On the tenth of
Christmas, God’s true Love gave to me…
…the excitement of discovery.
John sees Jesus of Nazareth coming toward him and names
him immediately: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
He goes on to describe who Jesus is, how this newcomer’s way of baptizing (with
the Holy Spirit and with fire) will be different than John’s method by water,
and how he, John, ranks far below Jesus. John would not have known Jesus, except
that when he saw the heavens open, the Spirit identified Jesus to John, who
testifies that he is the Son of God, the Chosen One. And now, here he is – here
he comes!
“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world!” Or, if you prefer: “LOOK! Here comes the Messiah! The one we’ve all
been waiting for!” (Note: there are no exclamation marks in the Greek New
Testament.) In the fourth gospel, John (not the same one as the gospel is named
for) is less “the Baptizer” than he is “the Testifier”. His testimonies will
lead others to Jesus. And I like to think that John, and these others, were as
excited to see and begin to know Jesus as I imagine them to be from the
punctuation in my modern NRSV. And I trust we are, too – because there’s always
more to know.
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