John 1:31

“’I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.’”

            John has just attested to who Jesus is and how He was coming after him. In this verse, John the Baptist shows that Jesus is the reason that he was even baptizing in the first place. John did not know Jesus’s true identity until it was revealed at this moment between the two of them and this shows the faith in God John the Baptist had.

            It is interesting how John says that He did not know Jesus as they were related—cousins, in fact—but it is almost like, at this point, Jesus does not become someone new but takes on a new role in His ministry which also causes a new recollection or moving of the spirit for John the Baptist. John can now see Jesus for what He truly is as Jesus the son of God ready to start His earthly ministry. In this moment, we can see that John was baptizing with water so Jesus might be revealed to all Israel. This is the coming out party for Jesus. From these verses on, John the Baptist will fade from the story as Jesus takes over.

            John the author is also giving a practical example of faith. John the Baptist says He did not know Him and we can infer from this that he did not know when Jesus, the Messiah, would appear. Even though John the Baptist did not know when He would come, he still had faith to do what God had called him to do. We can easily see this fitting into an example of faith from Hebrews 11. He was a man who was “persecuted and mistreated, [… he] wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground[,]” and eventually would be “killed by the sword” for his faith in what was to come, the last of the Old Testament martyrs (Hebrews 11:37-38).

            We must take this same faith with us and be prepared to never really see the end of God’s plan for our part but rejoice in it anyways. We must walk confidently into what Jesus would call us to knowing that He has a plan and trust in the Holy Spirit to guide us. We can only do this, however, if we are connected to the source. We as Christians must be prepared through reading our Bibles and spending time in prayer for what God has for us next. We do not know if it is the beginning, middle, or end of one part of our ministry. I’m sure John the Baptist did not expect what was going to happen next, but he was prepared because he had been communicating with God.

            For those who are not Christians, it does not take you getting right to come to Jesus and to be called by God, it takes faith in Jesus. Faith is the way that all those people before and after Jesus were justified. John was not justified because he baptized but by the faith in the one whom he was baptizing for and revealing Jesus to the world. He is calling you to that same faith to believe on Jesus, the only one who lived a perfect life, died for our sins, and then rose again.