I can hear the sarcasm in John's voice as he says
“This
is the One about whom I told you,
‘He who comes after me is above me, because He was before me.’”
(John
1:30
TLV)
John is not only Jesus' cousin, but we might rightly assume they spent time hanging out with each other. If that is true, then John may have had a loose understanding of what was coming. But, then again, separated by the miles of dirt paths that have to be walked, they may not have had insight into each other's ministerial plans.
As we watched the second episode of season two of The Chosen, we were given scenes and conversations that may have happened; this creates an illusion that could lead you astray if you do not know the Biblical narrative. For example, as the episode begins, we are introduced to Nathaniel, an architect. The problem is that the scriptures do not tell us that Nathaniel was an architect nor that he had a hand in a construction project that collapsed and no one died. The only passage that refers to some structure falling comes from Luke’s gospel, but it has no association with any names. So to assign this to one character is pure assumption.
“Or
those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and were killed, do
you suppose that they are worse sinners than all the people living in
Jerusalem?”
(Luke
13:4 TLV)
We assume that John recognized Jesus, and perhaps rightfully so, but you cannot exclude the insight of the Holy Spirit. My experience with the Holy Spirit has been one of taking some embarrassing risks if it does not go well. Fortunately, most of my exhibitions of faith worked out well.
John's next sentence was earth-shaking and, to many Pharisees, blasphemous.
“ He who comes after me is above me, because He was before me.”
I am always, as the British say, gobsmacked when I hear someone say Jesus never claimed to be God. With a statement like John's, he did not have to. In the previous post, I talked about the Pharisees saying to John, who are you? This thickheaded question becomes more obvious when you realize that John's father, Zacharias, was a priest.
“In
the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias,
of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of
Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
They were both righteous in the sight of God,
walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the
Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they
were both advanced in years.”
(Luke 1:5-7 NASB)
Zacharias, on a particular sabbath, was doing his customary service.
“Now it
happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God
in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of
the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple
of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the
people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of
the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel,
and fear gripped him.”
(Luke 1:8-12 NASB)
If you were an older man, who longed for a son, what would you do when you found out that your wife, who, too, is old, is pregnant? You would probably dance.
“But the angel
said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has
been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will
give him the name John. "You will have joy and gladness, and
many will rejoice at his birth. "For he will be great in the
sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will
be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. "And
he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their
God.”
(Luke 1:13-16 NASB)
Now, in light of John's declaration, we have this.
"It is he who
will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah,
TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the
disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a
people prepared for the Lord."
(Luke 1:17 NASB)
John, the baptizer, said, “ He who comes after me is above me, because He was before me.” This becomes odd, knowing full well that John is at least a couple of months older and started his “ministry” before Jesus officially stepped out onto the world’s stage. Nevertheless, in saying He was before me, John acknowledges that Jesus is God and, as the Apostle John’s gospel declares, Jesus. The baptizer did not write these words, but he seemed to understand that Jesus was everything that the Apostle John expressed.
“In the beginning the Word already existed.”
“In the beginning
the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was already with God in the beginning.
Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing
that exists was made without him. He was the source of life, and
that life was the light for humanity.”
(John 1:1-4 GW)
The God's Word translation says it this way.
“He is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘A man who comes after me was before me because he existed before I did.’” (John 1:30 GW)
In the light of the lunacy that a man can have a baby, John announced that Yeshua, the man, was coming.
Do you not realize that it was His choice to become a man (we are told “for the joy set before Him,) and that He remains a man, next to God the Father, to this day, and He will forever be a man, with us, through eternity?
Many translations convey John 1:31 like this “I didn’t know Him.” Again, the series The Chosen created an image that I long to be true in my mind and spirit. John the baptist is brash, outspoken in the show, and has a standard Jewish, sarcastic wit. Jesus, on the other hand, is calm and refined, considering we encounter Him living in a tent on the edge of a forested area with water nearby, and He, too, is adept at Jewish sarcasm. So for the baptizer to say, “I didn’t know Him,” is absurd.
The NLT makes more sense to me.
“I
did not recognize him as the Messiah,
but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to
Israel.”
(John
1:31
NLT)
To validate the idea that John did not recognize the calling upon Jesus or who He was, you have to consider that John sent some of his own disciples to ask Jesus if he was the one they had been waiting for.
At a point in the narrative, John has been imprisoned for speaking out against Herod having his brother’s wife. An essential piece of information about Herod, which we sort of glaze over, was that Herod part Jewish. This may have made Herod somewhat open to Jewish ideas and ways. John the baptist sent some of his remaining disciples; several, like James, John, and Philip, had broken off from John and joined Jesus’ ranks.
“Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”
“John
the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the
Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are
you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for
someone else?”
Jesus told them, “Go
back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— the blind
see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the
poor.”
(Matthew
11:2-5
NLT)
“but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.”
I covered the baptism of John in a previous post on John chapter one, but let’s say that baptism was performed in the Torah primarily for cleansing rituals. It was also associated with laying the priest’s hands upon the scapegoat, releasing the person from their sins, as they watched the goat be released into the wilderness, never to be seen again (Jesus fulfilled that role for us.) The oddity is Jesus’ response to John, for John had said, I need to be baptized by you. Jesus told him that He needed to fulfill all righteousness.
“Let
it be so on this occasion,” Jesus replied, “for
so we ought to fulfill every religious duty.”
Then he consented;.”
(Matthew 3:15 Weymouth)
If the priesthood had made baptism a law, then Jesus participated merely to quiet their ability to say that Jesus circumvented the law.
The question was rather specific toward the Jewish community, but doesn't it apply to us as well?
Of course, it does because all scripture...
“All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration, and for training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16 TLV)
The “Tree of Life Version” quotes the baptizer as saying, “so that He might be revealed to Israel.”
Did John's actions cause Jesus to be revealed to Israel?
Not necessarily, although God surely sent His own endorsement by announcing that this was His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased. I will use Matthew's account even though Jesus had not yet begun gathering disciples to Himself, which makes Matthew's account feel odd because we read the gospels as though these men were standing there. Luke's gospel is said to have been from Peter's recollections.
Does this diminish what we read?
No, it should cause you to rejoice as these accounts validate and add detail others left out. Mark's gospel is another second-hand account.; and yet, Mark's gospel, as Dr. Chuck Missler related, is a fast-action, cinematic style, as Mark details events like the lepers who came to Jesus for healing, but only one would come back to give Him thanks.
“In
those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by
John in the Jordan. Immediately
coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the
Spirit like a dove descending upon Him,
and a voice came out of the heavens: "You are My beloved Son, in
You I am well-pleased."
(Mark
1:9-11
NASB)
The Tree of Life version conveys this scene in this manner.
“In
those days, Yeshua came from Natzeret in the Galilee and was immersed
by John in the Jordan. Just
as He was coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens ripping open
and the Ruach as a dove coming down upon Him.
And there came a voice from the heavens: “You are My Son, whom I
love; with You, I am well pleased!”
(Mark
1:9-11 TLV)
The differences may not be critical, but one that catches my attention could be. Note how the NASB ends with “You are my beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” The proud and acknowledging statement about how Jesus is beloved is common in most translations, and it is how I would expect the Father to react. But the TLV merely says, “You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased!” Suddenly I realized that, in a way, both translations made the same affirmations. If I place it on paper in a different format and mentally apply some actor's voice, as he wears a regal outfit, then it makes more sense.
You are My Son,
whom I love;
with
You, I am well pleased!
(This
exclamation, in my mind, comes across as a loud stamp of approval.)
Now, this, no matter what order the words fell into the sentence, would have announced Jesus to the world.
Immediately, I heard the Holy Spirit say, okay, what about the angels singing and shining a light upon the manger the night He was born.
Do you think that the priests, Pharisees, and high council saw and knew about what was happening that night?
They did and admitted as much upon questioning by Herod.
Don't you wonder if others heard God's voice that day?
The problem was that the crowd standing around may not have heard those words, but I cannot confirm or deny such a statement and must therefore ignore it; the reason is that there are examples of God speaking, like through a burning bush that was NOT consumed, but Moses heard the voice. When Moses went up to the mountain and God spoke to him, all the people could hear was thunder. On the Mount of Olives, when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus, God spoke, and the three disciples heard what He said. So it goes both ways.
God is speaking to all of us in many ways. Some of the more recent manners would be the massive earthquakes impacting Turkey and Syria; as of 2/11/23, the combined death toll has surpassed 25,000. And, all the while, Russia is systematically blowing Ukraine to pieces.
We, the church, are seeing the last throws before the church is removed from the earth. This sort of sounds like a science fiction account, but it is not. Jesus, in response to the disciples questioning, gave them a detailed report of events that would come about just before His wrath is to be poured out upon the earth. All the methods and players are in place for an attempt at global domination, and the things we are experiencing and witnessing are mere children's toys compared to what is coming. The tribulation years will be hell on earth, and it will be non-stop.
My suggestion to you is to put your faith and trust in Jesus.
