By Jeffery M. Leonard, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Religion, Samford University
John: Single-Minded Focus
John 1:26–34; 3:26–30
Some of the Bible’s most interesting characters are those who live out beyond the edges of polite society. A person like Ezekiel comes to mind. Ezekiel’s outlandish physical illustrations of his prophecies made him anything but mainstream. Using a sword to shave off his hair in the public square, lying for more than a year in front of a model of Jerusalem, cooking meals over camel dung — all of these served to make Ezekiel an outsider even among his own fellow Israelites.
Elijah was a character cut from the same cloth. Soon after we are introduced to Elijah, we find the prophet out in the wilderness, drinking from a brook and being fed by food-bearing ravens. With hardly an ally to stand beside him, Elijah challenged King Ahab and his powerful wife, Jezebel, and threw down the gauntlet to their god, Baal, and his many priests. But no sooner had Elijah won the battle with Baal than he was off again to the wilderness, alone once again.
The New Testament contains its own roster of “characters on the edge.” Few characters lived so completely on the edge as did John the Baptist. When we first meet John in Mark’s Gospel we can’t help but raise an eyebrow: “Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey” (1:6).
And John was certainly not one to mince words when it came to his preaching. He lambasted the religious leaders of the day with words like, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:7). Such an odd character and yet Jesus once said of John, “Among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John” (Matt. 11:11). This is high praise indeed.
Point to the greatness and salvation of Jesus. (1:26–30)
But what was it that elicited such praise from Jesus? Like the “edgy” characters noted above, John was a man of singular focus. Willing to endure the scorn of more respectable circles if necessary, John was focused squarely on his task. Come life or death all must know that the Messiah’s arrival had come. In John 1 we find John already pointing his audience toward Jesus. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” was the heart of his message.
Point to your encounter with Jesus. (1:31–34)
The Baptizer goes on in the Gospel of John to explain his own process of coming to accept Jesus as Messiah. We know from the other Gospels that John was determined to proclaim the coming Messiah even if it led to his own death. For a time it was not entirely clear that Jesus of Nazareth would, in fact, turn out to be that Messiah. But in John 1, John the Baptist narrates the path his own mind took in coming to recognize Jesus as that promised one. John shares with his hearers the process he himself underwent to accept this Jesus.
Point to Jesus, not yourself. (3:26–30)
Later, John the Baptist gives us further insight into his own relationship with Jesus. Troubled at the loss of their audience to Jesus, John’s own disciples ask John what he plans to do about it. John explains with something like: “Jesus is the Messiah, not me. I am just the best man who gets to revel in the Groom’s special day.” John’s final words in this passage are among the most simple and yet profound in all of Scripture: “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Given the tendencies of our own fallen hearts this may be John’s most “edgy” comment of all.
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