Thursday after Gaudete, The Third Sunday in Advent
Posted on December 16, 2021 by under
Scripture: St. John 1:24-34 (NKJV)
1:24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. 27 It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”
28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 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.”
32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
Devotion
We do not read an account of our Lord’s Baptism in St. John’s Gospel. Instead, we are left to infer that it transpired between the events of verses 27 and 29. In other words, as soon as St. John the Baptist had testified to those who were sent from the Pharisees concerning his divinely-given vocation, the Christ came to him to be baptized. Thus, St. John the Evangelist writes, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, “After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.” I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.’”
The timing should not surprise us; the salvation of the world is made known according to the will and word of the Lord. After decades of preparation, and a period of time baptizing the people of Israel for the remission of their sins, the time had come both for the sect of the Pharisees to be rebuked concerning their ignorance of the Christ (“I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.”) and for John’s humble submission to the Christ. The Pharisees did not know the Christ, for they sought a Christ who was according to their own imagination; St. John did not know the Christ only in the sense that he waited for His identity to be revealed.
Prayer: Lord, we beseech Thee, give ear to our prayers, and lighten the darkness of our hearts, by Thy gracious visitation; Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for Advent: Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
