John the Baptist

I'm reading through the Gospel of John. Just started out. I found John the Baptist to be an interesting fellow.

We are first introduced to him this way:

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. (John 1:6)

Clean, straightforward. Most of us don't blink an eye. But I was fascinated by the phrase, "a man sent from God." He wasn't merely a voice in the wilderness, a nut in a camel hair suit, an oddity. He was a man sent by God.

The text makes it abundantly clear what John's purpose was and what it was not. He "came as a witness" (John 1:7) to Christ. That was his purpose. On the other hand, "He was not the Light" (John 1:8). Yes, he was sent from God. Yes, he was a witness. But don't get ahead of the story. He was not the Messiah.

Then there was John's testimony. When he actually saw Jesus (his cousin), he "cried out, saying, 'This was He of whom I said, "He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me."'" (John 1:15) Now, hang on a minute, John. Jesus is your cousin ... your younger cousin. We know that Jesus was 6 months younger than John. Yet John claims "He existed before me." If that's not a clear claim to the deity of Christ, I don't know what is.

I want to be a John the Baptist. I want to be a witness, pointing to the Light. Not me. The Light. I want to be sent by God for that task. Not me. Sent by God. I want to point to the real Christ, the Christ who is God rather than a nice fellow. The Christ who is God above all others rather than "one of the boys." A Christ who brings light with authority that demands our attention and ought to be obeyed and followed -- the Christ who is a higher rank than I. Not me. He gets all the attention.

I know, I know. "We've read about John the Baptist, Stan, and you're no John the Baptist." I know. But I want to be.