Saturday, May 25, 2024  

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Today's Scripture
John 1:29–34

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is 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 ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” (NRSV)

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Reflection

John’s Gospel makes a lot of testimony. “Testify” appears eighteen times, compared to four combined appearances in the other Gospels. “Testimony” is used fourteen times in John, and oddly, none of those instances are during the story about Jesus’ trial. In fact, almost all of those uses are direct speech, not narration, like our passage for today, in which John the Baptist refers to what he has testified about Jesus.

Perhaps because it is thought to have been composed considerably later than Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John frames key elements of Jesus’ life and mission as matters of others’ testimony about Jesus; it doesn’t simply narrate them as things that happened. For example, John the Baptist recounts here how he saw the Spirit descending like a dove, whereas Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe that happening in narrative terms at Jesus’ baptism.

The reason this feels important is that, from an early time in the Christian story, believers have seemed to have no choice but to rely on the account of other people if we are to experience the good news about Jesus. There was only one generation of disciples that actually saw the things Jesus did and heard the things he said, so every successive generation of Christians has relied on testimony for faith, even the generation of those who produced the written accounts we call Gospels.

Without the Gospel writers we could not participate in the faith of Jesus. Without the gospel-inspired witness of women and men who have appropriated and shared the story, the story would not have reached us. The next step in this progression should be clear: without us sharing our story of encountering Jesus — in the pages of scripture, in worship, in one another — future generations will miss out on faith, in a concrete way.

Thanks be to God, who has inspired the testimony of the faithful for generations and continues to today.

Amen.

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Prayer
Merciful God, as you have spoken to us through the words of those before, speak through us to the ones coming after. Use our story to carry your story, that many will find in it faith for life. Through Christ, the author and perfector of our faith. Amen.

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Written by Rocky Supinger, Associate Pastor for Youth Ministry and Worship

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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