Day 2 – Look, here comes hope

John 1:19-34

This is John’s testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and declared, “I am not the Christ.”

They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.”

So they said to him, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then do you baptise if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”

John answered them, “I baptise in water, but amongst you stands one you don’t know. He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to loosen.” These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptising.

The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘After me comes a man who is preferred before me, because he was before me.’ I didn’t know him, but this is why I came baptising in water, so that he would be revealed to Israel.”

John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him. I didn’t recognise him, but the one who sent me to baptise in water said to me, ‘You will see the Spirit descending and remaining on the one who baptises in the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

For reflection

Imagine hope is not just an idea in your head, but a person you can see – and you have just recognised them for the first time. How do you feel, and what do you do?