Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29
Before he was born, John had leapt in his mother’s womb at the arrival of Mary and an in utero Jesus. We don’t have evidence of the relatives spending time together; Jesus, after all, was born in Bethlehem, was taken to Egypt by his parents, and then to Nazareth while John lived with his parents in Jerusalem until he took himself into the desert, then came back to begin his ministry.
Imagine, then, the joy John felt, weeks or months or perhaps a few years after preaching of baptism and the coming kingdom of God, when he saw the One for whom all his work was being done, the One who would take away the sin of the world. Perhaps somewhere deep in John’s soul, a voice reminded him of the earlier encounter, not only Jesus’s importance to the world that day and forever to come.
As far as we know, John never saw himself as a rival to Jesus. He never despaired that all the glory would go to Jesus. He didn’t go to his beheading, muttering anger and regrets about not seeing Jesus’s ultimate triumph or wondering what it all was about. No, John trusted God. He accepted his role… and did it with fervor and gusto and faith. May we do the same.
