JOHN 1: 19-28

                                                                  JOHN 1: 19-28

These verses of dialogue between the Baptist and the emissaries of the religious leaders of the Chosen People, from Jerusalem as the Evangelist notes – Jerusalem being the fixed destination toward which Jesus deliberately will head to fulfill the will of the Father – is fascinating, illuminating dialogue:  equally a serious interrogation of the Baptist, and from him a brilliantly clear catechesis.

While not noted explicitly by the Evangelist no doubt there were various sources of the curiosity, itself a powerful human motivator on the personal level of the questioners, mingled with their mandate from their masters in Jerusalem.

 We can glean from the Synoptic Gospels the various events, both in the life of St. John the Baptist and of Jesus, which would have been known among many of the people at large, certainly by the religious authorities and likewise by the occupying Roman powers and their civil puppets, in the days when this event occurred, Herod and his minions.

Granted some thirty years had passed since the events in the Temple leading to the birth of the Baptist, the Roman census, the birth of Jesus, appearance of the Magi, the slaughter of the children by another Herod – but memory is powerful, a component of history and certainly along with the expectation of ordinary people, the hope filled longing for the promised Messiah, the religious authorities would be versed in the Scriptural promise.

It is, given their subsequent attitude towards Jesus and eventual determination to kill Him, unlikely that the emissaries were sent with a pure motive, for we know those who sent them were ferociously protective of their power, not unlike Herod and the Romans.

This gives critical importance to the way the Evangelist sets the stage for the exchange between the Baptist and his interrogators.

Verse 19 rather than beginning with some phrase such as ‘here is what John said ‘ – or – ‘this is the conversation between…’, stresses this is “the testimony”.

Like the Baptist before us, our whole lives of we the baptized, must be the Gospel lived without compromise. Therefore when asked about, or interrogated about in Whom we believe, we listen for the subtext, the real question being asked.

We do not so much speak/ reply as witness to, testify.

The Gospel is not spread, does no transfer from one human heart to another primarily by teaching, rather it is the radiance of witness which permeates the heart of another.

This is precisely what the Baptist does, testify: for he hears what is truly being asked.

v.19 – “Who are you?”

At this juncture the Evangelist twice uses the term ‘confessed’ as a descriptive of the Baptist’s response.

Most people hearing the terms ‘confessed, confesses, confession’ assume the reference is admission of guilt for some crime or sin.

There is another form of confession: confession of faith.

This is the articulation not primarily of a series of doctrines believed in but rather of testifying about the One in Whom we believe, the truth we have received from Him in the gift of faith received with Baptism.

In the case of St. John the Baptist much would have been illuminated within him through his profound listening silence during his desert years, so the Baptist does not tell them who he is, rather hearing the real question tells them, v. 20 –“I am not the Christ.”

He has heard the yearning of the People of the Promise, the Chosen People, the People of Israel and within them the yearning of every human being from Adam to every beating heart on earth today.

Then comes the second challenge of his interrogators, v. 21 – What then? Are you Elijah?”

If he is not the Messiah then they must probe, from their tradition about who will proceed the Messiah, a returned Elijah, if John is him, in other words is the Messiah coming soon?

The Baptist’s reply is succinct: “I am not.”

They reach back even further into Scripture, to the declaration of Moses [Deut.18: 15-19] as the promise of the Prophet, i.e. the Messiah.

“Are you the Prophet?’

“No.”

St. John the Baptist is a prophet, not the Prophet.

He is the last prophet of the Hebrew Scriptures.

After the Baptist the Father no longer sends ‘prophets’ to announce the promise, for in Jesus, the Prophet, the Messiah, the promise is fulfilled.

Jesus is the final word of the Father to us, the complete word, the redeeming, life-giving word.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Father’s love for us.

Anyone claiming to be ‘the prophet’ since Jesus is a liar.

There is in the next question a degree of desperation, a sense of fearful urgency, on the surface because these minions must return to their masters with some answer – when in reality the deeper source of their question is the expectancy in every human heart of hearing, finally, that the Messiah is among us.

v.22 – “Who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

It is very human to want to be able to define other – and this leads most of the time to us prejudicially putting one another in some kind of box.

It is a power and control thing.

The opposite of what Jesus does!

Jesus loves us as we are in the moment, for He knows who we are, children of the Father, sinners in need of redemption, beloved of God.

The Baptist does not allow himself to be defined, boxed in, and categorized according to whatever preconceptions his interrogators have.

This is the moment of catechesis!

v.23 – Drawing on Isaiah 40:3, the Baptist declares: ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord.”’

We the baptized live in an immense and complex wilderness of the cold darkness of the culture of death in what has been named the ‘post-Christian’ era; in the wilderness of anti-Christian governments, terrorists, and a media which is both anti-Christian and anti-life; in the wilderness of parishes which more often than not are mere liturgical gatherings of a Sunday rather than joyously vibrant communities of love; an era so anti-family as to be heartbreaking; an era of absolutely unnecessary poverty, homelessness, hunger, loneliness, because we live in the wilderness of ego, fear and greed.

How desperately our brothers and sisters who co-dwell with us in the vast wilderness need to hear our voice cry out!

v.24 – At this juncture the Evangelist introduces another group present at the interrogation of the Baptist who, apparently until now, have remained silent: the Pharisees.

Eventually they will become the prime challengers of Jesus and become so steeped in denial of Him, outright hatred of Him, they will egregiously violate the very Law they claim to treasure in order to kill Him.

For now they tip their hand, using a challenge they will later throw at Jesus, to wit ‘by what authority!’ – while not asked directly of the Baptist the challenge is implied, v. 25 – “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

Once again the Baptist will not be boxed in, rather he again seizes the moment to catechize.

v.26-27: “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.”

Silence!

No expression of a desire to meet the Messiah, the Christ.

No further challenge.

Silence!

Perhaps they slunk away like the accusers of the woman caught in adultery.

The following verse is simply the Evangelist, after the Baptist’s humble catechesis, indicating where this event happened.

We are left to wonder what report the interrogators made back in Jerusalem to their masters.

Look closely at the sandal dangling from the foot of the Child in His Mother’s arms.

This icon, attributed to St. Luke, is almost like a quick snapshot taken in mid event.

Perhaps he asked Our Lady to pick up Jesus to make the original sketch and one sandal fell off, the other about to fall.

In any event Our Blessed Mother, like all mothers, was worthy to loosen and to put on the sandals of her child.

Jesus, through His redemptive Passion, Death, Resurrection, in the sacrament of Baptism, wherein we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to love and serve one another, makes us worthy to do more than loosen sandals, more than to wash feet in His memory, but grants that every act of love, every cup of water, morsel of food, care, visit given to another human being IS an act of loving service of Jesus Himself.

May She who cared for the Child help us to care for Him in one another.