A reading from the first letter of saint John (2:22-28)
Who is the liar,
but the one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ?
This is the Antichrist,
who denies both the Father and the Son.
No one who denies the Son has the Father.
Anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father too.
Let what you have heard from the beginning abide in you;
If what you have heard from the beginning abides in you,
you abide in the Son
and in the Father.
And the promise he himself made you
is eternal life.
So much have I written to you
about those who are leading you astray.
But as for you, the anointing you received from him
abides in you,
and you do not need anyone to teach you.
Since the anointing he gave you teaches you everything,
and since it is true, not false,
abide in him just as he taught you.
Therefore abide in him now, children,
so that when he appears we may have confidence
and not shrink from him in shame
at his coming.
John, having spoken about the ‘antichrist’, indeed several ‘antichrists’ (2:18), now calls the antichrist the ‘liar’ (pseustes). This is the person who is in denial, who denies that ‘Jesus is the Christ’. The thrust of John’s gospel was that ‘Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God’ (20:31) and that such faith leads to life. The antichrist denies both the Father and the Son. In believers, by contrast, what was preached ‘from the beginning’ should ‘abide’ (menein), for they have received the promise of eternal life. Their ‘anointing’ (chrisma) ‘abides’ with them. The word ‘abide’ occurs many times. They are urged not to be led astray but to remain faithful and have ‘confidence’ (parresia) at Christ’s ‘coming’ (parousia).
Psalm 98 (97) As with psalm 96, sung two days ago, a ‘new song’ (shir hadash) is ready to be sung.
A reading from the holy gospel according to John (1:19-28)
This is the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He declared, he did not deny but declared, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ So they asked, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He replied, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ <So they said to him, ‘Who are you? So that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ So he said, ‘I am, as Isaiah prophesied:
A voice of one that cries in the desert:
prepare a way for the Lord.’
Now they had been sent from the Pharisees, and they put a question to him and said, ‘Why then are you baptising if you are not the Messiah nor Elijah nor the Prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptise with water; but among you is standing one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; and I am not worthy to undo the strap of his sandal.’ This happened at Bethany, on the far side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.
John, presented as a ‘witness’ in the earlier verses of the gospel (1:15), now speaks up to the delegation of priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem. He admits to being, in the words of the prophet, ‘a voice (phone) that cries in the desert’. The fourth gospel takes up the image from Isaiah 40 used by all the gospels (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3). John testifies further regarding his baptism with water, and announces the coming of another, whose sandal he is unworthy to untie. The scene is being set for his imminent meeting with Jesus ‘the next day’ (1:29).
Why do the Jerusalem authorities show interest in John?
The priests and Levites are gone before Jesus arrives on the scene.