I am "the voice of one crying in the wilderness"

Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"  He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."  And they asked him, "What then?  Are you Elijah?"  He said, "I am not."  "Are you the Prophet?"  And he answered, "No."  Then they said to him, "Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us?  What do you say about yourself?"  He said:  "I am

'The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

"Make straight the way of the LORD,"'

as the prophet Isaiah said."  Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.  And they asked him, saying, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"  John answered them, saying, "I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.  It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."  These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

- John 1:19-28

Yesterday we read what is called the Prologue in John's Gospel:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.  That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before Me.'"  And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.  For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"  He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."  And they asked him, "What then?  Are you Elijah?"  He said, "I am not."  "Are you the Prophet?"  And he answered, "No."  In yesterday's reading, John's Gospel began with its Prologue, which starts as does the book of Genesis, with "In the beginning."   This sets up a parallel to the creation story of Genesis, but this creation regards Christ the Son and His identity as Son.  The Gospel continues today with the "beginning" of Christ's ministry as the incarnate Jesus, and this ministry starts with John the Baptist, also called Forerunner in the Church.  In another parallel with the Genesis story of creation, we are given seven days, the beginning of Christ's ministry.  Today's reading takes place on the first day.  These days each have parallels to the Genesis text.  On this first day (the whole of today's reading) John the Baptist bears witness to the Light -- the Christ -- in the presence of the Jews.  It parallels the creation of light on the first day in Genesis 1:3-5.  Here in these verses, John is first asked by the authorities about himself, as his own fame and the popularity of his ministry was widespread.  He himself is indeed a prophet, but he is not the Prophet, another term here used for the Messiah, whose coming was foretold by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). 

Then they said to him, "Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us?  What do you say about yourself?"  He said:  "I am 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness:  "Make straight the way of the LORD,"'as the prophet Isaiah said." John quotes from the Septuagint version of Isaiah 40:3. 

Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.  And they asked him, saying, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"  John answered them, saying, "I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.  It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."  These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.  John's baptism is one in preparation for the Lord, the Christ, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.   John's baptism is one of repentance, a traditional call for the prophets.  But it does not grant remission of sins once and for all.  He is a figure of the Law in the sense that he could denounce sin but could not remit ("put away") sin.  Both John and the Law point to the One who can remit sin.  John expresses himself with the same words, but with more vivid imagery regarding the baptism of Christ in Luke 3:16-17.

Let us look at John the Baptist's words about Christ:  "I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.  It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."   At this point, John the Baptist is so widely known as a holy man, and has such a powerful ministry, that the religious leadership from Jerusalem comes to ask him if he is the Christ.  But John answers in this way.  He is known and understood as one who exemplifies humility, and remains from the earliest times of monasticism to today, a model for the virtue of humility prized above all in monastic life.   We will read more of his humility, but the Baptist also exemplifies this humility in his radical poverty, in a life completely dedicated to the service of God.  Matthew writes, "Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey" (an image which is reminiscent of Elijah the prophet), in Matthew 3:4.  But John the Baptist is most powerfully known for these words in today's reading which I've quoted above, when he expresses his identity in the light of Christ, in preparation for whom he practices baptism and spreads the word of His coming.  Christ is "preferred before me" and "whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."  These are the words of one who is calling himself insufficiently worthy even to be a slave to the Christ.  They are a clear statement of humility.  But they are also more than that.  What we might say in modern language is that John truly knows and accepts who he is.  He knows his role in life, and it is precisely in these terms of relationship to the Christ that he finds that role.  Later on in John's Gospel, in accepting his death, the Baptist will say of Jesus the Christ, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (3:30), another statement understood to exemplify humility.  But more than that, just before that statement, the Baptist declares that his real joy is in being the friend of the Bridegroom.  John says, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled" (3:29).  It is a great lesson not simply on humility as virtue, but rather on its entire purpose, and that is that John identifies himself completely in relation to his own role in the salvation plan of God, and that means in relationship to Christ.  It is his great joy to be the friend of the Bridegroom, for he truly knows who he is.  And there we come to our own lives.  We're given every conceivable image to follow in life, especially through social media.  That applies to popular movements of the moment we're assured we really "should" take part in and serve.  It applies to the image of the moment in popular culture, or cultivated by vast publicity machines making stars of people in varied professions -- or even politicians -- overnight.  But none of these things is in the heart of prayer where we really find out who we are.  None of these things helps us to understand humility as the key to finding the true measure of the soul, and the joy of fulfilling that role.  Just like John the Baptist, our true goal of finding ourselves lies in relationship to God, to our part in this great salvation plan, to the place we're in as designated by the Bridegroom.  It's the part we play in this wedding party.  None of the rest is substantial because none of the rest touches the soul.  It little matters how much people "love" who we are at the moment, or who anybody else tells us we are or must be.  This is the heart and the soul of our life, and it is where fulfillment is in terms of true knowing and worth.  All the rest is "added unto us" (Matthew 6:33).  The world will often conspire to tell us that the opposite is true, but we might find that we know ourselves at the Cross, in the one place worthy of the sacrifice asked of us.  Do you know who you are?