Who are you?

 

 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 to 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?"   Here the theological Prologue of John's Gospel ends, the focus of the Gospel shifts to the beginnings of Christ's worldly ministry, the testimony of John.  That is, the witness of John the Baptist.  We are given, beginning with today's reading, seven consecutive days, paralleling the creation story in Genesis, just as John's Gospel itself began similarly to the opening of Genesis, with "In the beginning" (see yesterday's reading, above).  The next several readings with continue to parallel Genesis by describing seven consecutive days in the beginning of Christ's ministry.

 

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."   John the Baptist is a prophet, but not the Prophet, meaning the Messiah, whose coming was foretold by Moses in 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 Isaiah 40:3.  He is the herald of the coming Messiah, and he understands himself and his position in the history of Judaism, and the story of salvation.

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.   Here we are given the events of the first day of John's Gospel and Christ's ministry.  In a parallel to Genesis, on this first day, John the Baptist bears witness to he Light -- the Christ -- in the presence of the Jews (that is, the witnesses sent from Jerusalem, these Pharisees).  This parallels the creation of light on the first day in Genesis 1:3-5.  

John calls the people to "Make straight the way of the LORD," quoting Isaiah.  This is a call to repentance, and it was a traditional call for prophets.  My study Bible explains that John's baptism did not grant remission of sins once and for all, but prefigured and prepared people for the baptism of Christ which was to come.  It notes that John is a figure of the Law in that, like the Law, John denounced sin but could not remit (or literally "put away") sin.  Both John and the Law point to the One who can remit sin.  John says, "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."   He is aware that in the coming baptism of Christ, there is more than only the element of water, and his comparison of Himself to Christ is apt.  He speaks of himself as a slave unworthy even to unloose or carry another's sandals; this is John's humble comparison of himself as prophet to Christ who is the Messiah.  And it is John's humility that stands through the centuries as the image for imitation of all who follow and would be disciples and faithful to Christ, especially for those who have gone into monastic vocations.  Humility is, first of all, considered to be the gateway to all of the spiritual virtues.  St. Paul names many of such virtues when he writes of the fruit of the Spirit:  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).  It is through humility that the development of such virtue, and receipt of the teachings and leading of the Spirit itself, becomes possible; and pride, the opposite of humility, blocks the way to repentance, change, transformation through grace.  But there is a deeper teaching here in the actions and character of John the Baptist, this last and greatest of the prophets in the Old Testament lineage.  John teaches us that it is in our relationship to Christ that we truly find ourselves and our identities.  Much is concerned in modern popular culture with the finding of the "true self," and the questions we might have about who we are.  But the world cannot really give us the answer to that, for the answer is that we are not simply material nor even social beings, but that we are material and spiritual; we have a mind and a heart, a body and a spirit and a soul.  We have a consciousness capable of asking such questions.  The answer to such questions about who we are is found in our deepening relationship to Christ, our deepening dependence upon our faith.  This is because even notions of who we are cannot be answered except through a deeper and broader being, something (or Someone) greater than we are, a leading into an awareness of true self which also runs much deeper than consciousness and is -- like God, in whose image and likeness we're created -- a mystery of depth whose limits we don't know.  At heart, we have depths we don't know about; and so, the answers to who we are can only be found in the depth of relatedness and journey of faith of knowledge and growth toward the infinite God.  If that sounds a bit high-minded, simply consider that it is in the trusting humility of John that John knows himself and who he is in the fullness of salvation history -- and it is there in which we will also be able to find ourselves, and to grow in that knowledge of who it is God calls us to be and to become, through grace and through faith.  Let us consider our place before the Light.