Read John 1.6-18
Each of the four New Testament Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life include an introduction to John the Baptist, not to be confused with the author of the Gospel of John (who was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples). A better rendering of his title is John “the Baptizer,” since the main emphasis of his prophetic ministry was calling people to be baptized:
“And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: ‘After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’” (Mark 1.4-8).
There is considerable evidence that John the Baptist was far more famous than Jesus in the early New Testament world (at least until Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection). Many believed that John the Baptist was the Messiah (or savior) promised to God’s people in the Old Testament. It’s little wonder that the author of John’s Gospel echoes Mark’s account in today’s daily reading:
“There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light” (John 1.6-8)
Our author John calls Jesus “the true light.” Again from Dr. Joseph Dongell’s commentary on this passage: “If we take our cue from other passages…the true light stands in contrast not so much to false lights, but to dimmer lights showing the way to One much brighter…the Son comes as the fully sufficient and final light, the true light which supersedes such partial, flickering (but good and divinely provided) lights as Moses (in the Old Testament) and John the Baptist (in the New Testament).”
John 1.14 is one of the most famous verses in the entire Bible: “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.” Jesus, God’s Son, is “God Incarnate” (from the Latin word for “in flesh”). In Jesus, God’s Word, God has become “up close and personal” for us; in Jesus, we can both know the truth about God and experience the grace of God in a personal relationship with Him.
We need both grace and truth today…and we find the complete and final dimension of this combination only in Jesus.
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