Discipleship for Witness

Bible Passage: John 3: 22-30                                                     Rev. Dr. Abraham Philip

The Fourth Gospel provides a host of witnesses for Jesus. The witnesses include both divine witnesses and human witnesses. Some people suggest that John has 7 signs, 7 “I am” sayings and even 7 witnesses. The witnesses include God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, the signs or work of Jesus, the water and the blood. Beginning with John the Baptist a series of human witnesses are also presented in the Fourth Gospel. The witnesses are to say what they have seen, touched or experienced firsthand. In the first verse of the first epistle of John, we read, “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life”. The witnesses are not to say any inference and what seemed to them or what they thought to be correct etc. They are to proclaim what they have seen or heard or touched or experienced personally. There is a book by Canon Anthony E. Harvey entitled Jesus on Trial. In this book Harvey is examining various witnesses who are involved in the trial and death of Jesus. It is presented in a Law Court setting. The witnesses provide their personal experience of Jesus Christ. According to Jewish Law, anything that is to be proved needs at least two witnesses. Women were never regarded as qualified to witness during the time of Jesus in the Jewish Law courts.

There are a lot of Johannine scholars including Raymond E. Brown who think that John’s Gospel was written in the last decade of the first century and by then the disciples of John the Baptist were also well-established as a sect and they were also baptizing people and adding members to their sect. Here is a scene in the read text where the contemporary context of the then church, the sitz im leben der kirche is reflected. Many see a definite motif here against the sectarians of John the Baptist who were continuing as the disciples of the Baptist even several decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This evening I would like to draw our attention on three aspects of the witness of John the Baptist: witness through his words, work and will.

John the Baptist’s witness of Jesus through his words

In this text, we find John the Baptist giving his final witness or testimony before the people regarding Jesus before Jesus’ ministry expanded or blossomed. Jesus’ ministry among “his own” is framed by the witness of John (1:19-34; 3:22-36). John was witnessing Jesus through his words as he had come as the forerunner or harbinger of Jesus. It was his happy chore to prepare a way for the coming messiah. Both Isaiah and Malachi had announced that someone would come as a harbinger and “prepare” the way for the coming of Messiah. The angel Gabriel had informed Zechariah that his son would be instrumental in turning the hearts of many unto the Lord, making ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:16-17). In John 1:7-8, we read, John the Baptist came “to bear witness to the light”. He spoke of himself as a voice in the wilderness. “Behold the Lamb of God”, John provided an excellent witness to the nature of Christ. The declaration of John the Baptist that he was unworthy to carry either Jesus’ sandals or to unloose the thongs thereof (Matthew 3:11; John 1:27) was indeed a stunning testimony. He characterized Jesus as “the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Moreover, though John was chronologically older than Jesus, he declared that Christ “was before him” (John 1:15, 20). When Jesus approached John for baptism, John was hesitant to immerse him. John acknowledged or witnessed that he needed the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:14). As the prophet generated attention, certain Jews from Jerusalem sent a delegation of priests and Levites in order to ascertain his witness and identity. John emphatically stated that he was not the promised Messiah, but he was only the one who had come to prepare the way for the messiah (John 1:19-23).

 In the Synoptic Gospels, we read some of his powerful orations (Luke 3:1-20). We are all very familiar with the story of John the Baptist: his birth story and growth in the wilderness of Judea and his receipt of the prophetic call. When the spirit of prophecy came upon him, he quickly gained widespread fame as a preacher calling for national repentance. His words were very powerful. “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand”. He was very emphatic with regard to his words. His words attracted people. Crowds flocked to hear him, and he exhorted for ethical change in their life style. Moral corruption had already made deep inroads into Judaism. They were living in the grip of a grossly pagan force, the Roman Empire. When we look at all the prophets before him and after him, we find them all preaching repentance. Jesus also preached the kingdom of God and for repentance for entry into the kingdom of God and for forgiveness of sins. We find John the Baptist’s preaching very challenging. When he saw people without any radical change, he rebuked them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:7-8). He believed that without fruit there was no real repentance.

Another way in which John’s words became very strong was because he also proclaimed the coming judgment. The Old Testament closed with a prophecy concerning the coming of him who would be in the spirit and power of Elijah (Malachi 4:5-6; Luke 1:17), and the New Testament writers consider him to be John the Baptist. Malachi spoke of “the coming of the great and dreadful days of Jehovah”, and the smiting of the earth “with a curse”. John’s message had a biting edge. He spoke of divine retribution, “the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7). There are several figures of speech employed by John the Baptist to provide force and thrust to his message. He speaks of the “axe” that lies at the root of the trees, he speaks of an “unquenchable fire” and of a “fan” in the Lord’s hand (Matthew 3:10-12). Probably John’s words were pointing to the impending destruction of the Jewish nation: “even now [literally, already] the axe lies at the root of the trees” (3:10). The fan was the winnowing shovel with which the harvested grain was tossed into the wind so as to separate the kernel from the chaff. It thus signified the great separation between the righteous and the wicked in the ultimate ordering of God. Finally there was the unquenchable fire which vividly pictured the eternal pain that will accompany the suffering of hell. Thus we find the Baptist’s words very strong and powerful enough to catch the attention of people and turning them to repentance.

The Baptist’s work: his simplicity in life-style

Secondly we note the Baptist’s work: his simplicity in life-style along with his powerful words. One of the most important things that we note with regard to the life of John the Baptist is his simplicity in life style. He was very much disciplined or firm with regard to his life style. He was tough minded. The words “disciple” and “discipline” are very closely related. Only one who is disciplined can only be a good disciple. The gospel narratives present John the Baptist growing in the wilderness, probably as a member of some Essene like community. Though Luke does not say anything about the death of his parents, one knows that they were pretty old at the time of John’s birth. In Luke 1:80, we read, “As the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel”. He was wearing coarse camel’s hair dress and a leather belt. His food was locusts and wild honey. What does the word locust mean? Was John the Baptist a Nazirite a non-vegetarian? Some of you might have read an article in this month’s Sannadha Sandesham entitled Yohannan Snapakanum Vettukkiliyum. What does the word Vettukkili mean? According to the author Dr. M. Daniel of that article, locust is not a living creature or any tiny flying bird, but it is seed of some vegetable or herb that is common in the desert regions. Even before the birth of John, it was foretold that the child born would be filled with the spirit of God, even from his mother’s womb, that he would be reared under the strict code of the Nazirite (Numbers 6:1-21), an indication of the solemnity of his role in preparing the way for the world’s Redeemer.

When the Baptist preached a lot of people came to him from various walks of life and they repented. As a sign of their repentance and confessing of their sins, many of them were baptized. This baptism required sinners to repent their sins, and then do good works to prove their repentance.  This baptism of repentance was used as a beginning point and made the path straight toward Jesus’ baptism of redemption which would come later. John’s baptism itself was an adaptation of the ritual immersion bath that had been part of the Jewish life for generations and symbolized spiritual cleansing. It was part of the preparation for a new beginning. Jewish men took a ritual immersion bath each Sabbath in preparation for the new week. Women took a ritual immersion bath after each monthly period as a spiritual cleansing. On Yom Kippur the High Priest took seven ritual immersion baths during the ceremonies in preparation for entering the Holy of Holies. Jesus came to John for a ritual immersion bath at the beginning of his ministry. The reason John had in giving a baptism was to show that they had changed their minds (repented) about their need for a savior and was taking a new direction regarding their salvation. No longer would they focus on keeping the Law but would look instead to the coming redeemer whose arrival John was announcing. According to Mark’s Gospel, John the Baptist’s imprisonment was the signal for the start of Jesus’ Galilean ministry (Mark 1:14f). So we say that Jesus started his ministry at a crisis moment when the Baptist was imprisoned. Jesus’ calling out of his disciples happened amidst such a crisis.

The will or wish or vision of John the Baptist: Jesus should grow, I should come down

The third thing that we should note especially in the passage that was read to us is the great will or wish of the Baptist concerning Jesus. When the disciples of John the Baptist informed him about Jesus’ disciples baptizing, he was only joyous about Jesus and his message spreading and having predominance. As we have already noted he was very humble. John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven…He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (vv. 27-30). Here John the Baptist has spoken of Jesus as the bridegroom. Paul in his epistles has used this metaphor very powerfully about Jesus as the bridegroom and the church as the bride. Jesus is the bridegroom, and John the Baptist speaks of himself only as a friend of the bridegroom. He explicitly presents his status. He is very humble in his words. Though he had precedence over Jesus by birth and could have claimed priority and superiority over Jesus, we find him humbly speaking of himself as a voice in the wilderness (1:23). He was not giving undue importance to himself, but he was ready to accept that he was there to make the path ready for Jesus. He was willing to witness that fact. This is where the true nature of a disciple is revealed. John’s strategy was formed in that way. In today’s world we rarely find this sort of a witness by any disciple.

John the Baptist’s joy at Jesus’ success (3:29), even though marks the completion of John’s work, reminds the reader that the success of the gospel takes precedence over the acclamation and acknowledgement of one’s own ministry. The Baptist’s joy was complete because his ministry had revealed God’s chosen one to Israel. Once Jesus’ ministry had been born and known, John the Baptist had no function. John the Baptist’s witness was replaced by Jesus’ own witness (3:32) and John rejoiced. It is often very difficult for those who are engaged in the church’s ministries to do what John did, to allow their witness to have a life of its own, to celebrate the success of their witness as a sign of the success of the gospel, not their own success (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:15-18). John is model disciple for he was able to let go of his ministry for the sake of the gospel. John the Baptist is also a model disciple for the fourth evangelist because the content of his witness looks beyond itself to the witness of Jesus. We see a similar situation in the story of the Samaritan woman. After meeting and having a long conversation with Jesus, the Samaritan woman went to the Samaritan village and spoke about Jesus. They all came and met Jesus and believed in him. The Samaritans requested Jesus to stay with them and he stayed there for a couple of days. A lot more of the Samaritans believed in Jesus. Then they told the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world” (4:42).

We have examined John the Baptist in the light of the gospel portion read as well as the theme “Discipleship for Witness” for the coming Sunday. John the Baptist’s witness through his words, work and will or wish could be a model for any Christian disciple at any time. His life style was simple and he had humility. He could make crystal clear his attitude and will through his words, “He must increase, I must decrease”. The first lesson for the coming Sunday is from 2 Kings 2:1-15. There we find Elisha getting a double share of Elijah’s spirit. But still he was humble and he never thought of himself as greater than his master. When Elijah ascended into heaven in a whirlwind, we hear Elisha crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen…” Elisha calls Elijah his master and teacher as Father. The coming Sunday is also celebrated as the Day of the Apostles St. Peter and St. John. In the second lesson for the coming Sunday, we note Apostle Peter bearing witness to Jesus that Jesus was raised up from the dead by God and that all of us are witnesses (Acts 2:32). In Acts 2:41, we read, hearing the witness of Peter that day about 3000 people were added to the church. We are to witness what Christ has done for us. When we witness we become real or true disciples of Jesus Christ. The epistle portion for Sunday states that our work or actions or behavior and character should also be witnessing Christ. Titus is exhorted that way by St. Paul. A series of things are to be kept by Titus so that no one would look down on him. Hence our work or behavior is very important.

Let me close my words by stating an event from the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Almost three decades back, I had an opportunity to pass through the town of Assisi in Italy. St. Francis was born and brought up in the town of Assisi in Italy. He became a member of a monastic community there and lived an ascetic life. The noble life that he lived was appreciated by one and all in the community, and all others respected him. One day Francis invited a young monk in the monastery to go with him to town and preach. The young man was very delighted that this great soul selected him to accompany him. Both walked through the various ways in that small town for quite some time through the various important places and junctions. Through another way as they were returning to the main entrance of the monastery, the young monk became very sad and told Francis, “Father, we went to town to preach, but you have forgotten to preach”. Then Francis replied, “Son, we have been preaching all the time. Our look and attitude to others throughout our walk, our eyes and other expressions were our preaching this day. And it is no use, Son, to go anywhere and preach, unless we preach everywhere as we walk”. Let us realize that our lives are powerful witnesses incessantly. Not only do our words and work be the marks of our discipleship for witness, but also our will and aspirations: Jesus must increase, but I must decrease.