daily java

Daily Java:

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.” Then John testified, “I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Chosen One of God.” (John 1:29-51)

It is funny that you can look at something for a long time and then suddenly see it.

Jesus’ mother, Mary, and John’s mother, Elizabeth were close. More than likely, since she was so much older, Elizabeth had died in the time between the conceptions and John’s and Jesus’ adulthoods. But since the two women were close, it is probably John and Jesus knew each other.

And all this time, John had looked at Jesus and just saw his cousin. Then, when Jesus came to be baptized, John realized that he was more that just his cousin. He was the Messiah John had been sent to proclaim.

It probably didn’t surprise him, or shock him. Jesus lived such a life that John’s revelation was more an “Oh, yeah!” moment than anything else.

I was working out in a gym in the middle 1990’s. I had taken a couple of college courses and got a free gym class as part of the deal. So I decided to do weight-lifting. There were all kinds of people in there, and I was ultimately paired up with another guy who wanted to lift a lot. Near the end of the course, he mentioned something, did I like to do that. I said no, I didn’t do whatever he said. he thought back across the time we had been together and said, well, what are you? Some kind of preacher?

I hadn’t told him what I did so I answered yes and then waited for his response. His answer: Oh. That makes sense.

I considered for a moment if he would be shocked. You! A preacher? But it didn’t surprise him and I was glad.

When John saw Jesus, he wasn’t shocked. Surprised, yes. The Messiah had been under his nose all this time, but shocked? No.

John didn’t know what was going to happen now. But he knew his job was to introduce the Messiah in the spirit of Elijah (Malachi 3). And he had done it. How much more would he work and what else would he do for the Messiah? He didn’t know, but he knew this: his main job was through.

It wasn’t any time until he was dead, beheaded by a man  who secretly admired him on the whim of a girl of dubious morality. A sad way to go. But as Jesus said, a great man.

daily java

Daily Java:

As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. “What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind? Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people with expensive clothes live in palaces. Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say,
     ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
      and he will prepare your way before you.’
“I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is! And from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it. For before John came, all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to this present time. And if you are willing to accept what I say, he is Elijah, the one the prophets said would com. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” (Matthew 11:7-15)

John the Baptizer is about to die. And Jesus tells about how good and strong he has been in the pursuit of God’s will.

Jesus said that John was a strong individual, one who was uncompromising in his service to God. In fact, Jesus said that he was one of the greatest men who ever lived. In fact, it was he who began the preaching about the Kingdom of God. He was the one Malachi talked about at the end of his book, the last one in the Old Testament.

A greater person never lived. But, Jesus said, the smallest person in the Kingdom of Heaven, the most insignificant person in that kingdom, has something John never had: membership in the church of our Lord Jesus.

John came to point out. After Jesus died, what John was pointing out came to pass. John was preparatory, we are part of the fulfillment.

All those who came before the death of Jesus were old law, old covenant. All those afterwards are new covenant.

All of the prophets and teachers who had ever lived before Jesus looked forward to the day when the great plan of God would be revealed. But they did not get to participate in it. They were Old Testament.

As members of the church, we have a position that they envied. Isaiah writes about the stripes of Jesus healing (Isiah 53), we are healed by those stripes. Malachi writes about the spirit of Elijah being present in someone who prepared the way for the Messiah. We know that person now to be John the Baptizer. All of the Old Testament prophecies are seen now in the context of their fulfillment.

We know things they only dreamed of knowing. On one level, there is no way I could ever be as great as John. But on another, I have access to God in the Kingdom of Heaven in a way that John never dreamed.

I am a child of God in a way John never conceived of.