John’s denial that he was the Messiah reveals more about the identity of Jesus as he is questioned by representatives of the Jewish hierarchy.
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.
20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.'”
24 Now some Pharisees who had been sent
25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptise if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 “I baptise with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know.
27 He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.
The scene is set with John being quizzed by the religious leaders of the day. Their interest had probably been sparked by the vast crowds who flocked to hear him preach (Mark 1:4-5). Levites, descendants of the Jewish tribe of Levi, were responsible for the ritual of the temple (Numbers 1:50-51) and sought an explanation for John’s notoriety. That they even considered John might be the messiah shows considerable openness of thinking on their part. The arrival of God’s messiah (or anointed one) was widely anticipated by the Jewish people who expected their deliverer to lead a liberation movement (see the woman’s comment in 4:25-26) to free the Jews from the jackboot of Roman occupation.
While John’s denial was emphatic (1:20) the priests and Levites were clearly not satisfied so they probed further. They held that a reappearance of Elijah would pave the way for the messiah (See Malachi 4:5-6) and John’s asceticism may have led them to consider this possibility (Matthew 3:4). Finally, in some frustration, they asked John for a self-definition (1:22) and he responds with a quotation from Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3-5). In this quotation the prophet anticipates the arrival of the God in glory and pictures a person commanding the nation to prepare for the Almighty’s arrival by sweeping aside all obstacles in his path. John identifies himself with this commanding figure, and implicitly parallels the arrival of God with the arrival of Jesus. The implications of this parallel would not have been lost on the Levites!
Nor would it have been lost on some Pharisees who approached John with a subtly different question (v24). Pharisees were a ruling class who saw themselves as the defenders and interpreters of Jewish law. Matters of authorisation were of particular concern to them (see 2:18) so they desired to know by what authority John was teaching and baptising (v25). To them this was an unlawful innovation. Instead of justifying his own position John evades their question by comparing himself with “one who comes after me” (1:25). Undoing the thongs of guests’ sandals and washing their feet was a menial task usually given to the lowest rank of slave; and John sees himself in that lowly position when compared against Jesus. His baptism will carry authority that is of a different order of magnitude to John’s. Luke’s gospel records an additional nuance: “John answered them all, ‘I baptise you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’” (Luke 3:16)
John the Baptist’s encounter with Jesus
This section (1:19-51) spans a period of four days (the first is 1:19-28, the second 1:29-34, the third 35-42 and the fourth 1:43-51) so within 24 hours of John’s prediction Jesus arrives.
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’
31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.
33 I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’
34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”
As he approaches John identifies Jesus as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29). This title would instantly resonate with many of the Jewish people in John’s entourage. Lambs were one of the most common sacrifices for the removal of sin and receiving of God’s forgiveness in the Old Testament (Genesis 4:4, 8:20, 22:2-8 and Leviticus 14:10-25 are examples). But there are two twists in the title. Jesus is the lamb of God, not merely the lamb brought by an individual or family for ritual slaughter; and the sin being removed is that of the whole world suggesting that the sacrifice of this particular lamb will have global implications.
John then restates the supremacy and pre-existence of the one succeeding him (see 1:15) and roundly identifies him as Jesus. The word behind “A man who comes after me” is not the generic word of ‘man’ but a specific word indicating authority or headship. So it seems that in spite of his own enormous popularity John took every opportunity to assert the authority of Jesus Christ over his own. Furthermore John says that preparing the way for Jesus Christ was his life’s purpose (1:31) and it is significant that the focus of the gospel is about to switch away from John the Baptist towards Jesus (“He must become greater; I must become less.” 3:30).
The identity of Jesus is now authenticated in two ways. The first is the sight of a dove descending on him, which John understood to be the identifying mark of the Holy Spirit’s presence, and the second was the recollection of his own commission to baptise (1:33). Whether he received his commission from a human teacher or via a personal encounter with God we are not told.
All this leads John to emphatically identify Jesus as the God’s Son, a title which is hinted at in 1:18 where a literal translation would be ‘from the bosom of the Father’.
Jesus commissions the first disciples
We might think that John the Baptist would regret seeing his followers turn away from him in favour of Jesus but in this section John seems to encourage it.
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.
36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
38 Turning round, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.
41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).
42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.
45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote– Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig-tree before Philip called you.”
49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig-tree. You shall see greater things than that.”
51 He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Once again John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God and this provides the trigger for some of John’s followers to change their allegiance (1:37). John’s persistence at diverting attention away from himself gives a greater weight to the integrity of his life’s purpose – preparing the way for Jesus Christ. ‘He kept pressing on incessantly to hand on the torch to Christ’ (Calvin Commentary on John 1959 p36). So what was the identity of the two disciples who were the first to follow Jesus? 1:40 reveals one of the as Andrew and from the earliest times the other was thought to be John, the author of this gospel.
