The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Make straight the way of the LORD," as the prophet Isaiah said

 

 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 the Prologue of 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?"    John's Prologue was essentially a theological statement about who Jesus Christ is, an understanding of the Word or Logos.  Here we begin to get the story of Christ's ministry.  

 

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."   Just as the Prologue began quoting the words of the creation story in Genesis, "In the beginning" (see yesterday's reading, above), here we start with the "first day" of Christ's ministry.   We are given the witness of John the Baptist.  Just as Genesis gives seven days of creation, so John's Gospel now begins by giving us the first seven days of Jesus' ministry.  Here on this first day, John the Baptist bears witness to the Light -- the Christ--in the presence of the Jews.  My study bible tells us that this parallels the creation of light on the first day in Genesis 1:3-5.  My study bible comments here that John the Baptist is a prophet, but not the Prophet.  That is, He is not the Messiah, whose coming was foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-19.

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 part of his call for repentance in preparation for the Messiah, the Christ.  He is preparing people for the baptism of Christ which is to come (see Romans 6:3-11).   Thus, when he is asked about his practice of baptism by the Pharisees, He responds that the One who comes after him is "preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."  Christ is the one whose baptism will remit or "put away" sin, which the Law cannot do in and of itself.

What does it mean to "make straight the way of the Lord," as Isaiah said?  John is quoting from Isaiah 40:3.  This chapter of Isaiah begins with the words, "'Comfort, yes, comfort my people!' says God" (Isaiah 40:1).  The prophecy of Isaiah spans a time when the Assyrian Empire grew in power and expanded in conquest, which had included the northern kingdom of Israel.  Isaiah speaks to the southern kingdom of Judah, even as Jews from Israel have been taken captive, telling them to trust in God alone.  John the Baptist is using the words of Isaiah to communicate a message to the people under Roman occupation, and gives us an immense clue to the ways that Christians would come to see all of Old Testament Scripture.  The words and teachings in Isaiah, and especially in this section of the Book of Isaiah (chapters 40-55), heavily parallel the images of Christ as Shepherd and the people of God as lambs, the "good news" or "good tidings" of the gospel of Christ, and the timelessness and endurance of the word of God, as opposed to the years of human beings and history's flow.  Isaiah says, "The nations are as a drop in a bucket and are counted as the balance of a scale . . . All nations are as nothing and are counted as nothing" (Isaiah 40:15,17).  John is signalling the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in the ministry of Christ, and Christ as the comfort of God's people.  It is especially poignant for the people of Christ's time, who so longingly were awaiting a deliverer.  In the shadow of what was to come in the destruction of Jerusalem, it becomes a haunting statement reminding us to take care what we put our faith into, and throws the stark contrast of light and dark in the beginning of John's Gospel into even greater definition.  John the Baptist's timeless call of the prophecy of Isaiah echoes to us the truth of Isaiah's words of comfort.  There remains one place in which we can find a transcendent comfort amid the vicissitudes of history.   Even as there are presently voices which would seek to remove this comfort from our midst, we remain committed not just to our faith but also to our own experiences of comfort in our faith.   The same comfort calls back to us in the words of Isaiah, and the truth of the gospel message of "good tidings" which Isaiah prophesied amid the frightening and tumultuous history of the time in which he lived.  John the Evangelist reminds us, in yesterday's reading, that from "the beginning" there were those who preferred the darkness to the light of the gospel message in the Person of Jesus Christ.  So, for today, let us consider the words of John the Baptist, as he quotes from Isaiah, intervening in time, amidst empires and powers that seek to shake the will of human beings, what it is to be comforted with truth that has nothing to do with declarations of the rich and powerful.  Let us turn to the good news and know that our Comforter is here, our Shepherd remains even as everything else will pass (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33).