Recognizing the Messiah
Second Sunday after Epiphany, January 15, 2023
Isaiah 49:1-7 • 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 • John 1:29-42
For those of you who were here last week, this story might sound familiar. Didn’t we just hear the story of the Baptism of Jesus last week? We did, but this week we hear it from the perspective of John the Evangelist. One of the beautiful truths about the Christian Bible is that our narrative of the life of Jesus is not just recorded from a single source, but from many. Indeed, we know of the four that are contained in our Canon, but there are many others which did not make the cut, and some which are completely outside our tradition. Each version of the narrative brings out a piece of the story, opens us up to more of the truth.
The story of the revealing of truth through the brief ministry of Jesus is important and complicated, and so it is no wonder that many writers have attempted to tell the story in their words. I think back to my days of writing my thesis, and how a single source was insufficient proof of a point. I would seek a corroborating text before I quoted it. Such it is with the Gospel.
And like writing a thesis, sometimes it’s the small points that catch our attention and send us down a particular path of research. From our Gospel text today, it is the repetition of John the Baptist’s assertion “I, myself, did not know him...” that catches my attention. Why, John? Why is this so important that you brought it to light twice?
And, it makes me doubly wonder what is going on here. They were cousins, right? Or so the story tells us; cousins who did not live far from each other, and who were approximately the same age. I grew up with my cousins, we played together, we knew each other. I am sure you did, too. So, why does John the Baptist insist that he does not know his cousin when he sees him?
Since we are bringing in other sources here, I am going to go off script for a bit. There is another greatly respected text that talks about the figure of John the Baptist, and which might help us. It is written some 500 years after St. John’s Gospel; it comes from the Qu’ran.
We learn there of Yahya ibn Zackariya,
˹The angels announced,˺ "O Zachariya! Indeed, We give you the good news of the birth of a son, whose name will be Yahya—a name We have not given to anyone before."
He wondered, "My Lord! How can I have a son when my wife is barren, and I have become extremely old?"
An angel replied, "So will it be! Your Lord says, 'It is easy for Me, just as I created you before, when you were nothing!'"
Zachariya said, "My Lord! Grant me a sign." He responded, "Your sign is that you will not be able to speak to people for three nights, despite being healthy."
So he came out to his people from the sanctuary, signaling to them to glorify Allah morning and evening.
It was later said, "O Yayha! Hold firmly to the Scriptures."
And We granted him wisdom while he was still a child,as well as purity and compassion from Us. And he was God-fearing,and kind to his parents. He was neither arrogant nor disobedient. And he would know Allah.
Qu’ran, Surah, 19:7-14
And he would know Allah, the Qu’ran states. The word used for “know” in this passage in Arabic is more accurately translated “recognize.” So this begins to explain what the Gospel of John might be getting at - John might not have known Jesus, but he was able to recognize him as the Messiah, as God, as Allah.
Sticking with the Qu’ran, and the tradition of Yahya ibn Zackariya, we learn even more about the story. Though as infants their families may have been close, when the Magi arrive and warn Joseph of Herod’s plot to murder the Holy Innocents, a plan of action springs to life. We know that Joseph takes Mary and the young Jesus to Egypt where, as refugees, they seek asylum. Our Scriptures do not tell us what Zechariah’s plan was for his family unit, but the Qu’ran tradition does.
We are told that Zechariah and Elizabeth took their family into the wilderness to hide in the caves and wait out the slaughter. In fact, in the tradition of the Qu’ran, Zechariah confronts the soldiers, battling them, to give his wife and child time and distance to escape Herod’s bloodthirsty troops. He wins this battle, we are told, and goes on to accompany his son. We learn that they thrive in the desert, where they likely mix with what we now know to be the Essenes and communities influenced by them. These are a Jewish ascetic sect and they advocated an isolationist life, likely giving John the Baptist his appetite for wild honey and locusts.
By getting a different perspective, we gain insight into John the Baptist. He is not so much a wild and ranting voice crying in the wilderness as he is formed in a manner of thought and action wrapped in mysticism and truth. He speaks out against corruption and abuse from Herod and the complicit Temple authorities because his own family has been impacted by the brutality of tyrants and theocrats.
While they may not have seen each other in decades, John sees in Jesus the Messiahship, he recognizes God in him. Now, John had his own followers. Scholars call them Mandaeans, from the part of the desert community they called home, and the dialect they spoke. They believed that John was the prophet to follow, and indeed, as Scot reminded us last week, John spoke to the anger and injustice they felt. He called for an ax to attack the root of corruption and fire to purify and refine the truth that remained. But after having witnessed the descendant dove and having heard the voice of God, John the Baptist turns his followers toward Jesus.
And this, I think, is the lesson of this Gospel. We who recognize Jesus and follow him, are called to lead others toward him. Just as John’s disciples get curious about Jesus and turn to follow him instead, so also we, who are changed by Jesus’ baptism, called to gather others. The first two followers become the first two Apostles: Andrew and Peter, and go on to call many others.
Last week we renewed our Baptismal Covenant, and we renew it every time we participate in Baptism in the church. I was here, and I heard you all agree to the promises. When we promise to live into a life of faith, to proclaim the Gospel, to continue the work of the Apostles, to seek and serve, to respect, to repent, to love, we are called to follow the model given to us by the followers of John the Baptist as described in this ancient moment. John calls Andrew to Jesus, who goes and calls Peter. Peter calls others, and so, too, they call more, and this continues.
It continues to you and to me. We were, each of us, drawn to Jesus by someone else with conviction - whether it was a parent or grandparent, a friend, a college chaplain, a deacon we met on the street. We who are formed, as John was, in the practices of our own people and culture, bring our truth to the Jesus movement, adding to it, enlivening it, keeping it relevant, making it accessible.
For the rest of the Season of Epiphany, we will go back into the Gospel of Matthew, where we will encounter most of the Sermon on the Mount. It is going to be a beautiful month, as we learn from the bulk of Jesus’ most important teachings. These teachings will call us to be peacemakers, to be merciful, to be the light that can’t be hidden, to be the city on the hill, to be the saltiest salt of the earth, and to bring salvation to the nations. And to this, I say, “I will, with God’s help.” Amen.