Role of Christians
“I did not know him,
but the reason why I came baptizing with water
was that he might be made known to Israel."John 1:31
While he was baptizing in the Jordan, John the Baptist saw Jesus and proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” John the Baptist recognized that the One approaching him was not simply another person wishing to be baptized with water for the forgiveness of sins, but rather He was the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and the One who “existed before him.” Many truths are held in the few verses presented in this encounter and exchange between John and Jesus. It reveals who Jesus is and who John is. It reveals who we are and who we ought to be.
Jesus was younger than John the Baptist, yet he says Jesus “existed before him.” How can that be? St. John is trying to tell us something about the nature and identity of Jesus — He existed before John the Baptist because He has always been One with God, revealing to us the truth about the Trinity, one God, three Persons, consubstancial and that never was there a time when the Son was not (being). John the Baptist’s proclamation that Jesus is the Lamb of God ought to remind us of the Passover and Exodus when the Angel of Death upon seeing the lamb’s blood on the doorposts, passed over the homes of the Israelites, leaving them unharmed while striking down the first born of the Egyptians. Just as the blood protected the Israelites from death, so too will the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus, save us from death and bring us into eternal life, a life that is free, a life that is with God.
John the Baptist said “but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.” This sums up the role of all Christians: we ought to make Jesus known to all. John the Baptist was baptizing and preaching not because he wanted to show off his great oration skills or gain a following of people, but because he knew his life and mission was to be a sign, a sign that pointed to the greatest Sign — Jesus Christ, the Son of God, upon Whom the sin of the world will be assumed and conquered once and for all. All that John the Baptist did pointed to Christ and made Him known. As Christians, we ought to do the same. Our lives and all that we do should point others in the way of Christ. How? Not necessarily like how John the Baptist did, but by love. Do our thoughts and actions reflect the love with which God loves us? We can imitate John the Baptist in saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God” and point to the Cross all we want, but if there is no love in our hearts, that becomes nothing more than an empty gesture. Brothers and sisters, may our lives and our entire beings point to Christ and make His Presence known to all.
