John 1:29-34
The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
Interestingly, although we call John “the Baptist,” he never baptizes Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, he baptized plenty of other people, enough so that some of the religious authorities questioned him about it. But he doesn’t baptize Jesus. At least, he doesn’t report that. Instead, all John does is to declare who Jesus is – the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
And then he tells a story. He tells the story of what he saw. One day – we can probably assume he was baptizing people – John saw Jesus came to the river. But before John could cup his hand to catch some water with which to baptize Jesus, the Spirit already descended on him and remained there, abided there. And he, John, heard a voice – the same voice that had called him to baptize in the first place – tell him that this one, on whom the Spirit descended and abided, this was the one sent to baptize not just with water but with the Holy Spirit.
John tells a story. He tells what he saw. He didn’t know Jesus. Didn’t know at first what to make of him. But he was willing to tell the story of what he saw and heard and experienced first hand.
John is a witness.
And he is an example.
Witnessing isn’t about shoving our faith down someone else’s throat. It’s not about threatening people with hellfire if they don’t believe. It’s not about converting people.
Witnessing is just like the word means – it’s being willing to tell others what you see, where you see God at work, even when you don’t know what to make of it.
Anyone can be a witness. John can. I can. You can, too.
Prayer: Dear God, open our eyes to see your presence in our lives and give us courage to tell others what we see. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Thanks for your good thoughts about being a witness. But I’m curious about your first premise in light of the other Gospels; i.e., Mark 1:9–
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”
Hi, Gary. I was just referencing the way John’s Gospel tells the story where John the Baptist sees Jesus’ baptism by the Spirit but doesn’t participate. It’s one of those interesting places where the evangelist tells the story a bit differently in order to make a slightly different point.
Love the definition of witnessing and agree emphatically.
Also glad you answered Gary’s question above cause I had the same one, good explanation of different focus, but how come John didn’t know Jesus his cousin?
Wasn’t John’s mother Elisabeth Mary’s Aunt? Or is that just traditional story telling based on assumption?