Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?

2 JANUARY (Jn 1,19-28)

The Lord’s people waited for the ancient prophecy, made ​​by God to the fathers through the prophets to be fulfilled. The promise was about the coming of Elijah, of the Prophet, of the Messiah. Expectations were covered with so much mystery, arcane truth difficult to be grasped.

The oldest the prophecy is the one concerning the Prophet. It is traced back to Moses.

“A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen. This is exactly what you requested of the Lord, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let us not again hear the voice of the Lord, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘This was well said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. If any man will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it. But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.’ “If you say to yourselves, ‘How can we recognize an oracle which the Lord has spoken?’, know that, even though a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if his oracle is not fulfilled or verified, it is an oracle which the Lord did not speak. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously, and you shall have no fear of him. (Dt 18,15-22).

The prophecy on the Anointed of the Lord was uttered by Nathan to King David.

“Now then, speak thus to my servant David, ‘The Lord of hosts has this to say: It was I who took you from the pasture and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth. I will fix a place for my people Israel; I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance. Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old, since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. And if he does wrong, I will correct him with the rod of men and with human chastisements; but I will not withdraw my favor from him as I withdrew it from your predecessor Saul, whom I removed from my presence. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.'” Nathan reported all these words and this entire vision to David. (2Sam 7,8-17).

The most recent one concerns the coming of Elijah. It is made by the prophet Malachi and the most difficult to interpret. The Angel Gabriel will be the one to give us its exact truth.

Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I enjoined him on Horeb, The statutes and ordinances for all Israel. Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, Before the day of the LORD comes, the great and terrible day, To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the land with doom. (Mal 3,22-14).

John the Baptist is not Elijah redivivus and not even risen. God has filled him with the Spirit of Elijah’s strength. For this reason He says he is the voice of one crying in the desert.

And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites (to him) to ask him, “Who are you?” he admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Messiah.” So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?” He said: “I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert, “Make straight the way of the Lord,”‘ as Isaiah the prophet said.” Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John is the witness of the Lord’s Christ, already present among the people, but that still no one knows. His ministry will be preparing the hearts to welcome.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us the truth about us.