The Testimony of John

"He admitted... I am not the Christ."

Jn 1:19-28

Admitted is an interesting word choice to describe John the Baptist's understanding of his relationship with Jesus. Usually, admitting a truth connotes a degree of reluctance or a disinclination, such as when one admits a fault. Yet the verb admit also indicates acceptance of that truth as true: for example, admitting that another person is right.

John the Baptist, though cleansed of his sin at the moment of the Visitation, is nonetheless human, and a central struggle of the human experience is that against pride, What is humility if not admitting, however reluctantly, that we are not God? John the Baptist not only points out to us the true Christ, but models for us how to lower the hills of pride and raise the valleys of false humility so that we might run unhindered to meet him.