John 1: 19-28

Having read this passage so many times and seen it as purely informational, this time I sat with it a while. I tried to picture it in my mind, and think about what is not said as much as what is.

So here's the scene. John the Baptist is in Bethany baptizing people in the Jordan river. Now, Bethany was a town outside of Jerusalem to the north, at least a few miles away. It wasn't just around the corner, and to get there through the rugged, mountainous countryside you would have had to walk, ride a donkey, or (if you were rich) possibly be carried in a litter. So it says that the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask John who he was. Well, there were at least two of each - so at least 4 men. But since there's strength in numbers and they obviously saw John as some sort of threat, I'm sitting here imagining that possibly this whole troop of priests and Levites (who knows, maybe the whole Sandhedrin) and all their various assistants and hangers-on leading a stately parade over hill and dale to go confront John. And I can imagine that they would have dressed in their official capacity - wearing their priestly robes so there was no mistake they were there on business.

And this whole parade of priests, reeking of priestly authority descends on John, wearing his camel's hair robe (or less) tied up around his knees, standing in the Jordan river baptizing people. And when they get there they start peppering him with questions like he's an escaped criminal.

Now, these priests and Levites - they know the law of Moses inside and out. They've been schooled on it since they were young boys and they know every jot and tittle and the application thereof. They know every Scripture pertaining to the Messiah and can quote you chapter and verse. But they don't know what role John is playing, who he represents. Or maybe some of them do suspect, and are afraid of what it means for them.

John answers their questions by quoting their own Scripture at them - from Isaiah 40:3. That still doesn't answer their question so they ask him outright why (basically by whose authority) is he baptizing if he is not the Messiah or Elijah (who they believed would come back at the end of all days).

And when John tells them "I baptize with water, but among you stand one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie" they evidently clam up and have no more to say.

Here was the forerunner of the Messiah, whose Scriptures they knew inside and out, yet they didn't recognize him.

The text doesn't say what they did next. Maybe they all turned around and began trudging back to the city, muttering under their breath. Maybe they all closed their ears and their hearts that day. Or maybe some of them stayed behind, and watched and listened.

Perhaps Nicodemus had come along on this official trip and stayed to see Jesus revealed at His baptism.

This is just my own speculation. But what's very obvious is the religious leaders of the day did not recognize what God was doing, and they were not happy with the answers they received.

John 1: 14-18

Okay, I got a little stuck writing this post. Not because this passage isn't profound enough, but because I suffered from a case of the "ordinaries" yesterday. I want to be really profound when I write. But as my dear friend D always reminds me, "You're not God. Let God be God and you be you."

So here's what I kept pondering yesterday. I am totally hooked on the reality show, The Bachelor. Why, I have no idea. Because of it's romantic sounding premise or because it's usually a train wreck or some weird combination of both. I'm an arm chair observer of human nature. And while contemplating this passage what kept occurring to me is that what John was trying to get across was that Jesus was the Real Deal.

You think you've met glorious, beautiful, graceful, gracious people. But no matter how good they look, or how wonderful they appear - if you scratch below the surface, you get ugly. Sometimes, real ugly. Like the folks on The Bachelor. They all look beautiful, gracious, glamorous. And then they open their mouths. Or someone makes them mad. See just how gracious they are then.

But not Jesus. Not only did He have God's authority - the law which God gave to Moses - he had God's character. All of it. In fact, despite artists' renditions over the years, the Bible tells us that Jesus (outwardly) was nothing special to look at.

Isaiah 53:2 "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."

And yet people followed him in droves to hear him speak, to receive just a touch from him, to be present at a house where he'd been invited as a dinner guest. God writing with his finger his law on tablets of stone is more than a little awe-full and intimidating. God walking around with skin on was so popular 4 men once dug through a roof to get their paralyzed friend to him.

I need to keep reminding myself that God is both - the glory and the grace. Without the grace that God showed us in and through Jesus, all we have is more rules to follow. I have to remind myself (sometimes daily) that in his earthly lifetime, the only people Jesus got angry with were the hypocrites (like the Pharisees and the money changers). All who came to him in faith, received grace.

John 1: 1-13

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." John 1: 1-5

I turn to this passage often to remind me just how big our God is - how awesome, and all-encompassing, and indescribable. I learned a while back that John started his gospel with "In the beginning" on purpose to tie in with the "In the beginning" of Genesis 1:1. He wanted people (especially his own people, the Jews) to know that yes, he really meant that Jesus was THAT God. The I AM, (YWVH), the thrice Holy and indescribable one whose Name should not even be pronounced.

The original Greek for Word is Logos. LOGOS means "something said, including the thought, by implication a topic or subject of discourse, also reasoning." So in the beginning of all things, Jesus was that which was said (God spoke all of creation into existence), the subject, and all the thought and reasoning behind it. Well. That about sums it up. Case closed, let's go home.

So, that guy that John the Baptist baptized, who worked as a carpenter for a while, then went around teaching about God and performing miracles - yeah, you're looking at, talking to, eating with God Who Was In The Beginning who was also the thought and reasoning behind everything that was created. Wow.

John the Baptist was sent by God to testify about the light, that is, Jesus. The Greek for light meant to shine, or make manifest (also fire.) In the Old Testament, God manifested himself as a pillar of fire to go before the Jews as he led them out of bondage in Egypt. Jesus is that holy fire burning in the bush that Moses saw.

And yet, John tells us, the world did not recognize Him. How far we have fallen from the Garden of Eden, when God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. You light a match in a dark room, it's pretty obvious. Even more so, a bonfire or a forest fire. Yet they (and we) miss the HOLY fire, the biggest one of all - even walking among us.

Despite this, God makes his amazing offer:
"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."

Even though we are so blind as to miss this blazing bonfire that is God before us, He still wants us back as his children.

Introduction to the Gospel of John

If you really want to know something about a person, you ask their best friend. The apostle John was Jesus' best earthly friend. The "beloved disciple." Or, as John himself puts it, "the disciple whom Jesus loved." The Gospel of John is my personal favorite. It's the one I turn to the most for comfort, encouragement, and strength. It's the one I tell someone to start with if they tell me they want to read the Bible but don't know where to start. Unlike Matthew, Mark, and Luke (whom experts believe all used the same source material) John's gospel is fresh, different. It pulses with the vibrancy of one who knew Jesus personally, and not just personally, but as an intimate friend as well. It includes stories about Jesus and things that He said that are not included in the other three gospels.

Mostly I read it often because I keep hoping that what John knew and experienced of Jesus will rub off on me. I long to think of myself as "a disciple whom Jesus loved."

(A sidenote: I had thought to post on a chapter per day, but as I dig into this gospel, I am realizing that I must simply go where the Spirit leads - there is just too much in a whole chapter to do it justice. Each day will be more of a topical section than a whole chapter.)

* Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
** Hebrew and Greek definitions from The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Copyright 1995, 1996 by Thomas Nelson Publishers