Who is Jesus? part 18

I asked the AI joke generator punchlines.ai to finish the joke Why is John the Baptist like Rick Astley? These are the first three replies with no editing from me.

• Why is John the Baptist like Rick Astley? I’ve been dunked twice, but I’m never going to give up.
• Why is John the Baptist like Rick Astley? Because they’re both known for their “hits” in the 80s.
• Why is John the Baptist like Rick Astley? They both say “goodbye” in the middle of a song.

I’m really confused by that second one, but before we move on here’s an AI image based on the bible passage below. (Why their feet are in the river is something else I don’t understand.)

I am dyslexic, I use AI to check for spelling and grammar mistakes and sometimes to change the tone of what I have written, even though this can change the meaning of the paragraph I’m checking. AI is good, but not faultless.

¹⁹ And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” ²¹ And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

John 1:19-21

If I were to bump into Rick Astley, I’d be tempted to ask him, “Rick, why do you have a PhD in negativity?”
“What do you mean?” he’d reply with that confused look.
“Well, Rick, your motto seems to be ‘never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down’—but instead of talking about what you’re not going to do, can we switch it up to ‘maybe consider doing something fun this weekend?'”

Outside my fantasies, I’m working through the Gospel of John slowly and I’ve got to the point where the fun really starts. Stories about people. John, the writer, has teased us, twice, in the opening song by mentioning John the Baptist only to follow it by saying “it’s not about him.”

That was the prologue, but now the story begins. It starts by being about John the Baptist and his conversation with some priests and Levites. Not the normal ones from the synagogues, these were special, sent from the top guys in Jerusalem.

They approached with a multitude of queries, yet it was one question that weighed heavily on their minds. Rather than confronting John directly, they hesitated and danced around the topic, inquiring instead, “Are you the Messiah? Are you Elijah? Are you the prophet?” Each time, John’s response was gentle yet firm, as he shook his head in refusal. Much like Rick Astley’s lighthearted refrain of things he would never do, John the Baptist’s answers expressed a profound clarity about his identity—not in grand declarations, but through a series of thoughtful denials of who he was not.

One of them is of interest. “And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ “

Compare that to this:

¹⁰ And the disciples asked him, “Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ¹¹ He replied, “Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things, ¹² but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands.” ¹³ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

Matthew 17:10-13

John expressed that he wasn’t Elijah, yet Jesus claimed he was. This raises an intriguing question: did John the Baptist misunderstand his own identity, or could it be that Jesus was mistaken? It’s a complex situation, and perhaps they both held truth in their perspectives. Another possibility is that the Pharisees and Priests misinterpreted the prophecy. They anticipated Elijah’s return in a physical form, much like how he ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire, reflecting their deep faith and longing for divine intervention.

The prophecy of Elijah returning is in Malachi 4, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. ⁶ And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

The revered patriarchs of the Jewish faith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, held a significant place in hearts and history of the Jews. John the Baptist, though not the physical return of Elijah from heaven, embraced a profound mission of guiding people back to the loving embrace of the God their ancestors cherished.

Although John was from a priestly family he was not who or what the priests and Pharisees sought. There’s no point in seeking the wrong thing.

Are you looking for the wrong thing in your life.

---

< Previous | The Gospel of John | Next >