John Baptist Denies Being The Christ (J4)

“If you’re not the Messiah, who are you?”
“A voice of one in the desert, crying out,
‘Make the path of the Savior straight and true;
Level all the hills, making smooth His route!’
I’m not the Christ; with water I baptize,
Am unworthy to untie His shoe lace;
With pow’r and fire, His great Kingdom will rise,
The Holy Spirit spreading truth and grace!
He now stands among you; you know Him not;
When His fame rises, I, John, must decline.”
The Sanhedrin’s spies thought John they had got—
That he would falsely claim to be divine!
Jesus was among them, though still unknown;
John named Him the Christ, when that day had gone!

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John [the Baptist] testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, ‘This was he of whom I said, From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.’ “ (John 1:14-17) [Brackets added]

This poem and commentary are based upon the gospel Book of John, the apostle, Chapter 1, verses 14-28. Remember that the scripture was written by John, the apostle, and he is reporting on the testimony of another man named John, called the Baptist or Baptizer, who attracted great crowds just before the Messiah, who was Jesus of Nazareth, appeared. Try not to confuse John Apostle, the author, with John Baptist, about whom he is writing.

The comment made by John, the apostle, in verse 1:14: “We have seen his glory”, must refer to his own experience, with his brother, James, and Peter had when invited by Jesus; they went with Him up the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13). There, in great astonishment, they saw their leader Jesus in His heavenly attire:

"His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.” (Matthew 17:2-3)

Can you see why John (the author) is so dogmatic about Jesus really being the divine Son of God? Three men, like us, like all men, seeing a sight like that!!! It would convince me about who Jesus was and is.

The ruling council of priests was called the Sanhedrin. They were very accustomed to dealing with the many imposters of the Messiah that appeared in Israel; they would send “investigators” to the spot, who would get the imposter to claim to be God, and since that was blasphemy, he was usually dragged off to jail. They expected no difference with John the Baptist. But he steadfastly denied being the Christ; instead he referred to Isaiah 40:3, where there was a well-known prophecy about “A voice crying in the wilderness”. The priestly spies could not accuse him of blasphemy, because, for all they knew, John was the legitimate forerunner of Messiah. John did not even claim to be Elijah (Malachi 4:5-6), although Jesus said he was Elijah in Matthew 17:11-13.

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)