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Out here in the country, we say “watch your step” a lot. You never know what’s going to be on the bottom of your shoe at the end of the day. Deer, turkey, coyote, raccoon, dog, cow, horse, you name it – they leave it, and with no warning sign. Yesterday, as I was walking the dogs down our trail, I felt something squish beneath my shoe.
I cringed.
Please tell me that wasn’t what I thought it was!
But as I lifted my shoe, I was relieved that it was only a persimmon.
Whew! A close one! Many days, you have to hose off those shoes before ever coming inside. The amount of stuff we track through every day is really disgusting.
As we continue our reading in John, the Pharisees send men to inquire about who John is. They had heard about his teaching and the baptisms he was performing. And they wanted to know who he was and on whose authority was he performing these acts.
They asked him specifically if he was the prophet Moses spoke about in Deuteronomy, if he was Elijah, or even the Messiah. But John replied to them using the scripture from Isaiah – “He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.”
So, who was John?
That was the problem John wanted them to see. They were focusing on the wrong thing… well, the wrong one. They were fixed on John when they should have been focused on the subject of John’s teaching.
John 1:26-27
“John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.”
You know what sticks out to me? The way John describes who this man is.
The shoes.
In those days, horses, donkeys, camels, sheep, oxen, and goats walked the same roads as the people. You can imagine what the streets were like to walk. So, naturally, a person’s feet would be the dirtiest part of them. John chooses the most humbling display of loosening a latchet on a shoe to show his unworthiness.
If John was that unworthy, what about you and me?
Imagine the path you have walked, the mess you’ve trudged through, the filth that clings to you. And yet, just as Jesus did with the disciples, He washes the dirtiest parts of us clean.
I am not worthy of His love. Yet, even when I was in the midst of my sin, Christ chose to die for me and wash those feet clean. (Romans 5:8)
John didn’t declare who he was, but he put the focus on who was coming.
Jesus.
The Messiah.
The Son of God.
The Holy One.
The Savior.
Redeemer.
The Worthy Lamb of God.
Whom they knew not…
Do you?
Do you know this man, the very Son of the Living God? Do you know Jesus Christ? Not just a knowledge of Him, but an intimate relationship, a surrender of your will to Him?
John knew Him. And bowed before the King, with his face to His feet.
Will you do the same?
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