Who Are You

John 1:22
The question, "who are you" was presented to John the baptist by Priests and Levites in John 1:19. Is he able to give an answer?
John the Baptist was a man who Jesus recalled later as being a prophet, a man that Mark says was a "man preaching repentance".
John the Baptist, when asked, could give an answer. John's life up to this point had been causing a stir. He was a man who got under your skin, a man you would probably cross the street to avoid, but we read here in John 1:19 that Priests and Levites where sent from Jerusalem to find out who he was.
He was a problem, he was upsetting the establishment, he was drawing people out of their comfort zones and getting to the heart of the matter. John recognised and knew that unless the heart was changed the life would be the same. Change the heart, challenge the life, create the thirst. "Who are you?" The reply from John was "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness".
God needs voices crying in the wilderness, we are not the Christ but we can "prepare the way in the wilderness and make straight His path".
I, as an individual have no power or authority to forgive sins but I can make straight the path and prepare the way in the wilderness.
Everything that John did pointed to Jesus. John had a testimony, he saw the Spirit descending and remaining on Jesus and in that instance knew that this man was the Messaiah. No man or woman can dispute the power of personal testimony. John saw and recognised Jesus because of this testimony. He said "he who comes after me is preferred before me. His shoe strap I am not worthy to even stoop down and unloose."
He also declares in John 1:26 "there is one among you who you do not know" Are we so blind?
The great thing is that when Jesus came out of the crowd John speaks up and points men to Jesus. This is true mission, it is not about me but all about Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
John was prepared to let go his own followers for the greater cause. Discipleship requires that I equip those that God has given me and point out Jesus the Messiah.
We read that John was standing with two of his disciples and looked and said "Behold the Lamb of God" then the passage says "they heard him speak and they followed Jesus". Well, why wouldn't they hear him they were standing next to him?
What they heard was a truth that this man, Jesus was someone worth following, He was someone worth finding out about. What they heard from John was not "oh look the lamb of God" but "Look, the Lamb of God" I believe there was an urgency, a determined spiritual cry that said I know this man to be the Christ, I can testify to the fact that I saw heaven opened and the spirit of God descending and remaining on this man. For sure he is the Christ.
It was in that urgency, in that full knowledge that those two men followed Jesus, it created a thirst. Do the things I do and say create a thirst in others so that they follow Christ and not me or am I only interested in them hanging onto my every word?