John 1:19. And this is John’s testimony to the Jews, when they sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him: Who are you?
This verse presents a purely external fact and therefore has no inner meaning. Only this can readily be gathered from the mission: at that time the Jews’ feeling of greatness had already begun to sense that the primordial light, or God’s primordial life, was beginning to draw near to human beings on earth and must already be on earth. It suspected that this primordial life of all life was within John, and that he might be the promised Messiah.
John 1:20. And he declared: I am not Christ, the promised Messiah.
Thus, prompted more by the presentiment just described than by John’s reputation as a preacher, they sent investigators to ask him who he was: whether he was Christ, Elijah or another prophet.
John 1:21. But they questioned him further: What are you, then? Are you Elijah? And he said: I am not! And they asked further: Are you a prophet? He answered: No!
The reason they also asked John whether he was Elijah or another new prophet (?) was that their prophetic writings said: Elijah would come before the promised Messiah and prepare all Israel for the Messiah’s great coming! Other prophets were also to arise at that time, likewise going before the Messiah as heralds. The envoys from Jerusalem, who knew the Scriptures, knew this and questioned John accordingly. But he declared that he was none of these.
John 1:22. And they spoke further to him: What are you, then, so that we may bring an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?
And so, naturally, they had to ask him further who he was, then.
John 1:23. But John said: I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, and I prepare the way for the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah foretold.
Only then did John declare that he was merely one calling in the wilderness and preparing the way for the Lord, as Isaiah had foretold!
One may quite reasonably ask here why John should do this in the wilderness, where one can surely assume that very few people live. Would it not be more appropriate to act as such a forerunner in places where many people live? What good can such a call, however powerful, do in the dead wilderness, where the caller’s voice fades before it reaches any ear? And even if by chance it reaches a human ear, surely that is far from sufficient in a matter of the utmost importance to all human beings?
In answer to this introductory question, let it be said that the expression ‘wilderness’ is to be understood not so much as the little wilderness of Bethabara beyond the Jordan, but rather as the spiritual wilderness in human hearts. The wilderness of Bethabara, where John actually lived, preached and baptized, was therefore chosen only to show human beings an image of what their hearts looked like: just as desolate and empty, without noble fruits, full only of thorns and thistles, all kinds of weeds, vipers and other repulsive creeping creatures. In such a human wilderness John appears like an awakened conscience, which he also represents in a purely spiritual sense, and preaches repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Thus he prepares the Lord’s way to the hearts of people who have become a complete wilderness.
Only one question remains: why did John describe himself neither as Elijah nor as a prophet, although, according to My own highest testimony, he certainly was both? For on a fitting occasion I Myself told the apostles and other hearers of My teaching quite openly: John was the Elijah who was to come before Me, if you are willing to accept it.
The reason for this denial is that John here names himself only according to the new task he was carrying out, not according to the old one given to his spirit in Elijah during his time on earth. Elijah had to punish and destroy Moloch; John, however, had to call people to true repentance, grant forgiveness of sin through baptism with water, and thus prepare My way. Accordingly, he described himself only as what he now was in his actual work.
John 1:24. And those who had been sent were from the Pharisees.
John 1:25. And they questioned him further, saying: Why, then, do you baptize if you are not Christ, nor Elijah, nor any other prophet?
But since he nevertheless baptized, which was otherwise permitted only to priests and prophets demonstrably called to do so, the priests and Levites sent by the jealous Pharisees asked him why he was baptizing people when he was neither the one nor the other.
John 1:26. But John answered them, saying: I baptize only with water; He (the Christ about whom you are asking) has come into your midst, but you do not know Him.
But John says: I baptize only with water; that is, I only wash, and I am a washer of hearts that have become unclean, to prepare them to receive worthily the One who, in a sense, has long been among you, but whom you do not recognize because of your blindness!
These investigators also represent all those who search for Me, the Lord, somewhere outside themselves, traveling across lands and seas and asking all the wise: Where is Christ? When and where is He coming? The true Christ, who has built a dwelling for Himself in the midst of their hearts and can be found only there—oh, such misguided seekers!—they do not seek Him, at least not where alone He is to be sought and found.
John 1:27. He is the One who will come after me, who was before me, whose sandal straps I am not worthy to untie.
John 1:28. This took place at Bethabara, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
How extraordinarily humble is the testimony John gives before the priests and Levites, since he knows it well and [subject unclear] had set foot on earth in Christ; but what does that matter to the priesthood, so wise in worldly matters! John’s perfectly true testimony left them unmoved, for they wanted no humble, poor and unassuming Messiah, but one before whom everything would at once recoil in fear and terror!
At His very first appearance—naturally nowhere but in Jerusalem—the Messiah should have come down visibly from heaven, linea recta, blazing more fiercely than the sun, accompanied by myriads of angels. Taking up His dwelling only in the Temple, He should have overthrown and annihilated all the rulers of the time! Then He should at once have made the Jews entirely immortal, procured all the money on earth for them, hurled at least several hundred apparently superfluous mountains into the sea with a mighty crash, and at the same time immediately executed the poor, filthy servants. Then they would have believed in Him and said: Lord, You are terribly strong and mighty! Everything must bow most deeply before You and throw itself into the dust, and the high priest is not worthy to untie Your sandal straps.
But Christ came to earth utterly poor, small and apparently weak. For nearly 30 full years, apart from the time up to His twelfth year, He gave no sign of Himself before the eyes of the great, but did hard labor, was a carpenter together with Joseph, and afterward also associated with the common proletariat. How, in the eyes of the proud and exceedingly wise Jews, could this be the long-awaited Messiah? Away with such a blasphemer! Away with such a magician, who performs His deeds only with the help of the chief of devils! Could such an utterly common carpenter’s journeyman, coarser and rougher than oak, who learned magic somewhere with Satan’s help, walks barefoot, is a friend of the vilest rabble and goes about with them, receives prostitutes and eats and drinks with publicly known sinners, and thus by what He does and leaves undone most openly opposes the law—could He be Christ, the promised Messiah?! No, may such a blasphemous idea never enter us!
That was the judgment of the exalted and wise Jews concerning Me during My full presence in the flesh on earth. And exactly the same judgment of Me persists to this very hour among millions who want to hear nothing at all of a gentle God who comes down to them and keeps His word.
First, their God must dwell far above all the stars and, from sheer boundless sublimity, almost not exist at all. If He wishes to be a worthy God, He must not create anything smaller than the sun! Second, He must not presume to have any form at all, least of all a human form, but must be merely some incomprehensible nonentity.
Third, if Christ could be God, He would be allowed to communicate through the inner living word only with specialists, certain societies and councils, extraordinary Pietists, zealots surrounded by a so-called halo of holiness, and perfect paragons of virtue. He would also have to grant anyone so favored the power to move mountains immediately; otherwise, the divine communication and revelation of Christ would be worth nothing to them.
The Lord Jesus must never communicate with a layperson, or even with a sinner, for in such a case the revelation is immediately viewed with suspicion and is not accepted, just as I Myself was not accepted by those exalted Jews because, in their proud and glory-hungry eyes, I displayed far too little divine nobility. But that does not matter! Only John’s testimony is valid!
The world always remains the same and continues to be the wilderness of Bethabara, where John bore his testimony. But I too always remain the same, and to suppress human pride and awaken true humility and love, I always appear among people just as I appeared to those Jews. Blessed are all who recognize and receive Me in this way, as John recognized and received Me according to the testimony he gave of Me before the eyes and ears of the proud priests and Levites from Jerusalem, much to their displeasure.
John 1:29. The next day John sees Jesus coming toward him and says: Look, this is the Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world!
The following day, while these investigators were still staying at Bethabara and inquiring into everything this John did and the main substance of his preaching, he bears witness to Me before them once again. This is precisely on the well-known occasion when I come to him from the wilderness and ask him to baptize Me with the river’s water.
Even as I approach him, he draws the attention of the leader of these investigators to Me. During the night, this leader had given serious thought to what he had heard from John the previous day. John says: Look, the One coming from over there is the Lamb of God, who has laid all human weakness upon His shoulders, so that those who receive Him may receive a new life from Him and, through this new life, have within themselves the power to be called children of God. For Jehovah comes neither in the storm nor in the fire, but only in the gentlest breeze.
John 1:30. This is the One of whom I said (yesterday): After me comes a man who was before me, for He existed before I did.
John repeats here once more what he had told the investigators about Me the previous day. On the one hand, he bears witness to Me as coming to human beings like a mirror of true and necessary human humility. In this humility I bear witness that I come to their aid in their weakness, not in their supposed strength, which in truth they never possess. On the other hand, John also testifies that the One he calls the Lamb of God is nevertheless He who was before all being. The expression ‘He existed before I did’ means this: for a moment John recognizes his high spirit within himself and thereby gives the investigators to understand that, although the same primordial spirit of the same kind and nature also dwells in him, he was nevertheless brought forth into a free and wholly independent existence solely from the fundamental primordial Spirit, who alone dwells in this Lamb—not by his own power, but solely by the power of this fundamental primordial Spirit. With this bringing forth, which is an actual work of the fundamental primordial Spirit, a first period of time also begins. Before it there was nothing in all infinity but the fundamental primordial Spirit Jehovah, precisely the same Spirit who now stands visibly before them in this Lamb of God and wishes to be baptized by him, John.