They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” – John 1:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 4, 2014): John 1

Misdirection lies at the heart of all magic. If the Magician is doing something and trying to attract your attention, if you want to understand the trick, that is precisely where you cannot be looking - because the real trick is happening somewhere else. Actually, in the magic community, the term misdirection is hotly debated. The problem is that misdirection would seem to be a negative word. If the magician has actively directed your attention somewhere else, then the argument is that that should be called “direction” rather than “misdirection.” But the end result is still the same, the viewer’s attention is being placed by the magician somewhere where the “magic” is not happening.  

The people ask John the Baptist whether he is Elijah. Malachi prophesied that, before the time of the Messiah, Elijah would come to Israel (Malachi 4:5). So the reality was that the people were trying to figure out how close their time was to the coming of the Messiah. The second question had the same purpose. Many believed that Moses or one of the other prophets (like Jeremiah) would precede the day of the coming of the Messiah. But John answer to both of the questions that he is asked is no. He is not Elijah, nor is he Moses, or Jeremiah or any of the prophets come back to life. He is John the Baptist. He is a simple man and a voice crying in the wilderness begging Israel to repent of their sins and find their way back to their God.

Yet, it would seem that Jesus had a very different opinion of John. When Jesus was asked about John, Jesus seemed to think that there could be no doubt, John the Baptist was the Elijah that had been prophesied (Matthew 11:14). He was the messenger who had been sent to prepare the nation for the coming of the Messiah. But if that is true, then why did John the Baptist deny who he was.

The answer to the question would seem to be that John simply knew that he was not the Elijah that the people were expecting, because Jesus was not the Messiah that the people were expecting. In fact, the Day of the Lord that had been talked about by the prophets was indeed approaching swiftly, but it was not the day that Israel was expecting. Rather than a day that would bring the military defeat of Israel’s enemies, the Messiah was coming to deliver the world from the sin that had it in its grip. He would become the perfect sacrifice that the world needed – but that was not necessarily what the people wanted.

So rather than being accused of misdirection, John simply denied that he was Elijah, because the story that was about to be told was not the one that the people were expecting – but it was the story that the people needed.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 3