Saturday after Ash Wednesday (February 21). Just a voice

Prepare to Listen.  For it is the God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
 
Prayerfully Read John 1:19-28
This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’  He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’  And they asked him, ‘What then?  Are you Elijah?’  He said, ‘I am not.’  ‘Are you the prophet?’  He answered, ‘No.’  Then they said to him, ‘Who are you?  Let us have an answer for those who sent us.  What do you say about yourself?’  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.  Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.  They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’  John answered them, ‘I baptize with water.  Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’  This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
John the Baptizer is introduced to readers as a witness come to testify to the Light.  When asked to testify about himself, John identified himself as the voice, as told about in Isaiah.
 
The Jews, meaning the Pharisees and not all ethnic Jews, had a right to know who John was.  They were the guardians of correct doctrine and belief.  John, an unknown posted on the outskirts on the wrong side of the Jordan and not in the Temple, was unsettling the people with his new baptism of repentance.  “Who are you?” was a legitimate question.  But John refuses to give a direct answer.  He delights us with his brief and puzzling responses.  He begins with who he is not.  The writer is emphatic, giving a threefold emphasis—he confessed, did not deny, but confessed— he was not the Messiah.  They hadn’t asked if he was!
 
When they tried with specific questions, John was abrupt—I am not; No.  He refused to state his name or say who he is.  Of course they insisted, and that’s when John said, “I am the voice,” the one prophet Isaiah wrote about.  John, the preacher, the baptizer is nothing, has no importance.  It’s as if John says, ‘Don’t look at me.  Look up beyond me, listen and wait for me to point to you the right one.  He’s already standing among you.’
 
John’s awe of Jesus the Messiah and his humble willingness to remain unimportant, just a voice, is obvious.  He is not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.  How willing are you to remain nothing more than a humble voice to the truth in Jesus?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Help me be more like John, O Lord.  Just the voice ready to point people to you.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Practice humility this Lent.