John 1:19-23 "The Voice"

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.  He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 
John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’"

In order to grasp what is going on in this passage we need to understand just a little about the political landscape of Israel at the time.

Anyone who was attracting as much attention as John the Baptist needed to investigated.  First, because of the Romans.  The Jewish people lived uneasily under Roman rule, and it would not take much to set off Roman brutality.  So, Jewish leaders tried hard to keep tabs on what was going on politically in Israel.  Second, many Jewish people were actually expecting and looking for the appearance of the promised Messiah -most people believing that when Messiah came, he would liberate them from Roman rule.

So, the temple leaders sent a delegation to the Judean countryside where John was preaching and baptizing people.  John knew why they were there, and accommodated their questions.  Even before they actually asked, John said, "I am not the Messiah."

Because of a passage from the prophet Malachi, some believed that Elijah, the great Old Testament prophet, would bodily return just before the actual Messiah arrived, so this delegation asked, and John answered plainly, "I am not."

 Other people believed that the Messiah would be accompanied by a new great prophet -someone like Moses who had delivered the Israelites from Egypt.  Maybe, this delegation speculated, John was that prophet.  Again, John answered plainly, "No."

It seemed that John was implying that he claimed no connection to the coming Messiah, so they asked him, "Who are you?  What do you say about yourself?"


John then made clear his role: he was a voice.  His message was a quote from the prophet Isaiah, "Make straight the way for the Lord."  He was, indeed, preparing the way for Messiah.


We can learn an important lesson from John.  In our day, we seem to have a lot of preachers and teachers who do not understand their roles.  Too many are overly concerned with  maintaining and proving their annointings.  Too many are focused on building their ministries.  Too many are trying too hard to be important and influential.  Too many are building their own kingdoms, forgetting that we have a King and we have a Kingdom. 


We, like John, are simply voices bearing witness to the truth and reality of our King.  A voice is focused on the message, not the messenger.  The message of Christ's redeeming love needs to be spoken and demonstrated, not just in mega-churches and TV ministries and religious venues where Christians gather -but in the wilderness.  Christ's love needs to be spoken in the back streets and alleys and sidewalks and marketplaces -to the lonely, the hurting, the fearful, the skeptical and the confused.  We are the messengers, not the message.  This needs to stop being about us and start being about Jesus.  So much depends on our getting this right.


Lord Jesus, help me today to get this right in my own life and ministry.  I am a messenger; You are the message.  Amen.