Mistaken Identity

Gospel: John 1: 29-34

Each of the Gospels take great pains to distinguish in various ways the roles of John the Baptist and Jesus the Messiah.  People were so enamored of John that they thought him the Messiah or a figure more important than Jesus himself.  This issue was apparently acute during the time in which John wrote his Gospel, as he spends the entire first chapter engaged with this issue.  

It is an issue that continually repeats itself in every time and place within the Christian community.  A host of larger than life figures present themselves as Messiah figures - the strong man in politics, the charismatic religious leader - and people will follow them with a zeal greater than that for Jesus in their lives.  They will object that such is not the case, though the ardor with which their apologetic for such figures says otherwise.  How often are behaviors and beliefs that run contrary to that of Jesus are defended as Christian when in fact they are not?

This week's readings are a continual reminder for us as to who the Messiah truly is, and who our only model and guide are in life.  The Gospels are a continual reminder that Jesus alone is our Lord and redeemer, and that an authentic guide to Jesus is one like John the Baptist who repeatedly points to Jesus alone and not to himself or any other.  Today is a day to resolve to look to Jesus alone as the light of the world.