Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Tuesday, January 7, 2014 Read John 1:29-34 At this point John introduces us to Jesus. Of course John has already introduced Jesus in the Prologue but this is the point in which Jesus is introduced within the narrative. That he is introduced by John the Baptist and the way in which Jesus is introduced by him are both significant. John does not narrate the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. In fact, if we only had John’s gospel we would likely conclude that Jesus was not baptized by him. Jesus is exalted so highly and John the Baptist is demoted so deeply that it seems strange to think of him as baptizing Jesus. Instead, John tells the story as if John the Baptist suddenly recognizes Jesus as his superior. The title he gives to Jesus is significant. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The allusion is clearly to the Passover Lamb of the OT. The Passover Lamb was not a sacrificial lamb like the lambs placed on the altar and burned before God – but a symbol of the covering of blood that was put on the doorpost – the Passover Lamb was a symbol of salvation and John the Baptist tells us that this is who Jesus is. We will discover as we move forward that one of the things that John does in his gospel is to show how Jesus replaces OT symbols of salvation. We will meet this idea again in the story of the cleansing of the Temple – Jesus will replace the Temple. Here Jesus replaces the Passover Lamb as the symbol of salvation for God’s people. Once again the emphasis is on the demotion of John the Baptist and the exaltation of Jesus. Jesus is far superior to John the Baptist. John the Baptist does tell of his seeing the Spirit descending and remaining on Jesus, but he does not mention anything about the baptism of Jesus. Likely the tradition that both John and the synoptic writers used contained the story of the baptism of Jesus and likely such a baptism really happened. But John chooses to veil that baptism, to ignore it in deference to his greater theme of demoting John the Baptist and exalting Jesus. As earlier John the Baptist is cast into the role of a witness to Jesus and his concluding words are significant. John the Baptist witnesses that Jesus is the Son of God. John’s role is not to anoint Jesus but to point to Jesus who is already the Son of God. We need to remember that John has already told us that Jesus bears the very being of God is his humanity. John the Baptist is only confirming what is already known.