Just A Few Words
Just A Few Words
30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”
John 1:30-31
John was a prophet. Oddly enough he wasn’t one for, at least as far as we know, preaching about the end of the world. That wasn’t his kind of prophet. He prophesied and prepared the way for Christ. It was a prophecy that was close at hand. In fact many of the Old Testament prophets had similar messages. They too dealt primarily with things close at hand.
But a prophet isn’t necessarily someone who tells the future. Prophets sometimes simply tell you mysteries of God. In these two verses we get such a message. Yes, it foretells the Messiah but more than that it gives us a truth that many people miss when they read it.
When John saw Jesus, the Spirit inside of him gave him these words. It was the Spirit which proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah. Within those inspires words is also a very important message.
‘He was before me.’ It sounds simply enough until you remember that John was actually older than Jesus. John was born first. So when he states that Jesus was before him, he is stating something about Jesus that I’m not even sure he fully understood.
Before John was born, Jesus already was. That means that before Jesus was born as a human child, he also already was. Those few words proclaim Jesus to be more than human. They are actually similar to what Jesus himself said when speaking of Abraham.
57 Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
John 8:57-58
John words pointed towards the divinity of Christ. He was more than human. Jesus himself affirmed that thought.
Sometimes we don’t understand how powerful our words can be. With the Spirit, even a few words can carry a lot of weight. Let us all work at having Spirit filled words and also take care of what comes out of our lips.
God bless,
Pr. Steven Couto