher that is a pain in the neck until you can look at a map.  The Jordan River is a traditional boundary of the Promised Land.  The closest point of the Jordan to Jerusalem, where the gospel says the priests and Levites were dispatched from, is due east, where the Jordan meets the Dead Sea.  This is where John the baptizer was baptizing, the closet, most convenient spot of flowing water to the Capital.  The other gospels record people coming down from Jerusalem to be baptized by him.

            In this case, John the baptizer seems to have crossed the River to meet these leaders in Bethany (Bethany-on-the-Jordan).  There is no indication of why he crossed the River to meet them there.  It might be implied that he wanted out of the political jurisdiction of these leaders in case it was not questions but an arrest warrant that they brought.  But it was certainly on his own terms.  He was not at the place where he was baptizing when he met with them, but across the River. 

            Why does it matter?  These are names on a page and dots on a map.  There is some truth to that question unless you have the privilege of ever being there, in Israel.  America is huge!  One can drive, at highway speeds, for over nine hours in Florida alone.  Israel, not so much.  My single biggest OMG moment was when the tour bus we were on pulled over, apparently at random, along one of the main roads in Israel, we all got out, and our guide pointed out the Dead Sea and Jordan River coming out its northern end ‘downhill’ and the skyline of Jerusalem ‘uphill’.  Both visible, without binoculars, from that midpoint.  The Gospels take place in a geographic area roughly the size of New Jersey, the fourth smallest state in the Union.

            Why does it matter?  You can walk to where John the baptizer was baptizing from Jerusalem, and back again, easily in less than a day.  And to get to Bethany-on-the-Jordan, it is downhill all the way. 

            It will also be helpful (I think also interesting) to track Jesus’ travels through the gospel of John.  In the other three, it seems to be Jesus in Galilee, then to Jerusalem for Holy Week.  There is a fair bit more travel in John’s Gospel.