Read: John 1:19-28 NRSV
This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said,
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord”’,
as the prophet Isaiah said.
Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
ACT I SCENE I
Along the Jordan river. Enter RELIGIOUS OFFICIALS from one side and JOHN THE BAPTIST in clothing made from camel’s hair from the other.)
Here is the opening action. The aforementioned John is at his work along the river when representatives of the established power arrive to question him. They are seeking satisfaction for their own concerns, but John the Evangelist (the writer of the book of John) uses this exchange to establish John the Baptist’s role in the narrative and to dismiss any theories that the one to come, the man “whom you do not know,” is not Elijah or any other past prophet, but something new entirely.
We are also given some clues about the one for whom the Jews were hoping. “Are you the anointed one; the Messiah?” Because John so readily denies this title for himself, we can assume that he wasn’t the one spreading that rumor around. However, something in his actions must have at least made the religious community curious. John was baptizing, or washing away sins, a service that was reserved for the high priests, and when questioned about this unorthodox behavior, John starts talking about the one to follow him as if he will do something similar on a much grander scale.
To us in the audience, a picture is starting to form of the mysterious stranger: He is a being “with God,” greater than Moses or Elijah, someone who will be rejected by the world but render it a great service. He bears some kind of a resemblance to John the Baptist in that he will wash away sins on a larger scale, while possibly upsetting the established religious authorities. Who is this man?
Exeunt RELIGIOUS OFFICIALS and JOHN THE BAPTIST.
