And John bare record (John 1: 34)

Don’t you love the way Jesus got his little group of followers together?  It started when John the Baptist was asked to provide his credentials.  Who WAS he (John 1: 19 and 22)?  (This reminds me of the movie The King’s Speech where Bertie’s speech therapist Lionel was questioned regarding his credentials.  Who did he think he was?  Where had he studied?  What gave him the authority to be the teacher of the King of England?)

John’s reply was completely honest.  He wasn't pretending to be anyone other than himself.   He says he’s simply doing what the prophet Isaiah preached.  He would “make straight in the desert the highway of our God” (verse 23).  He was preparing the thought of the people to be ready to recognize the Son of God, the “God-revealer” as Eugene Petersen has it in The Message.

To further explain the fulfillment of that prophecy, John tells his students about a very spiritual event he’d witnessed.   He saw “the Spirit descending” on the man Jesus.  And it was plainly visible to him because he said it was just as if a dove had flown down and rested on him.  Can you picture it - a dove quietly landing on Jesus shoulder or hand?  Obviously this was no ordinary rapport between man and bird.  Something extraordinary had been seen and felt – a palpable, heart-stopping presence beyond human reckoning; surely, a spiritual and holy peace.

Perhaps you've had a holy experience at one time.  It’s difficult to really convey its meaning and its effect.  I've felt it most frequently in Church or in prayer.  I've felt it most recently in a Laundromat in Gladstone when I picked up a book called “Have a little faith” by Mitch Albom and found my thought so grateful for the author’s candid approach to God-matters.  What John witnessed and what we sometimes feel is not an emotional thing; it’s spiritual, a connection to God, the source of all good.   Some might call it the touch of Christ.  Some might say it’s the finger of God or the grace of God.  Others might not have even noticed.

Later, two of John the Baptist’s disciples were with him when he pointed out Jesus as “God’s Passover Lamb” (John 1: 36 The Message).  They must have trusted John in this, because apparently they right away went after Jesus.  They quickly realized and spread the news that this man Jesus was the promised Messiah.  The two students soon turned into four and then five and six as word passed from one to another: “Come and see” (John 1: 39 and 46).  Everything they had studied in the Scriptures was true – from Moses to the Prophets (John 1: 45).

Mothers can sometimes give us a little nudge when we’re perhaps reluctant to get going.  So Mary gently urged her son, the thirty year old Jesus, to supply the need for wine at a wedding.  She needed no convincing that he was ready and able to begin his public ministry.  Jesus heeded the nudge.  Jesus ministry was underway and his career as a spiritual teacher and healer was launched.

Julie Swannell