John 1:6-8, 19-28

John 1:6-8, 19-28 (NRSV)

⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

¹⁹ This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” ²¹ And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” ²² Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ²³ He 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. ²⁵ They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” ²⁶ John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, ²⁷ the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” ²⁸ This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The theme of John 1:6-8, 19-28 is the prophet John as a witness to Jesus as the promised Messiah.

I begin with a theological discussion of John 1:6-8, 19-28. In verses 6-8, the prologue emphasizes John the Baptist as a witness to the light that has come into the darkness through the Word. The divine origin of the mission of John means we need to receive him in a way different from the way we would if he were simply an insightful human being. As such, consistent with four important themes of the Gospel of John, he is a (1) witness who (2) testifies to the (3) light, so that people might (4) believe through the Word. The author emphasizes that John was not the light. The world lives in darkness, but nothing so tames the terrors of the darkness for us than light. The Word is that light that falls upon a humanity who lives in darkness. God has directed the light of the Word toward human beings. Human beings will find their life as they open themselves to this Word, and therefore to this light and grace.^[1] Verses 19-28 are the testimony of John the Baptist concerning his role. John offers his testimony referred to in verses 6-7 in a progression of three days, which is of symbolic significance, moving from a negative role for John, to a positive statement of who Jesus is, to sending his own disciples to follow Jesus.  John takes the one trial of Jesus in the Synoptics and makes it apply throughout Jesus’ ministry.  Legal terms abound.  John the Baptist is under interrogation.^[2] Although the book does not designate it as one of the signs of Jesus in the opening chapters of this gospel, the witness of John is the first sign. In this gospel, John Jesus work concurrently. By leading the first disciples to Jesus, John lays the foundations of the believing community that gathers round Jesus and receives his revelation fruitfully. The self-revelation of Jesus has already begun in this section. Nevertheless, in all he does and in all he says, the Baptist always witnesses to Jesus and his messianic identity. The occasion of the testimony of John are the questions designed to discover his identity and he addresses his testimony to the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem who had sent priests and Levites to John. The form it takes begins with a denial that he is the Messiah. The emissaries pressed him as to whether he was Elijah, referring Mal 4:5, where Elijah will appear at the end of time to prepare the world for the imminent arrival of the Messiah. His denial contrasts with Jesus, who identifies John as Elijah (Matthew 11:14, Mark 9:13=Matthew 17:12) in saying that Elijah has come, and the authorities did what they pleased with him. The early church certainly viewed the Baptist as the promised Elijah (Mark 1:2). In asking if John is the prophet, the emissaries refer to a tradition reflected in other part of the biblical tradition. I Maccabees 4:46 looks forward to a prophet who will tell the priests what to do with the desecrated stones of the altar. I Maccabees 14:41 refers to the appointment of a priest until a trustworthy prophet arises. Qumran famously looked forward to a prophet. Acts 3:22 refers to the promise of Moses that a prophet like him would come (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18). By the first century, many Jewish writers interpreted it as an apocalyptic promise who would announce the arrival of the Messiah. Given all of this, we might have some surprise that this gospel has the Baptist reject either title. As the emissaries press John concerning his identity, he begins with an “I am” statement that will major theme of this gospel. He identifies himself with the voice crying in the wilderness to make straight the way of the Lord in Isa 40:3. If he is not the Messiah, Elijah, or the prophet, the emissaries sent by the Pharisees press him further in asking why he is baptizing, showing that his action of baptism remains a mystery to them. Thus, even if John related to the Essene community, as many scholars suggest, his practice of baptism is different from that community, in which baptism was part of the entry into their community and was part of their regular purification rituals. Yet, John downplays his baptizing activity, admitting that he baptizes with water, contrasting himself with the important arrival of another coming after him, alluding to the greatness of the one yet to come, whose sandal he is unworthy to untie. The modesty of John is shown in his willingness to step aside when this one comes. The occasion of this first testimony is further identified as Bethany in Transjordan, unknown from any other source.

 

In verses 6-8, 15, which reads as though it was a reference back to 1:30, and is thus an insertion into the original poem,[3] the prologue emphasizes John the Baptist as a witness to the light that has come into the darkness through the Word. The divine origin of the mission of John means we need to receive him in a way different from the way we would if he were simply an insightful human being. As such, consistent with four important themes of the Gospel of John, he is a (1) witness who (2) testifies to the (3) light, so that people might (4) believe through the Word. The author emphasizes that John was not the light. The world lives in darkness, but nothing so tames the terrors of the darkness for us than light. The Word is that light that falls upon a humanity who lives in darkness. God has directed the light of the Word toward human beings. Human beings will find their life as they open themselves to this Word, and therefore to this light and grace.[4]  

Victor Frankl wrote a classic account of his experiences in a Nazi death camp, Man's Search for Meaning. Frankl was taken to a camp. He had been a successful therapist. While in the camp, he spent his time observing himself and his fellow inmates. In fact, his curiosity, his inner determination to learn and to grow even in this horrible setting were major factors in his survival. Frankl noted that some of the prisoners just wasted away and died quickly, even though they had no discernible physical ailments. He recalls a man who one day was doing well, considering the deplorable conditions of the camp. The man often talked of his dream to get out of the camp and to reunite with his dear wife. Then the man received word that his wife had died in another prison camp. And in just a couple of days, the man died. Frankl concluded that the man died, not because of some bodily ailment, not because he lacked food or water, but because he lacked hope. He lacked hope that there was anything to be had beyond the darkness of the bleak prison camp, that there was anything beyond the present anguish of the Nazis and their brutality. We can live, said Frankl, longer without bread than we can live without hope.

Nazi authorities sent Rabbi Hugo Grynn to Auschwitz as a little boy. Amid the concentration camp, amid the death and horror all around them, many Jews held onto whatever shreds of their religious observance they could without drawing the ire of the guards. One cold winter’s evening, Hugo’s father gathered the family in the barracks. It was the first night of Chanukah, the Feast of Lights. The young child watched in horror as his father took the family’s last pad of butter and made a makeshift candle using a string from his ragged clothes. He then took a match and lit the candle. “Father, no!” Hugo cried. “That butter is our last bit of food! How will we survive!” “We can live for many days without food,” his father said. “We cannot live for a single minute without hope. This is the fire of hope. Never let it go out. Not here. Not anywhere.” ^[5]

 

A candle light is a protest at midnight.

It is a non-conformist.

It says to the darkness,

“I beg to differ!”^[6]

 

In her novel, The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan tells of a group of Chinese women who had been brutalized and horrified by the atrocities of the Japanese invasion in the 1930s and '40s. These women asked "How much can you wish for a warm coat that hangs in the closet of a house that burned down with your mother and father in it? How long can you see in your mind arms and legs hanging from telephone wires and starving dogs running down the street with half-chewed hands dangling from their mouths?" Such chaos created terror in their hearts. They had a choice. They could sit and contemplate such horrors with somber faces, or they could "choose their own happiness." Therefore, the four women chose to organize a club. They met once a week over the best meal they could prepare. They played games and told good stories that made them "laugh to death." They could win ten thousand yuan and still not have anything because toilet paper was worth more than paper money! "That made us laugh harder, to think that a thousand-yuan note was not even good enough to rub on our bottoms." They chose their own luck - to laugh at the absurdity and ambiguity of the world around them. They made their own luck during the disaster of war. They named their weekly parties the "Joy Luck Club."

 

Verses 19-28 are the testimony of John the Baptist concerning his role. John offers his testimony referred to in verses 6-7 in a progression of three days, which is of symbolic significance, moving from a negative role for John, to a positive statement of who Jesus is, to sending his own disciples to follow Jesus.  John takes the one trial of Jesus in the Synoptics and makes it apply throughout Jesus’ ministry.  Legal terms abound.  John the Baptist is under interrogation. Although the book does not designate it as one of the signs of Jesus in the opening chapters of this gospel, the witness of John is the first sign. In this gospel, John and Jesus work concurrently. By leading the first disciples to Jesus, John lays the foundations of the believing community that gathers round Jesus and receives his revelation fruitfully. The self-revelation of Jesus has already begun in this section. Nevertheless, in all he does and in all he says, the Baptist always witnesses to Jesus and his messianic identity. The occasion of the testimony of John are the questions designed to discover his identity and he addresses his testimony to the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem who had sent priests and Levites to John. The form it takes begins with a denial that he is the Messiah (ὁ χριστός). The emissaries pressed him as to whether he was Elijah, referring Mal 4:5, where Elijah will appear at the end of time to prepare the world for the imminent arrival of the Messiah. His denial contrasts with Jesus, who identifies John as Elijah (Matthew 11:14, Mark 9:13=Matthew 17:12) in saying that Elijah has come, and the authorities did what they pleased with him. The early church certainly viewed the Baptist as the promised Elijah (Mark 1:2). In asking if John is the prophet, the emissaries refer to a tradition reflected in other part of the biblical tradition. I Maccabees 4:46 looks forward to a prophet who will tell the priests what to do with the desecrated stones of the altar. I Maccabees 14:41 refers to the appointment of a priest until a trustworthy prophet arises. Qumran famously looked forward to a prophet. Acts 3:22 refers to the promise of Moses that a prophet like him would come (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18). By the first century, many Jewish writers interpreted it as an apocalyptic promise who would announce the arrival of the Messiah. Given all of this, we might have some surprise that this gospel has the Baptist reject either title. As the emissaries press John concerning his identity, he begins with an “I am” statement that will major theme of this gospel. He identifies himself with the voice crying in the wilderness to make straight the way of the Lord in Isa 40:3. He is not the Messiah, Elijah, or the prophet, showing a clear trace of an eschatological figure in the popular Palestinian expectation.[7] The emissaries sent by the Pharisees press him further in asking why he is baptizing, showing that his action of baptism remains a mystery to them. Thus, even if John related to the Essene community, as many scholars suggest, his practice of baptism is different from that community, in which baptism was part of the entry into their community and was part of their regular purification rituals. Yet, John downplays his baptizing activity, admitting that he baptizes with water, contrasting himself with the important arrival of another coming after him, alluding to the greatness of the one yet to come, whose sandal he is unworthy to untie. This one stands among them as one unknown. The modesty of John is shown in his willingness to step aside when this one comes. The occasion of this first testimony is further identified as Bethany in Transjordan, unknown from any other source, but it indicates a ford south-east of Jericho, which is less than eight miles from Qumran.[8]

John was a man of exceptional courage. Abraham Lincoln told about the fellow whom the people tarred, feathered, and rode him out of town on a rail. Abe quoted the man as saying, “If it were not for the honor of the thing, I would just as soon it was someone else.” John must have felt that way.

John the Baptist proclaims the advent of a new world, yet it is a world that is not totally new because it is a world based upon the promises of God to Israel. The story of John builds upon this historic expectation for deliverance that the prophets lovingly nurtured in Israel, expectations of which Isaiah 61 so beautifully writes. Martin Luther King Jr. also built upon the historic promises of this nation to its citizens, all its citizens, in this famous speech about King's dream: 

I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream, that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." 

This is our hope. This is our faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together... knowing we will be free one day. 

...And when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from very village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, "Free at Last! Free at Last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"[9]

 

One of literature's most beautiful stories is Leo Tolstoy's, "Where Love is, God is Too," or better known as "Martin the Cobbler."  Martin is an old shoemaker who hears a voice in his deep sleep one night.  The voice tells him that on the very next day the Lord Jesus will visit him.  The next morning, as he begins his work, he does so with a great feeling of expectation and excitement.  He eagerly awaits the coming of the Lord.  But the only visitors he has that day are people in distress.  First, there is an emaciated old beggar with a racking tubercular cough.  The old cobbler takes him in, warms him by the fire and gives him food.  Next comes a half frozen, thinly clad woman carrying a hungry baby in her arms.  She needs food and clothing--and the old shoemaker obliges.  Then, an old woman carrying a bag of apples comes along.  She is terribly upset because a boy has tried to steal the apples.  The cobbler knows the boy and he can bring the two together and reconcile them.  But now the day is ended, and it has not turned out as he had expected.  Martin has not forgotten the promise of the Lord's visit.  In a disappointed and slightly angry voice, he asks: "Where are you Lord?"  Then he falls asleep.  In his sleep he hears the same voice from the previous night, I was hungry, and you fed me.  I was thirsty and you gave me drink.  I was sick and you ministered to me.  God only knows in whom the Christ will appear ... through an old shoemaker or anyone else who ministers in Christ's compassionate way.

---

^[1] Barth (Church Dogmatics, II.2 [36.1] 539)

[2] Raymond Brown

[3] (Dunn, Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation, 1980, 1989), 239.

[4] (Barth, Church Dogmatics, 2004, 1932-67), II.2 [36.1] 539).

^[5] Tom Long tells this story

^[6] (Peter Storey. With God in the Crucible: Preaching Costly Discipleship, [Nashville; Abingdon Press, 2002], 33, 142.)

[7] (Fuller, The Foundations of New Testament Christology, 1965), 47.

[8] (Jeremias, New Testament Theology: The Proclamation of Jesus, 1971), 43.

[9] (Quoted by Doris G. Kinney, Life, Special Issue: The Dream, Then and Now, "The Poetry of Protest: A Sampling of His Message, Which Rang Out Across the Nation," Spring 1988, p. 9.)